asoka05

Hi guys,

I have a 2010 Mustang, and the battery is dead. I'm at 41k miles, so I don't think it will be covered under warranty anymore?

My question is to replace it with the battery offered by a local ford dealer at $99 or should I buy an aftermarket battery sold by Sears?

If Sears, they have quite a few choice, I am not sure which should I pick? Anything should I need to know when picking out a battery for the car?

Someone please recommend a battery type? Is DieHard a good battery brand ? Thanks

Sears Battery Link. Click me

ilmor

You should check the warranty to confirm! If your 3yr/36k has expired, it's possible that the battery may have a longer warranty. Lastly, have you had the battery checked? That's way too soon for it to be dead. My 2007 battery is still going strong. I have a battery in my John Deere tractor that is 20 years old!! (It's a DieHard, incidentally...)

asoka05

i called the Ford Dealership in my area and was told that battery only has 3/36k warranty. So, I am guessing I am out of luck. Unless someone knows that the ford dealership gave me an incorrect information?

Yes, I agree that the battery is out way too soon. I was hoping that it should last around 5 years or so.

The car did not give me any warning at all. 1 morning a few days ago, it just decided not to start anymore. I gave it a jump start, drove it around.

Now, if I do not start my car in an hour, it won't start anymore.

Nuke

Most wet cell batteries tend to fail catastrophically with no warning. Assuming that it was something with the battery itself that caused the failure, then just get another battery. One issue with the S197's is the case size not always being a match but a good shop can work that out if you're not replacing it yourself.

Hopefully the failure wasn't due to some car electronics related problem.

iamgone

I bought the Motorcraft replacement. It had a longer warranty than aftermarket, plus my dealer took about $10 off the price, so it was just as cheap as aftermarket. As a side note, if you ever consider showing the car, I think the factory battery just looks better than aftermarket, unless you buy an Optima redtop.

BAB GT

I will admit to being cheap. I always buy WalMart batteries as my first replacement. They have a three year warranty and never last more than two years, so I never have to buy a second battery. They will leave you stranded in an instant, but once you get jump started, you go straight to the closest WalMart and get a new one.

FrostByte

I just replaced my orig OEM battery last year. I went w/ a new Motocraft.

Derf00

No it's not that durable. The OEM battery in the S197 are notoriously weak (many threads on this forum about it). Had two replaced in my 08 (one in 2010 under warranty) then last year. The one last year would've been for free too but I didn't like the fact they wanted the entire car there to cover it. I couldn't just walk the battery in. Battery was so dead it couldn't be jumped and no way in hell I was going to pay for a tow.

I ended up buying a Duralast Gold Battery from Autozone with a 3 year free replacement warranty and a 5 year prorated.

AZ heat kills the batteries anyways so we typically only get 2 or 3 years out of ANY battery any car/truck.

UrS4

Make sure you test the alternator too, I replaced my OEM battery with a red top optima and within a year the car suddenly died on me while exiting the hwy, went to autozone and they checked the battery and alternator for free, battery was strong but undercharged and alternator was nearly toast, apparently I had been driving my car using the battery mostly. New alternator and problem solved.

Gary Ugarek

I happened to have worked for many aftermarket suppliers, including battery manufacturers. I highly recommend any battery from DEKA aka East Penn Manufacturing.

The build batteries for Car Quest, and some other auto parts companies.

As an employee I was able to get free Rebuilds, or pay $5.00 for a brand new unit. I installed a free rebuild in my moms 99 sunfire in 2003, and here it is 2013 and that thing is still kicking.

In order to get rebuilds you have to go to their factory store in Lyon Station, PA.

However, in my 2+ years with the company, before i switched to working in Pharmaceuticals... I would not buy any other aftermarket battery other than a DEKA.

Deka also provides batteries for fork trucks and pallet mover's and those things can take a beating.

Die Hards, and other batteries are made by EXIDE. EXIDE doesn't use full grid frame technology, DEKA does. When the grid is cast, EXIDE cuts off everything except the top frame, because the tombstone piece for grid welding is on the top frame, the sides and bottoms are removed and remelted down. Cutting the frame of the grid allows the grid wiring to poke through the envelopes during and/or after pasting which can cause the battery to prematurely fail because of the pos/new wires in the grids touching.

Deka eliminates this problem by keeping the entire frame intact.

FYI, just for the record, DEKA still has the first battery they ever produced in 1946 on display, and it will turn over a tractor or car, they have demonstrated it many times.

buying a Deka battery is costly, but you pay for premium workmanship.

If you're going to spend $100+ on a battery and want to see it last, go Deka

http://www.dekabatteries.com/default.aspx?pageid=454