HDI Battery

[MY95]

So my 306 HDI needs a new battery, going for a varta or yuasa, but not sure exactly what it needs? Think its a 027 60v 540 or something? What can I use?
Cheers!

[Toms306]

60 volts might be a bit much lol, 12v will do.

60AH and 550CCA or preferably above.

[JTaylor2005]

Tbf so long as it fits the bigger the better when it comes to AH and CCA tbf. My car had a much smaller battery on it than was recommended. The new on quite a bit bigger. It starts much faster now

[BiG K]

If you get a hammer out and flatten the lip closest to the headlight on the battery tray, you can fit an 096 comfortably which is more powerful.

[powerandtorque]

If you get a hammer out and flatten the lip closest to the headlight on the battery tray, you can fit an 096 comfortably which is more powerful.

How much CCA (which is what I'm assuming you mean by power) do you really need for a humble 4 pot diesel though?

My HDi has only got an 065 in it from a petrol 306/Xsara and that cranks the engine over strongly even on bitterly cold winter mornings.  Whilst I wouldn't recommend buying one of those new - it's only on mine because I had it left over from a car I broke a couple of years back - it does show that you don't need a massively overkill battery.

Approximate capacity, size and price (based on Lion battery from ECP for the sake of comparison) of the various options:

065 = 52Ah, 460CCA and 242x175x175mm.  £44.
027 = 60Ah, 480CCA and 242x175x190mm.  £56.
075 = 60Ah, 520CCA and 247x175x175mm.  £47.
096 = 75Ah, 640CCA and 278x175x190mm.  £69.

Whilst it's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, going for an 096 is nearly 50% more expensive than a 075 and I'm not convinced you'll see much benefit.

[MY95]

Bought a Varta Blue 027 60AH, 540CCA with 4 years warranty for £56 on ebay, apparently just a relabelled bosch silver they are, last Varta lasted me 8 years so cant complain at that haha.

[BiG K]

If you get a hammer out and flatten the lip closest to the headlight on the battery tray, you can fit an 096 comfortably which is more powerful.

How much CCA (which is what I'm assuming you mean by power) do you really need for a humble 4 pot diesel though?

My HDi has only got an 065 in it from a petrol 306/Xsara and that cranks the engine over strongly even on bitterly cold winter mornings.  Whilst I wouldn't recommend buying one of those new - it's only on mine because I had it left over from a car I broke a couple of years back - it does show that you don't need a massively overkill battery.

Approximate capacity, size and price (based on Lion battery from ECP for the sake of comparison) of the various options:

065 = 52Ah, 460CCA and 242x175x175mm.  £44.
027 = 60Ah, 480CCA and 242x175x190mm.  £56.
075 = 60Ah, 520CCA and 247x175x175mm.  £47.
096 = 75Ah, 640CCA and 278x175x190mm.  £69.

Whilst it's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, going for an 096 is nearly 50% more expensive than a 075 and I'm not convinced you'll see much benefit.

If you shop around, even a little, a 096 is only a tiny bit more. Like this Exide Premium for £50 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311601723770

Batteries work better when they are warm, so the colder it gets, the less current it can provide. Starting an engine requires a lot of current, over a very short time. Meanwhile, cold engines are harder to start, requiring more power to get them going.

As batteries age, their internal resistance increases, reducing CCA. Total capacity decreases at the same time. This is why a newer battery can start your car in any weather, even if you leave the sidelights on overnight, while an old battery might only start the car when fully charged, in good weather.

Starter batteries are optimized for short-duration, high-current draws, followed immediately by recharging. They are built with thinner plates with more surface area, which speeds up the chemical reactions that release the energy. If you draw them down to 1/2 charge, and then leave them like that for a while, hard crystals will form on the plates, which won't re-desolve easily on recharging. That reduces capacity and CCA over time.


So a larger battery will still degrade & provide the power you require for longer & allow you to use the accessories in the car for longer before you damage it, at the expense of a tenner or so and a kilo or two of weight.

Peugeot must have had a good reason to fit a bigger 027 over a 065, most likely, they didn't want their customers breaking down within the warranty period or shortly afterwards.

[powerandtorque]

I'm well aware of the finer points of batteries, cold engines and the weather. I'm also well aware that there's cheaper sources that ECP - as I said, that was purely a comparison between different sizes of the same brand of battery from the same supplier.

You'll also note I wasn't suggesting buying an 065 battery, merely pointing out that in the real world a few year old one is more than capable of starting an HDi even in the depths of winter (certainly no issue down to -10). That's hardly a surprise of course, as Peugeot will have specced the recommended battery for a worse case scenario and the sorts of temperatures that we just don't see in this country.

There's no harm in putting in a larger battery with higher CCA rating of course, but in my opinion, there's no tangible real world benefit in doing so.

apparently just a relabelled bosch silver they are, last Varta lasted me 8 years so cant complain at that haha.

If that's true I hope that they've improved over Bosch Silver's of a few years back which were a disaster - I had three fail in well under a year, and I'm far from the only one that had issues with them (ironically in light of Big_K's post, that was a battery that was slightly over-specced for the car it was in)

[BiG K]

If that's true I hope that they've improved over Bosch Silver's of a few years back which were a disaster - I had three fail in well under a year, and I'm far from the only one that had issues with them (ironically in light of Big_K's post, that was a battery that was slightly over-specced for the car it was in)

I was having an issue with failing batteries. Currently got some unbranded "Titanium" battery which has been fine for the last 3 years, whereas I was killing Exide & Bosch batteries in 2 years. I guess it's more down to driving habits and pot luck.

[powerandtorque]

There's unquestionably an element of luck, but certainly there seems that there was something amiss with Bosch Silver's from that era judging from the number of people I know that had similar issues to me. They were all replaced under warranty, but that wasn't really the point when it was getting to the point that you didn't have any faith in the car starting in the morning.

Like you, I chucked some cheap no-names battery in the car afterwards and never had an issue again.