the world is changing / lead acid batteries

I seem to recall you have a BMW and perhaps that is the vehicle youu are discussing. If so you might find the content at https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1338302 worthwhile. The downside to the content is some of the links no longer work but alternatives can be sought out using Google.

…in the size you mention. It probably has to be ordered but being non-AGM it would likely not require recoding of the charging system.

https://www.interstatebatteries.com/products/mtp-49/h8

My local Home Depot has two H8 Group 49 lead acid batteries in stock.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Exide-SPRINTER-MAX-12-volts-Lead...

They can be ordered for next day delivery if necessary.

thanks for your tips. I'm referring to Costco, and was quite surprised to find no lead acid in one location. When I called another they said same, but could order it?

I do have the Rheingold software apparently it's the dealer software. I got it back in 2016 when I had to replace the ABS pump.

I found the cable and it has a switch on it that says before or after 3/07 (date of mfg). This is why a lot of features that smartphone apps can do, don't work on my car.

I am in fact convinced that there's no way the battery could have lasted 14 years if the car is not managing the charging, hence why people say it's important to register the new battery (tell the car it's new so it charges less aggressively). And it would seem that with most cars people can interchange AGM with no issues. Mine says that there is a different and a higher voltage profile for charging AGM, and changing the type, requires coding, not programming, which is another level beyond (similar to updating firmware). My software is not capable....

I'll have to see if Costco does in fact get the lead acid, or I have to look elsewhere, or go AGM, and pay an indie to code the new battery.....it couldn't be simple lol

(ps I remember I paid $280 for the first one at age 5, and even as late as 1 year ago there were online offers at dealers for $400). I was tempted as this would have included coding for AGM.....in such a case 14 years from now lol I could use my software to register another AGM

I'm at time stamp 4.3y on the oem battery in the stinger. It's an H7 (the 3.3 6 cyl takes an H8). Why does a 2.5L engine need such a massive battery. It's that idle start stop crap which I dont use. I expect this battery to last a few more years. After all, it's a small 4 banger getting started. The old accord (9th gen) with a 2.5L engine used a 4xxCCA group 51R battery (tiny little thing).

Not sure I will use costco when the time comes due to their prorated warranty only. Walmart still has full replacement for x amount of time.

Tale of abuse. There was one guy on a forum who said he got 5 batteries in 12 years, for one price. He considered Costco batteries the FCP Euro of auto parts, free lifetime replacement for one initial price. When I told him that's not how it's supposed to work, he literally said, "I don't make the rules. My store gives me a replacement whenever I ask."

Costco never load tested "defective" batteries, just replaced them when members said they needed a new one. The only thing is the warranty was for 4 years then 3, from the point of purchase. many stores misinterpreted that and just handed out new batteries based on 3 or 4 years from the sticker on the battery. Reveals human nature. Why I don't think it's a problem elsewhere? 1. Auto parts store verify the defect by load testing 2. Costco members are generally shrewd and some even say entitled lol

Thing is, I've never had a Costco battery fail, that's why I'm willing to do pro rata only. I'll never need the warranty.

Also as I continue to travel the web, Auto Zone does have a lead acid H8, for $100 more than Costco. lol in stock.

Well, if push comes to shove, I'll pay an indie to code an AGM, and get it from Costco....waiting on the $124.99 lead acid "order"

If you are talking the standard 40-watt tubes, I've been extremely happy replacing mine with LED compatible replacements. The ones I bought swing both ways-you can just plug them in the old sockets, or you can improve your experience by disconnecting the old ballast and running it on a direct connection.

I opted for direct connection, and enjoy lower power consumption, better light color, longer bulb life, and never again listening to the hum of the ballast.

That was about ten years ago--no regrets.

explain what an "indie" is please.

I believe the reference is to "Independent mechanic!"

I bought is called a GX23 and it is about 7" long, and consumes 13 watts. It's a little unit mounted over our sink, and has been there since I moved in 2002. This is the 3rd time replacing it.

Seems there is a LED replacement, but expensive, $11.48:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Feit-Electric-13-Watt-Equivalent...

Consumes 7 watts, but, I'm afraid of flicker and I think $11.48 is too much. At Costco, all my LED bulbs have been like a pack for $3, I'd have to look but maybe 6 in a pack. It's been years so maybe the utility co. no longer subsidizes them at Costco. I got chandelier bulbs for under $3, pack of 6. That is a huge energy savings, yes.

I'm ok using 13w instead of 7w, % wise huge difference, dollar wise not.

