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Any reasonable solution to battery drain?

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1 hour ago, MartinT said:

This is what I have, from Amazon.  It's a drop-in replacement.  Yuasa are highly regarded in the battery world.

I saw that on Amazon but it's £73 at the moment. The Amazon listing also can't decide on the CCA as searching for ybx3014 gets a result with 450CCA in the title but the thumbnail photo has 500CCA. However the 2nd photo shows a different label with 450CCA on it matching the title lol

Also both of these are less than the Toyota OEM replacement at 62Ah 620CCA?

 

 

 

 

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Cheers for advice. 

Maybe I have misunderstood the deep discharge then.

I was looking at it from the perspective that the typical user doesn't recharge their battery weekly so over a say 2-3week period the culminative discharge would be a lot and that's what I saw as deep discharge of the battery. All my journeys are no more than 15mins so I don't think that's enough to keep the battery topped up?

The UK gt-86 (presumably the alarm) seems to have a higher discharge rate and without use a new 60Ah battery will be dead in a month.

I do have a ctek 5.0. and it just so happens after a few days of checking Amazon have the 2.5m extension lead on sale for £11.99 delivered so I will have that Wednesday

Now I just need to get a battery to suit my use case  oh and our battery is a 005R but why is there other types that have the same dimensions and terminal positions lol?

So yes, I think you have got deep discharge a bit wrong. A fully charged battery is 12.5 to 12.2 V on a multimeter with engine off andv14.4 V with engine/ alternator on. The car will not start if the voltage drops below 12.2 V pretty much irrespective of CCA. So your margin is very thin but for Alarms, interior lights etc , there is months of energy still left in battery.

 

Rule if thumb for our cars , unless you have a current leak, a full charge once a month using CTek MXS 5.0 is more than sufficient to keep battery in good condition. Even once every 6 weeks is not bad. Just don't expect the car to start after 3 weeks of no use but battery wise its fine. The no of hrs ctek takes to charge will give you approx drain. 0 to 80% (light 4) takes 12 hrs for our 62Ah battery with MXS5.0

 

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

 

 

 

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I definitely need a new battery.

Every time I charge it with the ctek 5.0 the charger goes from 3 lights to green in under 10hrs and the traffic lights on the comfort connector continues to flash green after the charger is disconnected. However by the following morning the indicator will be yellow and sometimes red. 

Checking the usb dual charger in the aux port with ignition on but car not started that reads 12.0v but car starts fine. Once that drops to 11.9v is usually when the fun and games start lol 

I assume from your username you have a BRZ? Different alarm and current drain?

 

 

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, NJay said:

Also both of these are less than the Toyota OEM replacement at 62Ah 620CCA?

You're never going to notice the difference between 60Ah and 62Ah, LOL!  There is plenty of cranking current, too.

The reliability and longevity of the battery is far more important and Yuasa are great here.  Interesting that they have bought the Panasonic battery division, who supplied my original OEM battery in the BRZ.

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54 minutes ago, NJay said:

Every time I charge it with the ctek 5.0 the charger goes from 3 lights to green in under 10hrs and the traffic lights on the comfort connector continues to flash green after the charger is disconnected. However by the following morning the indicator will be yellow and sometimes red.

That's a sure sign that the battery is dying.

I believe the alarm/immobiliser battery drain is the same for BRZ and GT86.

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1 hour ago, MartinT said:

You're never going to notice the difference between 60Ah and 62Ah, LOL!  There is plenty of cranking current, too.

The reliability and longevity of the battery is far more important and Yuasa are great here.  Interesting that they have bought the Panasonic battery division, who supplied my original OEM battery in the BRZ.

Yeah, didn't mean to put 62Ah (cut and paste error) as I knew that was negligible lol it was more the 120-170CCA (if you end up with the 450CCA version) however thanks for the reply 🙂

 

As to yuasa buying Panasonic battery division....I best get in quick and order one of the existing stock lol

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I have a BRZ ,yes.
On the alarm , I have heard 2 versions , they are not factory fitted but are fitted in the UK ( Portbury docks) , which might make them different.@Lauren : what does the guru know about this one?

If they are factory fitted by Subaru in Japan, I will expect them to be exactly same with just a different looking fob.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

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42 minutes ago, NJay said:

They are not factory fitted as only the UK has the thatchem approved alarm we have. Do the brz and 86 have the same alarm fitted at the docks?

