Focus 2003 new battery query, advice needed

[voodoochile73]

Hi,

My 2003 Focus Ghia battery doesnt seem to hold a charge any longer for more than a week, in lockdown im not using the car much but despite not being very cold the battery is dead after a week, was fine 2 evenings ago so time for a new battery as it is the original and has been charged numerous times.

Looking at a local parts shop they have Silver batteries and Calcium batteries 12v but my manual state i need a silver/calcium 12v, would anyone know if these are the same thing or is the silver/calcium something else and particular to my model car?.  

Also the numbers on the current battery are 43ah 390a. Are these relevent or is it just the 12v i need to concern myself with?.

Thanks in advance, it's been a  while since i bought a battery (like 2 decades).

[YOG]

That sounds like a very small (as in ah and A) for a Focus.

Put your Reg in here, and see what it comes up with:

https://www.tayna.co.uk/

[voodoochile73]

Thanks Yog, its giving me an option which looks right, the battery megastore has similarly given me a few options. Would you know if the AH number has to match?. Taking a guess i;d think as long as its not lower than the current battery im using it would be fine?.

Also regarding the battery's physical size, i have a lot of room in the compartment around the current battery so perhaps it was replaced at some point. Ive had the car 6 years and it's only now its a problem, having a larger battery would pose no problem in installing.

[YOG]

What size, ah/A/ Physical did the website come up with. Being 2003, I assume yours is not Start/Stop, but has a heated front screen?

[voodoochile73]

35 minutes ago, YOG said:

What size, ah/A/ Physical did the website come up with. Being 2003, I assume yours is not Start/Stop, but has a heated front screen?

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/enduroline/065/

Same height and depth as the current, more length but i've room for that. It's a 58ah 540a as opposed to 43ah 390a. No start/stop feature, not sure about heated screen i've very rarely used it in icy conditions and just scrape ice off and go, seems like normal screen to me (sry i cant be more informative).

 

thanks

[unofix]

Hi, just thought I'd see if I could just offer you a little help on the battery capacity. Your original battery has a maximum 'cranking' capacity of 390 Amps, in other words the maximum amount of current the battery can supply to the starter motor when you turn the key is 390Amps.

The 43AH,  is the amount of current that can be drawn continuously from the battery for an hour. So your battery when new and fully charged would have been able to provide 43 Amps continuously for one hour, or to look at it another way the battery could have suppplied 1 Amp for 43 hours.

So to answer your question, provided it will physically fit in the battery tray of your car there is no problem in fitting a battery with a larger capacity, 58AH - 540A will be fine.

[YOG]

1 hour ago, voodoochile73 said:

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/enduroline/065/

Same height and depth as the current, more length but i've room for that. It's a 58ah 540a as opposed to 43ah 390a. No start/stop feature, not sure about heated screen i've very rarely used it in icy conditions and just scrape ice off and go, seems like normal screen to me (sry i cant be more informative).

 

thanks

There's other, and cheaper 065 on Tayna website (see link). Personally, for the 065, I would tend to go for the Varta or Bosch:

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/065/

However, if you can fit it in, and want better capacity, an 075 would be better, his size is fitted to my 1.7 Ford Puma. I have the Varta D21 (5 year guarantee)on mine (£68.47, delivered):

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/075/

[voodoochile73]

15 minutes ago, unofix said:

Hi, just thought I'd see if I could just offer you a little help on the Battery capacity. Your original battery has a maximum 'cranking' capacity of 390 Amps, in other words the maximum amount of current the battery can supply to the starter motor when you turn the key is 390Amps.

The 43AH,  is the amount of current that can be drawn continuously from the battery for an hour. So your battery when new and fully charged would have been able to provide 43 Amps continuously for one hour, or to look at it another way the battery could have suppplied 1 Amp for 43 hours.

So to answer your question, provided it will physically fit in the battery tray of your car there is no problem in fitting a battery with a larger capacity, 58AH - 540A will be fine.

Thanks Unofix, thats great to hear!.

[voodoochile73]

2 hours ago, YOG said:

There's other, and cheaper 065 on Tayna website (see link). Personally, for the 065, I would tend to go for the Varta or Bosch:

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/065/

However, if you can fit it in, and want better capacity, an 075 would be better, his size is fitted to my 1.7 Ford Puma. I have the Varta D21 (5 year guarantee)on mine (£68.47, delivered):

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/075/

Thanks Yog, i'll go through tem and havea  look.

[voodoochile73]

14 hours ago, YOG said:

There's other, and cheaper 065 on Tayna website (see link). Personally, for the 065, I would tend to go for the Varta or Bosch:

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/065/

However, if you can fit it in, and want better capacity, an 075 would be better, his size is fitted to my 1.7 Ford Puma. I have the Varta D21 (5 year guarantee)on mine (£68.47, delivered):

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/075/

Vog, looking at the Bosch and Varta it doesnt state if silver/cadmium, the car manual tells me to replace with the same. Would you know if this is likely to be an issue with the new battery?.