Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I had to bite the bullet and buy a new battery. The only place local who had one was Halfords. £123 for a Bosch silver. After speaking to the nice young person behind the counter, it turned out I was eligible for a trade card, as I claimed to be a car mechanic. I filled it out there and then, and paid £84 for a brand new Bosch Silver with a 5 year warranty. I hope this helps someone.

Yup a few of us got Trade cards a while ago, until they stopped it. My one was a standard Halfords one as I wasn't prepared to pay the unwarranted (in my opinion) premium for the Bosch one.

There was the Halfords own brand one for about £95 without the discount. The only real difference was the Halfords one had a 3 year warranty, as the Bosch had a5 year warranty. But like you say, nothing extra to show for the extra money.

From my experience they either last a year or so in which case claim under the warranty or 6-7 years in which case no difference. I generally find that batteries in classics that aren't used every day tend to have a less than 3 year life

I have had the same battery in my 993 since I bought the car in 2005, god knows when it was fitted! I do however keep the car connected to a ctek charger all the time its not being used.

Was an artcle on a Ford forum somewhere that: the Boshe Silver is a re-badged Varta...

I've just bought a Halfords battery for the Supersport, 4 year warranty, list £102.99, trade card brought it down to £64.99. Battery on car was a genuine Porsche battery, 2 years 4 months old, and I've got receipt, rang OPC to see if it was still under warranty, sorry sir Porsche only give a 2 year warranty on all parts, I'm led to believe that its a Bosch battery and they give 3 years warranty !!!

Obviously not if you pay the Porsche premium

Bought Haley a new battery for the Bug last month, £40 off with the trade card

I think that makes all the difference. Keeping it on a trickle charge will help. A battery kept in the correct condition will last longer. I work with UPS battery systems at work, and no manufacturer will give us any more than a 5 year warranty. The testing on them is a killer, just because I.T. guys don't want to lose power.

Snap I design & trouble shoot Data Centres including working with UPS systems in the day job. Some suppliers will give 8-10 year warranty but you pay through the nose for it. The thing that kills UPS batteries is temperature. Above 25 Deg C every 10 Deg C extra halves the battery life. Good knows what under bonnet temps some cars can get to

Yep, I was also responsible for all power solutions for my ex employer Global Switch, and that is why my best fix for UPS was dynamic systems, battery solutions were far too unreliable, bulky, expensive and dangerous (you only have to have a fire in a battery room to understand this, one of our tenants in a DC in Docklands had one, it was a major issue, you cannot put it out !!)

I have diesel rotary UPS in some buildings too. If I could start again, I would start one of these companies. Talk about writing a blank cheque!!! The 2 main companies that we buy from, wont sell you parts without one of their engineers installing the spares. Jim is right about temp', it's critical. Like you said, under a bonnet must be bad for them.

At least the battery is nice and cool in a 928 Lee!

For anyone unfamiliar with these fabulous cars, it's in underfloor compartment at rear, where it was designed alomg with transaxle to ensure 50/50 weight distribution. At its 1977 launch Motor said you couldn't really talk about 928 having handling characteristics, it just went round bends at seemingly any speed without fuss. Due less to the battery position though and more to sophisticated rear axle design.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm that was in the days when they were comparing horses and carts though I think it was all about the battery position