My battery died on my B7, was likely going to pick up an Optima and call it a day but thought I would ask about lightweight options and opinions as a replacement.
What the honest truth?
Unless it’s a race car where every once matters don’t bother.
Get a factory replacement and as big as possible (I’m sure the V8’s have the big boy battery). Nothing like having extra CCA’s available to you.
Understood, I wasn’t looking for a feather weight but thought if I can shave a few LB’s then why not. Having plenty of juice on tap is key which is why I might opt for an Optima and be done with it.
Since you live in Florida, and are likely to almost never see epic cold, the 35 lb Optima should serve you well. Stock battery is 62 lbs and fails in 4-5 years almost like clockwork.
Also I would consider turning off the ‘coming home/going away’ feature. It just leaves your lights on after you lock and as you approach your car. Unfortunatley it does so when the car is off, so it’s a little mini drain on the battery every time.
^^^ Thanks Snoop!
Oem is a beast!
One of the local B6 S4 cab guys here has a B5 S4 battery which is a lot lighter and similar CCAs. I liked it a lot when I had to pull the damn thing to tighten the power steering rack bolt.
I’ve been running a generic Deka ETX30L (21lbs) for a little over 2 years in NC without an issue so far.
I’m running the Optima Red and it was fine this winter with 720CCAs.
Optima red has worked fine for the most part the past two years on my B6 A4. It has plenty of CCA during the winter, however if you don’t drive your car every week the reserve seems to be on the weak side. I sometimes don’t drive my car for 2 or more weeks and anything longer than 2 weeks it seems to struggle to start. I found the battery completely dead once and had to re charge, I don’t recall exactly how long it had been sitting but somewhere around the 3 week mark, maybe a bit more but not more than 4 weeks for sure.
So if you don’t daily drive it at least once a week, I’d probably just get an OEM or comparable replacement. But otherwise the Optima should be fine.
The optima reds, years ago, were a great starter battery, but really couldn’t handle parasitic loss. I then switched to the yellows as the deep cycle type held up much better. After messing with different batteries over the years I’m now running the Sears Die Hard Platinums in my daily (non-Audi), a great AGM, deep cycle battery. The Audi still has a yellow top, but I will be switching when it goes. Both battery makes are under Johnson Controls. Just my experiences.
Doh, I can’t edit. I don’t know how the Platinums weigh compared to the Optima; my batteries are different classes.
My buddy who owns an STI and goes to the same school in gainesville with me, comes back to sofla the same times I do and had his lw battery fail after a year n a half…not worth it IMO
What battery? Need more no before we say it’s not worth it.
That’s like saying I had a Japanese car and it died so Japanese cars aren’t reliable. I failed to mention it was a 27 year old tercel that I never out oil in
Hey! Don’t diss the Tercel! My family had a 1984 Tercel that just wouldn’t die, no matter how much we abused it lol
But yeah, Saki makes a good point.
^^ haha same for a friend who I used to race with back in the day. The one car that kept it going, “Yota”
Skip to optimas. Their quality control has gone to shit ever since they moved manufacturing to Mexico.
Die Hard Platinum is what I just put in the cobra. It’s a re-labeled Oddysey AGM for 2/3 the price of the Oddysey branded one. They’re beasts.
I have an odyssey in my rs, pc925 and I have had zero issues . I do leave on "coming home " feature.
Thanks for the feedback fellas. I opted for a yellow top Optima w/ 850 CCA’s.
I actually changed the battery myself (limited mechanical talent) only after a trip to Home Depot for the 6mm hex required.
I found a thread in AZ where some guys were having trouble removing the oem battery. Pretty funny, I guess it could be difficult for someone with a bad back or lacking strength.
It weighs 62 lbs, and is 3 feet away from the edge of the car, and if you’re tall, it’s awful because the hood is in your field of view and prevents you from leaning in. So you have to lift it out while you’re bent over at a 90 degree angle nearly.
I guess that 6 5’ frame of yours does have limitations, didn’t think about it like that, probably cause I’m 5’ 10!