I was disappointed when my factory Panasonic went out at exactly 2 years of ownership.
Rant. Factory exide battery dead just after 3 years
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I went to Walmart last week and they hooked battery up. Printed out a sticker telling me my CCA which were low and told em they could charge it for me. Told them I would do it at home. Battery works ok as long as car is used everyday. 2 days and it's dead. 6 year old walmart plus battery with 2 year warranty that just keeps ticking. Planning to replace soon just trying to decide between Walmart Maxx with 5 year warranty - 3 year free 2 year prorated. Other one is Costco Interstate battery with 42 month. Can't go wrong either way just need to decide. $94 each so price is the same.
Originally Posted by bullwinkle
Exide, Motorcraft, and AC Delco always seem to fail early for me, JC ones are OK if they don't leak all over the place ...
My Mazda had one Panasonic, one Delco, three JC, and one Exide in its 34 years. The JCs all leaked prolifically, and made a mess. None of the others did. The Panasonic lasted longest, followed by the Delco.
Exide, Motorcraft, and AC Delco always seem to fail early for me, JC ones are OK if they don't leak all over the place ...
My Mazda had one Panasonic, one Delco, three JC, and one Exide in its 34 years. The JCs all leaked prolifically, and made a mess. None of the others did. The Panasonic lasted longest, followed by the Delco.
The factory JCI AGM battery in my truck is still going strong at 6.5 years of service. I have it checked every 5K miles when I have my tires rotated and get a printout. Truck saw Great Lakes climate its first 4 years, South Texas the last 2.5 years.
When it comes time to replace I'll either buy the 4 year free replacement Bosch (Exide) AGM at Pep Boys or the 3 year free replacement Duracell (East Penn) AGM at Sam's Club.
When it comes time to replace I'll either buy the 4 year free replacement Bosch (Exide) AGM at Pep Boys or the 3 year free replacement Duracell (East Penn) AGM at Sam's Club.
I believe part of reason is modern vehicles place a significantly higher load on the battery with key on position and even vehicle off for remote entry systems, security and other parasitic loads.
Maybe quality is down but the loads are way up.
Maybe quality is down but the loads are way up.
Originally Posted by madRiver
I believe part of reason is modern vehicles place a significantly higher load on the battery with key on position and even vehicle off for remote entry systems, security and other parasitic loads. ...
True, and charging systems that used to charge full time (when the vehicle was active), have gone to part-time charging to save fuel.
I believe part of reason is modern vehicles place a significantly higher load on the battery with key on position and even vehicle off for remote entry systems, security and other parasitic loads. ...
True, and charging systems that used to charge full time (when the vehicle was active), have gone to part-time charging to save fuel.
Exide batteries from Wally world are sort of a mixed bag, some may go 3 yrs and occasionally one might go 6 years,but most go at about the 3 yr mark from my experience.I gave up on Wall mart batteries a few years back for that reason. The Sam's Club Duracell auto batteries are what I use now and they are not much higher, most are in the $85 to $100 range and you get a recycle credit of $15. Costco has the Interstate brand which are pretty good too and in that similar price range.
BJ's switched from Exide to JCI. At least the ones I have seen.
Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by Wolf359
I don't want to call it a conspiracy theory, but the cynical would say it's just VW up to more tricks..........Or it's just a bad Exide battery as they did declare bankruptcy at one point.
Go on.
I'm not sure why Walmart dumped Excide and went to Johnson Controls but that tanked their sales and put them in bankruptcy. I don't think that's good for business in general as you don't know where they cut corners.
But as to VW theory, even if it were true I think it'd be legal because if you do a cycle all the time that doesn't charge the battery, they're not getting around the test. Having batteries die early doesn't factor into CAFE. It's just a balancing act between the manufacturer and the customer, too many dead batteries get the customers mad and might lose you business.
As for the Pepboys Bosch (exide) battery, they also sell Champion now and it's cheaper than the Bosch and has the 4 year warranty and it's also Johnson Controls. I'd get the Champion before the Bosh although the Bosch is a bigger name.