I'm not certain, but all UK cars seem to have the same code panel in the glove box.

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There's always the lead-based-elephant in the room, which is to unwire the battery until you need it. You have to put up with some lost trims and settings, but it will last until you need it.

Another thing you can do (albeit with insurance connotations) is leave the car in a secure place with the doors unlocked. That way the alarm would never arm.

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Indeed. The sorned Celica has the battery disconnected as it's running an apexi ECU for the supercharger so no trims get lost anyway lol.

If it wasn't for the fact that the gen 7 celica uses a 005L rather than a 005R like the gt86, I'd have used the varta D47 from that 😁

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7 hours ago, NJay said:

the traffic lights on the comfort connector continues to flash green after the charger is disconnected. However by the following morning the indicator will be yellow and sometimes red.

 

 

 

 

 

My experience of CTek Comfort Connectors on a wide variety of cars is that they always go from Green to Amber in a very short time (minutes or hours), so I wouldn't read too much into that.

I replaced my battery with a Varta 70Ah Blue Dynamic - cost £73.83 from Tayna. Certainly seems to keep its charge much longer than the (uprated) Toyota one which it replaced.

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38 minutes ago, nerdstrike said:

There's always the lead-based-elephant in the room, which is to unwire the battery until you need it. You have to put up with some lost trims and settings, but it will last until you need it.

Another thing you can do (albeit with insurance connotations) is leave the car in a secure place with the doors unlocked. That way the alarm would never arm.

Or still lock the doors by using the key which then doesn't arm the alarm. Still same insurance concerns though that you correctly called out. 

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42 minutes ago, Philip said:

My experience of CTek Comfort Connectors on a wide variety of cars is that they always go from Green to Amber in a very short time (minutes or hours), so I wouldn't read too much into that.

I replaced my battery with a Varta 70Ah Blue Dynamic - cost £73.83 from Tayna. Certainly seems to keep its charge much longer than the (uprated) Toyota one which it replaced.

Yes, green is for anything above 12.65v. Amber is 12.65-12.40v. I don't think mine has ever been that high except for straight after charging lol

 

This one?

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/varta/e24/

Did it fit ok as it's 30mm wider than our stock battery?

 

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1 hour ago, NJay said:

This one?

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/varta/e24/

Did it fit ok as it's 30mm wider than our stock battery?

Yes, that's the one. Fitted with no problems (the standard battery doesn't fill the battery tray). It also has the +ve terminal on the correct side (a lot of the "tell us your registration number and we'll show you which battery to buy" web sites get the battery size correct, but show the terminals on the wrong sides for our cars.

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Created my account (finally after lurking for years!) to reply to this topic, as I've finally got a battery I am happy with.

I don't drive for work so I have never used my 86 daily, I started off with the stock battery like everyone and it was appalling. Dead after a week, 10 days at most of no driving, within the first month of ownership from brand new. My dealership happily changed it for the 60 Ah Toyota branded one, which was considerably better, but still less than ideal. After two weeks of sitting on the driveway it was certainly less keen to turn over than when fresh.

Come early 2020 and covid times, I didn't drive at all for 6 weeks or so back in the spring. While only a little over 2 years old, the Toyota 60Ah was completely killed from this lack of use. When lockdown #1 lifted I couldn't even start the car with a mains booster, the most I could do was activate the alarm in my driveway lol.

So after some research on both this forum and the other place, I ended up with the Yuasa HSB 096 Yuasa HSB 072 from Halfords (I think this is the model, please ask me to take/post a pic and confirm if you're not sure and about to go and buy!). 80 Ah for ~£115, and I couldn't be happier! After 3 weeks of idle it still leaps in to life at first ask, shows near 12V on the meter if I check before starting, etc. - My starting fail / flat battery anxiety of previous years is now a thing of the past.

Up to you if that kind of expense is "reasonable", but I certainly consider my previously very annoying battery drain completely solved for now. No telling how long this battery will last, but it's been maybe 6 months now of very light car use and it's still perfect!

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17 hours ago, BRZ-123 said:

I have a BRZ ,yes.
On the alarm , I have heard 2 versions , they are not factory fitted but are fitted in the UK ( Portbury docks) , which might make them different.@Lauren : what does the guru know about this one?

