Got one from Halfords the other day, not their own brand as I have heard mixed reports, but the Yuasa one which they had in stock. Fitted on the spot (using a second battery to maintain all the codings) can't remember exactly how much but seemed fair
I replaced mine recently. Took a while to find one with the rather high factory specs in a small enough form factor. Came up with the Bosch S4 018 in the end.
Anyone ever noticed that Yuasa can also be read as USA? Its a US-based company I find this to be very amusing As for the battery, I use any more or less known brand, as they go bad anyway. If possible, get a 40ah version instead of 35. I have an AFA Battery and so far it is holding up well
Sorry only german. Na Phil, dann frag mal hier..wird nur teuer..habe eine 45 Ah. Aus dem Bootsbau. http://www.batterie-industrie-germany.de/content/batterie-center/
The Halfords own brand isn't great for the Copen - tried and died within a year. Bosch S4 is what I have now, and it works fine. When I'm not driving I keep it on a float charge with a 4Load charger
With the original battery the car needed to be charged regularly. Eventually I bought one for the 1.3 and the motor factor listed a battery (using the car reg) that was much better spec than the original, but to be honest it looked physically too big when I picked it up. Turns out they were wrong, I was right. It was way too long, but I decided to cut the tray at one end and fit it anyway. The car needs a bigger battery in my opinion so I'm glad I did. That was 3 year ago and it's been perfect since.
How much Ah does the bigger battery have? The "direct fit" replacement batteries are only available as 35 and 40Ah
I won't be driving my car for about 6 weeks and can't leave it on a trickle charge either. Will the standard battery last okay or should I be thinking of disconnecting the negative terminal to avoid the alarm tripping when the voltage drops. The battery seems in good nick and is showing around 12.4 volts first thing in the morning. The alternator is all good pushing over 14.5 volts.
When in doubt, disconnect the battery. 12.4V is not too much (but still usable), a good battery should have upwards of 12.6V
It may be more than that now it's above freezing (I'm only using a gauge built into the cigarette lighter) but I take your point. It was actually at 12.7 volts after being left overnight, down from 13 volts immediately after being switched off last night (I didn't leave it long enough for the effect of the alternator to tail off as it was freezing).
Well I'm officially a pillock. I thought I'd chance leaving the battery connected and leave a key with a neighbour to disconnect it if the alarm goes off (since they are usually sensitive to the voltage drop). Anyway, I'm back today and not even enough to switch on the ignition lights I've got my Aldi charger on it now and it started at 3.8V but has slowly increased over the last 4 hours and stands at 6.4V. It's a smart charger but needs to register over 10V before it can be switched to charging mode (so semi smart may be a more apt description). I'm so glad I blocked the X5 in the garage now
Hook another car battery that is good up to the bad battery. It'll help bring the voltage up to > 10v for the charger to kick in. HOWEVER, if your battery is down that low, there are busted cells so don't expect the battery to last any length of time.
Luckily they're not that expensive (compared to the X5 or Discovery anyway) but I'll definitely disconnect it in future.
Looks like the rise in voltage was probably down to disconnecting the battery and the ambient temperature rise as it hasn't gone above 6.7V and still too low to charge it. I don't have a spare battery and the X5 is too complex to risk using it, for example you can't connect to both battery terminals as there is a specific terminal in the engine bay and the battery management system could run CERN. I'm going to put an old style charger on the Copen for 30 mins or so to raise the voltage and then use the semi-smart charger. If all else fails, it's a boost pack job.
If the battery is shot, regardless of whether you manage to start the car, you might still run into strange occurrences such as the power windows not working etc. So do not be alarmed and buy a new one ASAP I bought an AFA (Energizers low-budget brand) battery a few years ago and its surprisingly still good even though it was the cheapest one available. Better than the "high quality" Banner I had before. And yes, do not touch the battery system of a BMW or you might have to visit the dealer (its a shame german cars are like this now, they are actively preventing you from doing things yourself)
