Flat battery

[Tony Prodigy]

As luck would have it, the battery died this morning. 

My wife uses our Aurion as I have a company vehicle. I get to work at 7am and then I get a phone call just now... "it wont start"...

She has a day off luckily and was planning to take our boy to the GP for a check up.

Now I have to try and find a suitable replacement whilst at work and hopefully pick one up on the way home.

Can anyone offer advice on a battery for the 50 ?

Thanks

Tony

[campbeam]

Recommended battery for the Camry/Aurion is Century Battery model 55D23L MF [CCA 540]

I recently bought for my Aurion the larger size and capacity Century Battery model 75D23L MF [CCA 620] when it was on special at SuperCheap. It is the recommended battery for the Kluger.

Personally, I have not noticed any difference in the cranking and ease of engine start.

Aurion Battery.docx

[Tony Prodigy]

Funny you should mention 55D23L MF by Century.

I have managed to track one down for an excellent price here in Sydney Metro and will be picking it up on the way home from work.

Thanks for your message Ashley.. Help is always appreciated 

[campbeam]

Good to see that you have already tracked one down. I think RRP is about $155. Hope you were able to get a 20-25% discount.

Looks like the cold weather gremlins may have killed another battery.

[ZZT86]

Century Yuasa are excellent. Also can't recommend the CTek MXS5 highly enough especially if the car doesn't get much use, it will keep your battery in tip top condition & extend it's life - get one !

Edited July 24, 2017 by ZZT86

[trentmeyer23]

1 hour ago, ZZT86 said:

Century Yuasa are excellent. Also can't recommend the CTek MXS5 highly enough especially if the car doesn't get much use, it will keep your battery in tip top condition & extend it's life - get one !

Repco usually have good specials on CTEK stuff. They are excellent chargers.

[Tony Prodigy]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

Got the battery. Got an excellent deal too.

Cleaned and prepped the clamps. Sprayed some terminal protection too. Happy days !

Speaking of C tek chargers, I have 3 of them. One for a garage Queen M3, a motorcycle and one for general use. They are excellent units and I recommend one to everyone.

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Tony Prodigy

[ZZT86]

That Aurion looks like a brand spanka - how many clicks ? Nice ;)

[Tony Prodigy]

Thanks for the kind words mate.

Its done almost 80k. I try and keep it as best I can. 

[krigeroz]

Another battery suggestion is EXIDE EXTREME X55D23CMF  [CCA 650] which is the  rebranded Supercharge battery and made at the same factory. You can buy either at Kmart or at Costco with a heavy discount if you have Costco membership or a very good friend who can help you to get it from Costco :)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/EXIDE-EXTREME-X55D23CMF-Car-Battery-For-Lexus-ES300-GS300-IS250-C-IS300/172372108477?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

 

Edited July 27, 2017 by krigeroz

[Tony Prodigy]

Hi Krigeroz, it's been a while.

I agree with your suggestion. I have a fancy excide battery in my BMW M3 and it still continues to serve me well.

I can't recall the exact specs on it at the moment. I do remember that it wasn't cheap being quite a large battery too.

 

[krigeroz]

and for the battery I can suggest Ctek Mxs 7.0  the 5 Amp choice may be a bit slow especially if your battery is completely flat, but if you charge overnight it probably does not matter anyway. But I must say that the prices for Cteck charges has been increased a bit... due to  weak Oz dollar. So instead of the Ctek I can recommend  FOXSUR 8A  or this with cigarette lighter plug, depending of your battery size you can choose 2A, 4A and 8A. It also comes with the ambient temperature control just like in the more expensive Ctek range. 

I believe it is made in the same factory in China as Ctek, but due to patents and region distributions where it can be sold, the factory itself came up with the alternative design.

And there also Hyundai also considered to be very good, but not very known here. They all made in China same factory and technology the way it charges is all the same they just come under a different name. Initially probably it was started by Ctek but then once it is out there in China it is just gets copied and replicated.

Edited July 29, 2017 by krigeroz

[boxerboy]

I'll be putting an Exide Extreme X55D23CMF Battery with 650cca and a 42 month warranty into my daughters 08 Prodigy.

$155 from Croydon Auto Electrics in Croydon, Vic. Good price.👍

Her battery showed a State of Health reading of 20%...it's still working ok but it's been in the car a looong time so getting in before I get a roadside call.

[campbeam]

On 7/24/2017 at 9:08 AM, campbeam said:

Recommended battery for the Camry/Aurion is Century Battery model 55D23L MF [CCA 540]

I recently bought for my Aurion the larger size and capacity Century Battery model 75D23L MF [CCA 620] when it was on special at SuperCheap. It is the recommended battery for the Kluger.

Personally, I have not noticed any difference in the cranking and ease of engine start.

Aurion Battery.docx

Recently, the battery charging warning light came on while driving home Thursday night. Checked the fusible link and it ended up being OK. Starting to look as though the alternator would have to be replaced. As luck would have it, I was going to be taking the girlfriend about 4AM next Monday to the airport. Friday morning, I recharged the battery, refitted it Friday night to drive to girlfriend's house.