LED is great. It's opened up the world to styling on automotive lighting. My wife's new vehicle greets the driver by lighting up, they call it animation. But, they are absolutely terrible and blinding for headlamps. That's a poor choice there. HID Xenon was the best. Should not be blinding other drivers, but that's the USA, not Europe.

p.s. yes we also replaced the garage and attic lights with LEDs, those overhead ones are heavy!! LED is light. Nice and bright too.

A few years ago you could buy subsidized LED bulbs for $ 0.50. I took advantage of that and replaced ALL bulbs to LED in my house and bought extra spares for future needs. That even included dimmable bulbs !

Where I work and shop.

I'm a bit afraid to check to see if the battery was ever ordered. As I get older, I don't like to be in situations that disappoint.

Plan B would be to simply buy the AGM, and to pay someone to code it, an independent garage.

As we know in life, what is important at some slice of time, becomes not so much as other things arise. My wife had to fly out of the country suddenly, and I find myself to be a single dad temporarily. I think I did this one time before. Son is 11. First problem that happened, lost a band to his braces. Must check with ortho now, this is reality.

That was a really fine price.

I have a handful of neglected incandescents still in sockets but seldom used. The ones I can think of right now are spotlights mounted in outdoor sockets over my south patio. I hardly ever turn them on, and the ladder work to get to them seems more trouble than it is worth.

Costco came through and the H8 was ordered and came in.

It has the same 90 Ah as the OE. I am not positive but this seems to be the largest passenger car battery as dimensionally it's huge. 1000 CA and 900 CCA. I was always told to go by CCA.

Oddly it didn't come with a vent hole plug, and I could find none online anyhere.

I found a brand new one attached to a H6 "cap" from the Buick Enclave, never used. I think I transferred the old. Sometimes coincidence is in our favor. This one just has round red and black plastic covering the terminals. The H6 had squares that snap on the terminals and on the + one, it has the vent hole plug that snaps off.

With so much going on, it's become a lower priority to get this changed out, but it's refreshing that Costco does what they say, by phone. Online, 2 places that have this battery are O'Reilly and Auto Zone. Both are $230-$235. Costco was $124.99.

I saw they are taking one more step to combat the fraud by their members--they are affixing a barcode to the new battery, then, scanning this into the invoice. Good for them. The level of cheating by members is another level. I sat back and watched a woman cut the line by about 40 people. It's sly, kind of how I envision pickpockets working a crowd. One would think somebody would speak up.

Again, plan B was to get the AGM for $174.99 and then pay an indie to code the vehicle, no idea what they would charge. Could even be $150? It "is" labor....

And technically what I should have been saying is this is a flooded lead acid, non AGM. Because AGM is in fact a lead acid battery as well.

I think the great majority of passenger car primary batteries are some variation on lead-acid chemistry, regardless of what they call them.

As it happens, I have two Teslas which use a small lithium-ion battery for their "12V" battery. They changed over a few years ago, as until then replacing the 12V battery was one of the most common service needs of Teslas.

First the bulbs... With minor rewiring to eliminate the ballast you can use LED florescent that are brighter cleaner light and do not hum.

I will never buy another lead acid battery again if I can get AGM. The location of the batteries, often make it impossible to check the water level. Having said that, some lead acid batteries are sealed and maintenance free.
I put an AGM Optima Red Top in my personal Bobcat Skid loader and will be replacing my 11 year old battery in my 95 GMC van with the same red top. Just my preference.

I do use a Battery Minder for the van and Bobcat which is seldom driven. It extends battery live due to it's computer chip management.

It should be noted that AGM is for Absorbent Glass Mat. The mat maximizes contact between the electrolyte and plates without excess fluid, allowing AGM batteries to deliver the same power as standard lead acid batteries with less electrolyte.

@John, how heavy is that H8? Takes 2 people to install it?

I was at a Costco yesterday (11/17) and they said to figure just under 60# for the AGM battery. The tech said it wasn't so much the weight but how cumbersome it was maneuvering it into the battery tray which of course is dependent on the vehicle.

Says 52 lbs., and it has 2 handles. The only thing is it goes into a tight area.

The Buick Enclave used a H6 that was under the rear right passenger's feet. First time I let The Three Stooges do it and I checked their work. The entire assy of the vent tube was gone. I was irate and went back and they played the three monkeys with hands over eyes, ears, and mouth. I made them pay for it, wasn't going to just eat the cost myself.

The next battery was a Costco H6 and back then no handle!! That was tricky. Had to be super careful or one could crush their hands, maybe I'm exaggerating but it would be discomfort, not broken. Now it has a single handle.

