Battery Swap

[NickA]

Just changed the battery in the Stag as the old Unipart one has gone to battery heaven so I thought I'd share the information on the swap. The old battery was a Unipart GBA3072 which is NLA so after much thought and head scratching (well a bit of googling and a search of the forums) I decided on the Halfords HCB072 which was bought with a friends trade card.

Pics are after and before; the new Halfords battery is slightly bigger than the Unipart so the original battery strap doesn't fit but it's got a handle so that doesn't really matter and I had to file off one of the case moldings as the left hand battery clamp wouldn't fit with it in place. Finally the battery bracket (yes I know it needs a re-paint) is a very tight fit. A subtle bit of bending was required to get the left hand thread to engage on the wing nut.



Halfords.jpegUnipart1.jpg

[Ritchie6]

Thanks for the info Nick. My battery is just over 2 years old,fitted by the previous owner so hopefully will last a bit longer yet but of course you never can tell.

Just a quick question though. As far as I'm aware it's necessary to move the power steering pump out of the way in order to change a battery and I wanted to know if you can get away with simply unbolting it and pushing it aside rather than having to undo the hoses and draining the fluid. The reason I'm keen to know is that when I replaced my high pressure hose I had a lot of bother getting it to seal and don't want to have to uncouple the fitting at the top where it joins to the pump.

Richard

[NickA]

Yes you do need to move the power steering pump to give sufficient clearance to get the battery out but you only need to undo the three bolts that hold it to the head and then move it to where the washer bottle sits. No need to undo the fluid hoses.

battery.JPG

Picture & text lifted from the ROM

[Ritchie6]

Cheers for the info Nick. Doesn't look like it's too difficult to do,although it often appears easy on paper. Seems like the hardest job is sourcing the right size battery.

Richard

[marshman]

Cheers for the info Nick. Doesn't look like it's too difficult to do,although it often appears easy on paper. Seems like the hardest job is sourcing the right size battery.

Richard

LDParts website has all the info you need to ensure you get the right battery in terms of size and terminal positions.....

http://www.ldpart.co.uk/shop/shop.ph...4&sid=sidd6fb2.


If your battery is "only" 2 years old then provided you look after it, i.e. give it an occasional maintenance charge every month or so if the car is laid up over the winter months, then it should last a good few years more. My experience of car batteries in recent years is that they last 6 to 10 years or longer if they are properly looked after. (I'm sure others will disagree ) My preferred makes (i.e. ones I have had good reliability from in a range of vehicles) are Varta, Halfords (Advanced Calcium) and Bosch S4. My least preferred are "Lion" brand which I think are sold by Eurocarparts.

Roger

[72BLUE]

Varta, Halfords (Advanced Calcium) and Bosch S4. My least preferred are "Lion" brand which I think are sold by Eurocarparts.

Roger

Agree with Varta and Bosch, no experience of the Halfords though. I would add Yuasa to the 'good' list.

Keith

[Robin Searle]

Taking a look at the photos posted especially the one with the metal battery retainer bar that runs EXTREMELY close to the + positive battery terminal, when I had my Stag in for an electrical problem Les the technician strongly advised me to mark with a permanent marker the area around the positive terminal,then remove the strap itself and file/grind that area away from such close possible contact with the + battery post itself, especially if the two wing nuts vibrate loose and cause that battery bar to jiggle up and down whilst the car is driven.

Robin

[Ritchie6]

If your battery is "only" 2 years old then provided you look after it, i.e. give it an occasional maintenance charge every month or so if the car is laid up over the winter months, then it should last a good few years more. My experience of car batteries in recent years is that they last 6 to 10 years or longer if they are properly looked after. (I'm sure others will disagree ) My preferred makes (i.e. ones I have had good reliability from in a range of vehicles) are Varta, Halfords (Advanced Calcium) and Bosch S4. My least preferred are "Lion" brand which I think are sold by Eurocarparts.

Roger

I'm not sure what sort my battery is. I'll have a quick look next time I'm in the garage. I don't have a charger but do bring it out of the garage several times on nice days during the winter and run it for half an hour to bring it up to temperature and check everything.

Richard

[Stag About Town]

Found I had to move the pump aside as described to get at the U Bolt nuts when changing the anti roll bar bushes. Not too difficult even for a non mechanical like me. John

[PhilB]

I bought my Stag in July 2013 and it had a (newish looking) Halfords HB072 on it when purchased. - It is still going strongly
- I just give it a 2 day trickle charge with my 15 year old Accumate charger 2 or 3 times during each winter to keep it topped up if not good enough weather to get it out for a run

[Danny]

When I changed my battery this is how I fitted my new one. I was a bit concerned about how close the +ve terminal is to the clamp so I bought abattery with the terminals away from the clamp


IMG_3085.jpg

[Ritchie6]

My experience of car batteries in recent years is that they last 6 to 10 years or longer if they are properly looked after. (I'm sure others will disagree ) My preferred makes (i.e. ones I have had good reliability from in a range of vehicles) are Varta, Halfords (Advanced Calcium) and Bosch S4. My least preferred are "Lion" brand which I think are sold by Eurocarparts.

Roger

Just been out into the garage to satisfy my own curiosity and my car has a Bosch S4 027 battery,which was fitted by the previous owner in May 2016. I haven't bought a new battery for years but Bosch stuff always had a good reputation and it seems to be a very good fit in the engine bay and having Googled this particular battery it seems it comes with a 4 year warranty,although I don't have any receipts to verify when it was fitted.

Richard

[BRGStag]

Hi, just replaced my battery at 4 years old.
The charger was saying 'full', however the battery was absolutely dead, wouldnt even light the interior led lamp.
The tops of most of these batteries are actually removeable, so I peeled the label and had a look inside in case a top up was necessary, but it was clear that the plates in some of the cells were quite deformed and hence not recoverable.
I believe that car batteries are designed to 'float' at full voltage and not actually go anywhere near flat, which apparently ruins them.
Now for some reason the previous owner had fitted a reversed connection battery in my car and I just replaced with a similar one from a local auto outfit, at a very reasonable price with a 2 year warranty, and no mileage to collect - engine restart in under 30mins!!
This battery is an 075 and apparently common on some Mazda's so often in stock, whereas the 072 etc wasnt.
It is actually slightly shorter and so has a packer underneath, I think its a piece of plastic type decking wrapped in black polythene! Cant be seen anyway.
The connections, as noted previously, are close, so I just wrapped some thick black insulation tape around the clamp.
As these batteries are not that expensive, I dont think its worth worrying too much about the life expectancy, given the use patterns, particularly through the winter. I do intend to get a smart charger for it anyway to prolong its life as long as possible.
Alan

[022Dave]

It's worth considering 'reversing' the position of the terminals when buying a battery, to keep the positive cable away from the rotating components of the power steering pump.

Dave

[Robin Searle]

More import is to make sure that the metal strap held in place by the two wing nuts do not vibrate loose and allow the metal strap to ground out with the positive+ terminal, as I said in my post #7 just mark on the metal strap an arc where the strap is closest to the terminal and file/grind that away so if it just happens to vibrate loose whilst driving it will not short it out. This advice came from an electrical repair owner who had witnessed this happening a number of times.

Robin