If they are factory fitted by Subaru in Japan, I will expect them to be exactly same with just a different looking fob.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 

I haven't got a definitive answer on the BRZ. Though it is absolutely true that the alarms are fitted at Portbury Docks for the GT86. Given the BRZ has the keypad as well would then infer the same alarm which would be fitted in the same manner. I have to admit, I've never looked at this aspect of the BRZ, but cars such as these need to have a CAT1 alarm which is not required in Japan or elsewhere in the world. 

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4 hours ago, Dave7 said:

I ended up with the Yuasa HSB 096 from Halfords (I think this is the model, please ask me to take/post a pic and confirm if you're not sure and about to go and buy!). 80 Ah for ~£115, and I couldn't be happier! 

This one

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/batteries/car-batteries/yuasa-hsb096-silver-12v-car-battery-5-year-guarantee-161003.html

The terminals are the opposite way around to ours?

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Clearly not the right one unless you put battery the other way round. Afaik based on my notes, the 2 halfords ones that fit are
Halfords HB072, 68Ah, 550A, 18.3Kg, Dimension 26.1*17.5*22 (£99)

Halfords Yuasa HSB072, silver 5000, 75Ah, 640A , 18.1 Kg, dimensions 26.9*17.4*22.5(£129)

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

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1 hour ago, BRZ-123 said:

Clearly not the right one unless you put battery the other way round. Afaik based on my notes, the 2 halfords ones that fit are
Halfords HB072, 68Ah, 550A, 18.3Kg, Dimension 26.1*17.5*22 (£99)

Halfords Yuasa HSB072, silver 5000, 75Ah, 640A , 18.1 Kg, dimensions 26.9*17.4*22.5(£129)

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 

Dug through my receipts and checked, it's the 2nd one you listed - I got the HSB 072 for £129.

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The yuasa HSB072 seems to be proprietary to halfords 

Is this a close enough match?

Yuasa YBX5069, silver 5000, 75Ah, 650A , 18.1 Kg, dimensions 26.9*17.4*22.5 (£85.97 delivered)

Or this one

Yuasa YBX3031,  3000, 72Ah, 630A , 18.4 Kg, dimensions 26.0*17.4*22.5 (£74.97 delivered)

Which might be a safer fit at 26.0cm as my battery tray recess appears to be less than 26.9cm wide unless i have the battery supported on the four raised edges of the tray which doesn't seem safe to me as they flex?

Still trying to work out what the difference is between a type 69 and a type 72 battery as they appear to be the same size and terminal config lol

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Went with with the Yuasa YBX3031,  3000, 72Ah, 630A , 18.4 Kg, dimensions  26.0 *17.4* 22.5 (£74.49 delivered)

With it being 260mm wide rather than 230mm of our stock battery it fits the battery tray perfectly as there is just a few mm all around the base but still contained within the tray itself. The HSB072 at 26.9mm would have been resting on the raised edges of the tray.

So given the better fit and higher rating I would definitely recommend it.

 

Oh and used the Varta D47 disconnected on the Celica to keep power to the gt86 during change over so at least that battery has now been used this year 😂

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I guess, it's about priorities. One thing for less driven car to hold charge longer .. but it also comes with weight penalty. And as there are also ones going opposite route with those lithium batteries for track use .. Priorities. Or maybe one should go similar as with brake pads, switching between two sets if it's for trackday or dd, in similar way with two different batteries, heavy lump for lockout non-driving charge hold, and one for summer (IIRC low winter temps also reduce max charge)/track days. One thing that kept me from going this route was not wishing to deal with learnt fuel-trim relearning on battery disconnect.

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11 hours ago, Church said:

I guess, it's about priorities. One thing for less driven car to hold charge longer .. but it also comes with weight penalty. And as there are also ones going opposite route with those lithium batteries for track use .. Priorities. Or maybe one should go similar as with brake pads, switching between two sets if it's for trackday or dd, in similar way with two different batteries, heavy lump for lockout non-driving charge hold, and one for summer (IIRC low winter temps also reduce max charge)/track days. One thing that kept me from going this route was not wishing to deal with learnt fuel-trim relearning on battery disconnect.

You don't have too relearn fuel trims. Get a 12v jump pack or spare battery (it can be small as you are Not going to start the car with it) and connect it to the battery leads before disconnecting main battery

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