The Costco flooded lead acid matches the BMW OE flooded lead acid at 90 Ah, which is high. This means I can simply install it, and "register" it with my software, telling the vehicle it has a new battery. So it won't overcharge it. Again, if I got AGM, car needs to be told that it's AGM, it has a different charging profile. I don't have software to do that and it's called "coding," which is a level beyond "programming." Programming is harmless, you can't brick the vehicle as a result. Coding, one can. When I have time, I'll post the different CA, CCA, weights, and Ah, because I did look them up.

One would think my wife's new Tahoe would have the best battery as it has lots of demands. Nope, it uses a H7 AGM.

Now I can say the Buick Enclave varied its charging, because we would see on a 2 hour highway trip in the summer, the volts dropped to 12. Normally, say right now as I type, it'd be around 14. When the battery was failing, it would even go as high as 16v which is scary. But all of its efforts seem to come to naught as batteries lasted maybe 4 years on that vehicle. As mentioned, the current BMW battery is 14 years old. There's no way a battery lasts that long without active management of its charging...

p.s I don't know if this link will work, it shows the H8 side by side. The flooded one clearly lacks the square cap, and that's why I don't have the vent tube plug!! dang. But I found one in the basement. The AGM has a square plastic covering the + terminal. The vent tube plug is part of that and snapped off

https://costco.interstatebatteries.com/results?key=auto&Prog...

But some recent and pertinent info on less than desirable car batteries can be found at https://www.slashgear.com/2047527/car-battery-models-to-stee...

That article reminded me of Consumer Reports.

In 2015, CR said, "There is nothing sporty about the new GTI."

The next year, the very same car, for 2016, became sporty and recommended.

Where is the science to backup up the arbitrary rankings hahahahahahahahahaha

With only 2 maybe 3 companies producing car batteries, what does it matter other than warranty.

Costco even has NO FREE REPLACEMENT WARRANTY because they got ripped off blind by less than honest members for many years, yet they sell. And, they are able to get a H8 flooded lead acid and sell it for $124.99. A tech told me he heard they will begin load testing batteries if a customer says they want a new one. No more your pulse is over 40 you get a new battery.

Anyway, who made in USA the battery coming out of the BMW, that lasted 14 years (I still have it in and it was 13F last week and it's ok)? Exide. Exide didn't make the OE, that was made in Germany.

Would one buy gas at Wawa? Costco? Does it matter if there is a ranking online? I would say no, yes, no.

What's my rationale for Costco gasoline? It's top tier, it's 20+ cents less per gallon, and if there were a problem it would surface very quickly since they are servicing so many vehicles hourly.

Car batteries are not exciting, and they are way overpriced today, so I'm going with the losers on the list. Costco and Interstate and even save $100 (nothing more than a marketing name) ftw lol

About 6-7 years ago the OEM battery on my Diesel Passat died on me. I wanted a battery with more ooomph being a Diesel engine. So I bought an H8 AGM Duralast battery. I didn’t check the size specs. Took me 3 1/2 hours to remove the original battery tray and cut it up to fit the oversized battery. Fortunately then I could heft the weighty battery, nowadays I couldn’t anymore.
But I’m glad I did it because of my mesothelioma cancer I have to spend winters in the cold and this battery should work well still.
BTW I have a computer program ( Ross-Tech Vtec) to recognize the AGM battery instead of the original lead acid battery.

Carly was a popular smartphone app, and I remember reading people coded their BMW batteries using it. Then they used a dealer grade program like INPA or ISTA or Rheingold, and found nothing was communicated to the vehicle, even though there was acknowledgement in the app. And this is a primitive smartphone app. Imagine nowadays with all the complexity. Me I just stick with what the engineers designed. The world is now full of Project Farms with clicks and hits and lacking science

My issue is the whole pre 3/07 BMW where much of the online software doesn't communicate properly the way it does post 3/07

I am off today and tomorrow. I decided to get the Win 7 laptop out and see if it could communicate with the car. It could!

This is cringeworthy, it's so difficult to figure out how to use the software, but I did, and I took screen shots.

Weeks ago just getting the software to launch, has to be from the directory c program files etc and run as administrator.

The OBDII cable is still switched to < 3/07 from 2016, and it is still recognized as COM9. I don't know where the software disc is, so when the program would not run, I thought I was done.

But there have to be like 20 steps to get to the screen where one would register a new battery. And I don't have the ability to change the Ah.

but they are both 90.

Also it said it was last changed at 30,400 miles, and has fields battery 1, 2, 3, 4, so yes, it was only changed once before.

I still didn't put it in. I know, man dude, all this over a battery, lol Yep that's me, overcomplicating everything.

The only incandescent bulb i have is a green one used only for the Christmas holiday season.