Originally Posted by Wolf359
I don't want to call it a conspiracy theory, but the cynical would say it's just VW up to more tricks..........Or it's just a bad Exide battery as they did declare bankruptcy at one point.
Go on.
I'm not sure why Walmart dumped Excide and went to Johnson Controls but that tanked their sales and put them in bankruptcy. I don't think that's good for business in general as you don't know where they cut corners.
But as to VW theory, even if it were true I think it'd be legal because if you do a cycle all the time that doesn't charge the battery, they're not getting around the test. Having batteries die early doesn't factor into CAFE. It's just a balancing act between the manufacturer and the customer, too many dead batteries get the customers mad and might lose you business.
As for the Pepboys Bosch (exide) battery, they also sell Champion now and it's cheaper than the Bosch and has the 4 year warranty and it's also Johnson Controls. I'd get the Champion before the Bosh although the Bosch is a bigger name.
Originally Posted by Chris142
Same think when I worked at kragen auto parts. For a while we sold the ones with foam balls floating in the acid. Those were real bad.
There was a point in time where Kragen(even before they bought out Oakland-based Grand Auto) was the biggest seller of Exide. Exide enjoyed a monopoly for retail sales, while pre-Costco Price Club sold ACDelco Freedoms.
The local parts houses then sold Delco or Interstate's Ameri-Tron line. Now, it looks like Interstate is now using Exide, I've seen a few Exide-cased Interstates at Firestone recently.
Same think when I worked at kragen auto parts. For a while we sold the ones with foam balls floating in the acid. Those were real bad.
There was a point in time where Kragen(even before they bought out Oakland-based Grand Auto) was the biggest seller of Exide. Exide enjoyed a monopoly for retail sales, while pre-Costco Price Club sold ACDelco Freedoms.
The local parts houses then sold Delco or Interstate's Ameri-Tron line. Now, it looks like Interstate is now using Exide, I've seen a few Exide-cased Interstates at Firestone recently.
Originally Posted by Wolf359
As for the Pepboys Bosch (exide) battery, they also sell Champion now and it's cheaper than the Bosch and has the 4 year warranty and it's also Johnson Controls. I'd get the Champion before the Bosh although the Bosch is a bigger name.
I had nothing but exceptionally bad performance from Champion branded batteries 10-15 years ago when they were sold at Sam's Club. Had them replaced over & over in both Ohio & Louisiana so it wasn't a climate issue. They were spiral wound at that time. I'll take the Bosch AGM over Champion when it comes to batteries personally. Bosch has had 4 year warranty on their AGM for a long time, it's a recent change for Champion from 3 years.
As for the Pepboys Bosch (exide) battery, they also sell Champion now and it's cheaper than the Bosch and has the 4 year warranty and it's also Johnson Controls. I'd get the Champion before the Bosh although the Bosch is a bigger name.
I had nothing but exceptionally bad performance from Champion branded batteries 10-15 years ago when they were sold at Sam's Club. Had them replaced over & over in both Ohio & Louisiana so it wasn't a climate issue. They were spiral wound at that time. I'll take the Bosch AGM over Champion when it comes to batteries personally. Bosch has had 4 year warranty on their AGM for a long time, it's a recent change for Champion from 3 years.
JHZR2
Staff member
Interesting. Looking to buy an exide from HD. USA made.
JHZR2
Staff member
I found December 2018... amongst the ones from May and the year before...
Originally Posted by Wolf359
Or it's just a bad Exide battery as they did declare bankruptcy at one point.
More than once. Before the autostart division was driven out of the US in the 70's they were taking in the warranty batteries, cleaning them up and putting on new stickers then selling as new. Two higher up executives at Sears and Exide went to prison over this.
Or it's just a bad Exide battery as they did declare bankruptcy at one point.
More than once. Before the autostart division was driven out of the US in the 70's they were taking in the warranty batteries, cleaning them up and putting on new stickers then selling as new. Two higher up executives at Sears and Exide went to prison over this.
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