Car was still drivable but the battery charging warning light was still on. Certainly then appreciated having the larger size and capacily before the battery became fully drained.

Fortunately, the warning light went out after I accelerated hard to change lanes. I am guessing that the decoupler pulley on the alternator is now functioning correctly rather than the alternator. Will further check the alternator.

[campbeam]

A while ago, I bought a C-TEK charger [Repco Special] and have been using it to charge and rejuvenate a number of batteries. I was going to delay buying a new battery but AutoBarn put out a 2 day deal 30% off Century Batteries ending today 22nd June. My existing Century Battery model 75D23L MF [CCA 620] is still going strong after more than 2 years. Ended up buying the Century Battery model NS70L NF [CCA 660 and RF 140] @ $160.30 which fitted into the battery tray easily.

[campbeam]

On 7/24/2017 at 9:08 AM, campbeam said:

Recommended battery for the Camry/Aurion is Century Battery model 55D23L MF [CCA 540]

I recently bought for my Aurion the larger size and capacity Century Battery model 75D23L MF [CCA 620] when it was on special at SuperCheap. It is the recommended battery for the Kluger.

Personally, I have not noticed any difference in the cranking and ease of engine start.

Aurion Battery.docx

SuperCheapAuto is having a 1 day only sale 06.06.2020 with 30% discount on Century Batteries.

55D23LMF is reduced from $200 to $140

75D23LMF is reduced from $240 to $168

[Tony Prodigy]

Yep, I saw that too Ash. Too bad I don't need one because it's hardly an item you want to buy and store on the shelf...

Remember when you used to be able to get car batteries for $50 or less ??

Now $200 + ! Damn..

[campbeam]

9 hours ago, Tony Prodigy said:

Remember when you used to be able to get car batteries for $50 or less ??

Maybe. I do remember buying discount petrol for 14.5cents per litre. Time flies, yesterday is now probably 40 years ago [for me].

Handy to have these posts to remind us how prices are slowly edging upwards each year.

Predict June 2021 Century Car Battery specials will be +$10.

[KAA]

Ahh Ash the good old days, you and Tony have brought back memories of the joyful days of ultra cheap petrol and parts..

I also saw the battery specials advertised at Supercheap but as I only bought a new battery a year ago I decided to wait and see what comes up in the future, I can never see the justification for battery's to be around $200 you would think they would be lifetime warranties for that sort of price

Keep Well Guys

KAA

[Tony Prodigy]

6 hours ago, KAA said:

I can never see the justification for battery's to be around $200 you would think they would be lifetime warranties for that sort of price

Yep, and I dare say they aren't using virgin material. All that recycled rubbish and they want to keep gouging more money from us the mug public.

[AurionX2]

Last Thursday evening, as I picked up my son from training (football training is back on, yeah!) we heard a ding sound in the dash, then CEL came on, then check VSC, then progressively went from bad to worse: headunit shut down, the clock started to dim and the dash turn into a Christmas tree. Got my son to pull over (he's on his Ls) *without turning the engine off*, got behind the wheel and limped it back home. Pulled up in the driveway, turned the engine off, tried to turn it back on, nothing. Dead, 6 months old Supercharge Gold Plus battery was dead flat. Tested the alternator on Sunday with a professional tester and got some interesting results: with the engine cold, right after starting it, the alternator would push 13.7-13.9V, which is in spec. As soon as the engine started to warm up it went down to below 12. Repeated the test with the battery from my wife's car, same result.

So yeah, just ordered a new alternator and bought the drive belt from Repco, looks like this Saturday I'll be pretty busy...

Edited June 9, 2020 by AurionX2

[Tony Prodigy]

It is possible the alternator is going bad but did you also check your ground wire ?. You may have a loose ground some where.

[AurionX2]

Good point Tony, will check the wiring. If it's related to temperature variation it could be anything, really.

[Tony Prodigy]

11 minutes ago, AurionX2 said:

Good point Tony, will check the wiring. If it's related to temperature variation it could be anything, really.

Loose wires create resistance and voltage drop.

[campbeam]

4 hours ago, AurionX2 said:

CEL came on, then check VSC, then progressively went from bad to worse: headunit shut down, the clock started to dim and the dash turn into a Christmas tree.

I had a very similar experience of that sequence of events in that the battery was going flat because the alternator was not charging. I previously had the battery charging warning light come on for a few days then it went out Saturday morning. This lulled me into a false sense of security thinking that the alternator was working again and that maybe the clutch pulley may have magically fixed itself. A change of alternator certainly fixed my issue. At the time I did not have a multimeter but since then the alternator charges at 13.7V or higher when starting. 

Good point has been made about checking the grounding wires. In particular check for corrosion on the grounding cables where they connect to the vehicle body and even look for loose connections. Certainly check the wiring connections on the alternator.

As a recent example, I had a loose connection on a set of jumper cables and did not realise until one connector clip came away from the cable. Another relearning to check everything and not make assumptions.