Interstate Batteries

J

jagdriver727

Site Donor 2021
Joined
Oct 30, 2018
Messages
585
Location
Gainesville, FL
Are these still made by Johnson Controls? Longevity sure isn’t what it used to be.

Last night the MT-59 in my Ranger bit the dust. It had 22 months in service. I drove down to Pedro for work last night; truck started fine when I was leaving the house but I stopped for gas after 40 minutes on the freeway and it wouldn’t start back up. First thought was alternator but the charge gauge had been normal.

Jumped it with my HF jump box (which is on its last legs) and didn’t shut the engine off until I got back to the shop. Was charging fine at just over 14 volts but failed the load test immediately.

Took it to the Interstate Battery service center this morning and they replaced under warranty. This is the third time they’ve replaced the battery for free, each one has lasted 20-23 months.

Pretty pathetic compared to the Interstate (made in ‘94) we had in my 1983 Isuzu I-Mark; sat in a garage from 1995 to 2016 and worked fine for months after charging for a day.
 
Florida is a different use case than my home state of Michigan, but I've had very good luck with Duracell car and truck batteries (an East Penn product) from Sam's Club. I replaced an 8yr.-old one in my wife's Highlander last Fall, "just because", but it still load-tested fine. I have 5yr. old examples in three other vehicles in my fleet, and all seem to be working fine, too. YMMV.
 
It seems to still be JCI

Is the 59 a small battery? I looked on their page, and it only seems to have 590 CCA, which isn't a lot, leading me to believe it's a small battery.

A small battery down south where it's hot, which also shortens battery life, which would make it go out in 2 years :(

Napa has a rebate promo on batteries, $10 for their Legend and $20 for their premium batteries. Get it the nezxt time they have those 10% off promos (if you have AAA, you always get 10% off regular priced parts)
 
Interstate has always been a battery distributor so it could be any maker depending on where you are in the country etc.
 
khittner1 said:
Florida is a different use case than my home state of Michigan, but I've had very good luck with Duracell car and truck batteries (an East Penn product) from Sam's Club. I replaced an 8yr.-old one in my wife's Highlander last Fall, "just because", but it still load-tested fine. I have 5yr. old examples in three other vehicles in my fleet, and all seem to be working fine, too. YMMV.
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wdn said:
I too have had good luck with the Duracell batteries from Sam’s Club.
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My late aunt's mechanic in Montgomery swore by Duracell batteries. She had them in several cars and almost never had issues with them.
 
We have a cold snap coming up for the next week here in MN., the highs will be about 0°F. So I looked up the last time I replaced the battery in our 09 CRV. It was 2 years ago, a Interstate bought at Costco. Small battery but slightly larger than OEM. Batteries usually last about 5 years for me, so when I get close to the 5 year mark I replace them. Fingers are crossed, 1st time with the interstate.
 
I'll never buy a Costco Interstate again. Bought one for a Civic last year, kept dying if not used for a week or more. Bought a Duracell from Batteries Plus, paid more, but the car can sit for over 2 weeks and fires right up. Spins the starter so fast I think the car is going to tip over. The Interstate was cheap but you get what you pay for.
 
I've been learning towards Advance Auto and Walmart for my battery needs.

Advance has purchased the DieHard battery name, and with free installation and a big discount using promo codes online it seems like a no brainer for me.

But for pure price, and ease of returns I would learn towards Walmart. You can return one of their batteries for any reason within the warranty period and they will give you another one.
 
JustinH said:
I've been learning towards Advance Auto and Walmart for my battery needs.

Advance has purchased the DieHard battery name, and with free installation and a big discount using promo codes online it seems like a no brainer for me.

But for pure price, and ease of returns I would learn towards Walmart. You can return one of their batteries for any reason within the warranty period and they will give you another one.
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I recently read where you can no longer use the discount codes on batteries at AAP. If true, I guess it's because they paid $200M for the rights to the DieHard name and I surmise that they want to more quickly recoup that investment.
 
kwijibo said:
We have a cold snap coming up for the next week here in MN., the highs will be about 0°F. So I looked up the last time I replaced the battery in our 09 CRV. It was 2 years ago, a Interstate bought at Costco. Small battery but slightly larger than OEM. Batteries usually last about 5 years for me, so when I get close to the 5 year mark I replace them. Fingers are crossed, 1st time with the interstate.
Click to expand...
I just did the same last night after watching the weather with highs in the single digits next week. The Sierra has an AAP AGM that just turned 5 so figurers crossed. Just put an Interstate MTP in the Lucerne 13 months ago so that should be ok unless I got a lemon.
 
Duffyjr said:
I just did the same last night after watching the weather with highs in the single digits next week. The Sierra has an AAP AGM that just turned 5 so figurers crossed. Just put an Interstate MTP in the Lucerne 13 months ago so that should be ok unless I got a lemon.
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I just changed my AAP AGM 1/14 today in my little used Highlander. Hated to do it but some really cold weather is coming. Went with a Costco Interstate 24F. Hope it lasts awhile.
 
lyle said:
I'll never buy a Costco Interstate again. Bought one for a Civic last year, kept dying if not used for a week or more. Bought a Duracell from Batteries Plus, paid more, but the car can sit for over 2 weeks and fires right up. Spins the starter so fast I think the car is going to tip over. The Interstate was cheap but you get what you pay for.
Click to expand...
Just replaced a Duracell in Saturn that is being driven daily after 14 months. Batteries+ wouldn't honor so went with DieHard from Autozone. The Duracell showed no problem for a month according to Batteries + and Autozone but kept going dead after about 4 hours. I went to jump start then she brought it to my house and I checked it out which tester stated replace as bad cell.
 
My understanding thru friends in the auto parts trade is that starting in 2016, Interstate switched from using Johnson Controls (at the time) to using Exide; this was largely due to Interstate not wanting to invest more in their arrangement. I know the original Mega-Tron battery was a rather old school design, so perhaps Interstate didn't want to pump money into letting JC give them something newer perhaps. Exide apparently had idle plant capacity and could make a similar style battery, hence the Mega-Tron II battery that has been offered since.

Considering that Exide's quality has a reputation for being highly inconsistent and towards the bottom, it doesn't surprise me one bit that I'm also hearing Interstate dealers complain about the high amounts of warranty returns due to simple issues like bad cells and lack of water, which makes me wonder now listening to all the Exide complaints post 2006, is perhaps its not the workmanship at the factories, but the quality of materials....
 
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