Current battery is 95Ah 760A.
Am I right in thinking that as long as the Ah is higher I'm OK?
So a 100Ah 870A battery should be OK, right?
Selling the van so just need something to get it going.
Yup, A is how much current it can output for a given time without the voltage dropping significantly.
Ah is how much power the battery stores (pretty much irrelevant for a starter battery).
It's the cranking amps or cold cranking amps, CA or CCA, value that is important fr a starter motor battery.
Ah is Amp-hours, it's the capacity of the battery. So a 10Ah battery could supply 10 Amps for one hour, or one Amp for ten hours. I can't imagine it being overly important unless your vehicle is a poor starter or you tend to leave the lights / stereo on with the engine off.
Some vehicles (most Fords?) are designed to use more 'advanced' batteries like silver-calcium (still basically lead-acid) and have a 'smart' charging system. If you replace these with standard batteries the charging system won't be matched to the battery and it may shorten the life.
Selling the van so just need something to get it going
So it may not matter to you.
Agree with most of the above, be sure to match or better the CCA rating. I assume the 760A vs. 870Z is the CCA rating (seems about tight?) so you'll be good. Form factor/shape/szie needs to be close enough, too.
Ah is quite important if you have a power hungry car, think Citroens with loads of electronics in the middle of winter.
Ah is quite important if you have a power hungry car, think Citroens with loads of electronics in the middle of winter.
the alternator should deal with this unless you habitually leave the car with lots of stuff switched on and the engine off.
Cheers... So 100Ah is good? Won't screw anything up? (2008 VW T5)
cheap generic battery should be good, right?
The current battery is so dead the central locking doesn't even work.
Yep
Nope
Yep
the alternator should deal with this unless you habitually leave the car with lots of stuff switched on and the engine off.
The key word here being 'should'.
Apart from all the computers and motors in my C8 it has a tiny battery, about 82Ah IIRC. My Mondeo with the same block and nothing like the same amount of electronics and guff has a 110Ah battery that's about a third bigger. Add in Winter and cranking from cold definitely hits the battery hard.
It is very possible to under spec a battery.
But yeah, that battery sounds fine.
82 Ah is not tiny. The wife's i10 has a 35Ah. Its 6.5 years old and the battery is on its last legs...hoping to get it to the warmer weather and through the summer but will deffo need a new battery before Autumn kicks in. I managed to not notice a door not quite latched, leaving the interior light on for about 27 hours totally flattened it so it wouldn't even turn over. If I can find one that fits and isn't much more I'll put a bigger capacity one in.
CCA value is much more important. As long as the battery meets or exceeds the manufacturers minimum requirements you should be fine.
We had a long running issue with our Scenic draining the battery (it rarely starts first time and can take 3 or 4 goes, some electronic foible) and after two attempts it wouldn't have enough "oomph" to start.
Battery in the car was a 53Ah and I replaced it with a 70Ah. Never had the problem since (ok it still doesn't start first time, but it will have enough oomph to get it started eventually). The min spec was supposed to be 60Ah, hence the problem.
Have just replaced mine with a top of the range Bosch.had a decent less powerful one before although only slightly less capacity and it kept going flat after two weeks if I did not drive it as more often I cycle
it cost half the price.i had the car checked for power drain and it very low so not that. Problem now gone.not all similarly rated batteries are the same
the alternator should deal with this unless you habitually leave the car with lots of stuff switched on and the engine off.
historically perhaps.
but the battery in a modern car acts as a regulator.
alternator output fluctuates too much for modern electronic.
We had a Range rover that threw a gearbox fault code and all it was was that it wasnt getting a consistant voltage from the battery despite the alternator working well - soon as battery was changed . Fault code left.
Ahh, I don't disagree, but the statement above saying that a car with a smaller battery (in reasonable condition) cannot cope with the electronics in the winter is somewhat wide of the mark.
82 Ah is not tiny.
Your wife's i10 probably isn't starting anything from a 2 litre diesel up to a 3 litre V6 though is it? Using a battery with the same capacity and form factor as the one in a bread van Honda Civic. Your i10 doesn't have electric doors, electric windows all round, independent heating fans, fuel pre heater, sensors and computers in every bloody orifice including the sodding fuel cap either. I've driven an i10, its a go kart, a C8 is a full size MPV with as much electronic shite as PSA could shoehorn in.
Ahh, I don’t disagree, but the statement above saying that a car with a smaller battery (in reasonable condition) cannot cope with the electronics in the winter is somewhat wide of the mark.
No it's not and unless you have experience with the car I'm talking about then I suggest you're talking mince. Battery capacity issues, on that car, are very real. Unless you are suggesting collective delusion amongst the multiple people I know of that own one? Yes a smaller capacity one will work. For a while. But it only takes some wear and a proper cold spell to kill it.
CCA, must be same or more than spec
Ah, around about the same as spec
avoid the cheap stuff if you want it to last (cheap stuff is often "optimistically" rated and often lasts less time)
echo the above comment about regulating and chemistry sub-type matched to charger
most important, physically fits, same terminals, etc.
However, if you're fitting to sell, I would just buy the cheapest thing going that fits.
