Hello all,
looking for a new battery for my 4.6 Gems any help would be great. Last battery lasted just over a year from Euro car parts.
There is only one, best by far and cheaper then ECP and Halfrauds
https://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/product/hankook-heavy-duty-commercial-battery-mf31-1000/
You'd probably get that one delivered quicker than ECP can currently manage as well
Thankyou very much, very helpful.
Ordered today, should be with me tomorrow, thankyou both very much.
When fitting it, be careful not to catch and break the bleed pipe from the top of the radiator to the header tank. The battery is heavy and as big as it can be and still fit in the hole. Guess how I know it's easy to break the bleed pipe......
Its sensible to have a small table or similar set up next to the car to put the battery on and get it twisted the right way before moving it into place.
Although you can just muscle them into place those batteries are getting close to the size where you have to think things through and make reasonably proper arrangements.
Most drop / knock disasters I've seen when humping heavy things into restricted spaces have been when folk have tried to do the lift'n twist bit from floor to fitted in one go. I finally learnt my lesson in that respect when nearly tripping over my feet in the turn with over a hundredweight of 12" rotary table cuddled up to my chest when shifting from bench to Bridgeport.
Not a bad idea to put something solid over the vulnerable areas just in case.
Hafta say I cheated and just took mine down to the local tyre'n battery place. They made it a two man job. And disposed of the old one. Win-Win.
Not a Hankook but the first "house brand" one lasted about 7 or 8 years and the second has 2 or 3 years under its belt. My car doesn't do enough miles, especially in lockdown, to properly look after the battery so I generally recharge every couple of months.
Cheapy LiDL "smart" charger or Clive's special upgraded Winfield (Woolworths brand) box upgraded around 1975 with much bigger mil spec transformer and husky diodes. No idea what the special puts out but the meter goes to 6 amps and the needle bounces off the stop on a well down battery. The wires get warm!
Clive
Those Hankook batteries are well worth it as an upgrade, and cheaper than others. Don't remember who it was but someone said he was thinking of telling DVLA he'd changed his car to hybrid, the speed they can spin the engine over means you could drive on the battery alone! Although there is a big red label warning you, make sure you pull the breather plug out before bolting it down (not that it is going to go anywhere anyway).
I bought a Yuasa HSB334 from Halfords last week.
With a trade card it is £100 exactly, fits the cradle perfectly with the clamp over the top and comes with a 5 year warranty.
I looked at the Hankook ones online but they were only £9 cheaper and they have a years less warranty. I'm also inpatient... The terminals are also in the middle of the battery rather then right at the edge which put me off slightly as I didn't want the cables to be any tighter but that's just a personal thing.
Halfords are excellent when it comes to changing a battery under warranty too so I just gave them my cash this time around.
David.
dhallworth wrote:
Yuasa HSB334 from Halfords.
I've been using one of these for a year or so. Seems to be quite a good battery so far, replaced a Banner (Buffalo Bull I think) that stopped taking a charge.
Interesting, many of us have been to Halfords and been given a battery that doesn't fit. Maybe they've finally updated their database. Either way, the Hankook is the Daddy!
Thankyou everybody, My Hankook will be delivered today (ordered Monday morning). hope it will be a quick swap.
Morat wrote:
battery that doesn't fit.
My first Halfords battery was a rushed purchase which I didn't think through first - it didn't fit. The poles were the wrong way round, cables would have needed lengthening etc. Took it back and got the 334.
SamH wrote:
Morat wrote:
battery that doesn't fit.
My first Halfords battery was a rushed purchase which I didn't think through first - it didn't fit. The poles were the wrong way round, cables would have needed lengthening etc. Took it back and got the 334.
I believe that happened to someone else here, there listing is wrong..
It certainly happened to me!
I took it back, my Hankook had already arrived.
That makes sense, I thought it was me but maybe not. Their number plate (and other shops) based recommended parts systems also tend not to quite line up with model years vs plate years. My P-reg has a few bits on it that are 1997 specific although it was registered in (2nd half) '96. Most places recommend the square air filter from 1996 for example, when it's got the same as the Thor fitted in-fact.
I bought a big Yuasa battery from halfords with 5year warranty for mine when I first bought it. Despite daily use on decent runs it failed after just shy of three years. Halfords put there test box on it numerous times (even tried different stores) and told me the battery was fine, just needed charging. This was with it in the vehicle. I wasted much time and money chasing an unknown fault on the vehicle.
I gave up and bought the Hankook recommended here. I haven't looked back! It transforms the vehicle. The P38 is a bit voltage sensitive, numerous little quirks went away with this new battery.
Halfords never did honor the warranty.
Got lucky with Halfords and returning the wrong battery, but then again it was on the same day and with the same assistant on the till. They are effectively for 'I want it now' stuff really. I do know of people who keep old Halfords receipts and note the warranty/use-start date of stuff like batteries, but not whether they have any success arguing it out with them.
Those Hankook batteries seem to be the perfect P38 car battery - next time for me will be a 'plan ahead - buy one, delivered' - they are quite popular with a fair few people. The Yuasa in the GEMS gets an infrequent trickle top-up although it's not gone flat yet, every now and then it still behaves as if it's a little empty on cranking. The Bosch ran for years with a small Bosch branded battery in it, maybe they have slightly different requirements, it certainly has a higher output alternator on it.
Hankook arrived yesterday, fitted this morning. reset windows started great. thankyou for the tip re table that helped a great deal. new battery fits nice and cables reach fine. have read about an extra cable from the alternator to the battery direct. Has anybody carried out this cable upgrade?
If you have a GEMS, then it's a good idea, Thor has it anyway. As my car originally had an axillary battery in the boot there was already an extra cable coming off the battery terminal going to a split charge relay, I just moved that from the relay to the alternator. I have had a problem in the past with the connection at the starter working itself loose so I had nothing from the alternator getting to the battery so it's definitely worth doing.