Need new battery

[Mikey444]

Ok guys,

The time has come, my battery is officially near the end of it's life. If the car sits for just 4 or 5 days, the battery does not have enough juice for the starter. I realised though, that this stock battery has never really been cut out for the job, because when I jump start the RX-8 from my Mazda 3 the starter sings instead of souding sick like it always has until the engine is running.

So, what do you guys recommend for a new battery? I've heard great things about the optima 35 red top, but does it fit are car?

Mikey

 

[R2s99zoom]

I've had one optima red top, and it didn't last a year... most likely I just got a bad one, but I live in a dry, warm climate, and I'm not impressed. For direct replacements, I generally stick to Interstate batteries now, since thru a family member I can get them really inexpensively, and haven't gotten a bad one yet.

Also, a while back I bought an rx-7 parts car that didn't run, but it had an "everstart" generic that I believe walmart sells... the parts car sat for about a year behind our shop. One weekend while working on my CSP rx7, it wouldn't start, and the batter in the car turned out to be dead... was late evening, so going to autozone was out of the question, so on a whim I went out back to the parts car, when I opened the door to pop the hood, the dome light came right on... pulled the battery out, and threw it into the race car as a "temporary" item to get the work done that night... over a year later and the damn generic battery is still going strong. I keep thinking that I really should get a smaller, lighter battery for the car since its not a daily driver, and shaving 20ish lbs off the front of the car couldn't hurt... but the damn battery wont die, so I just can't bring myself to spend money to replace a perfectly good working battery... especially since theres still a ton of other things I could spend the money on to make the car more competitive...

 

[Mikey444]

Thnx for the post,

Finally I just hopped to the dealer this morning since I had to get my Mazda 3 rust proofed, I just picked up a battery from them. 88$ so I cant really complain, installed myself and it seems to work fine. I didnt get a chance to start the car yet though as the weather is bad and I dont want to start the car for no good reason.

I'll post again once I start the car for the first time with the new battery to let everyone know if the starter sounds like it's strugling or not like with the old battery. I believe though that the stock panasonic battery that came with the early build RX8's are really cheap quality.

Mikey

 

[Darksidemp5]

I've had one optima red top, and it didn't last a year... most likely I just got a bad one, but I live in a dry, warm climate, and I'm not impressed. For direct replacements, I generally stick to Interstate batteries now, since thru a family member I can get them really inexpensively, and haven't gotten a bad one yet.

Also, a while back I bought an rx-7 parts car that didn't run, but it had an "everstart" generic that I believe walmart sells... the parts car sat for about a year behind our shop. One weekend while working on my CSP rx7, it wouldn't start, and the batter in the car turned out to be dead... was late evening, so going to autozone was out of the question, so on a whim I went out back to the parts car, when I opened the door to pop the hood, the dome light came right on... pulled the battery out, and threw it into the race car as a "temporary" item to get the work done that night... over a year later and the damn generic battery is still going strong. I keep thinking that I really should get a smaller, lighter battery for the car since its not a daily driver, and shaving 20ish lbs off the front of the car couldn't hurt... but the damn battery wont die, so I just can't bring myself to spend money to replace a perfectly good working battery... especially since theres still a ton of other things I could spend the money on to make the car more competitive...

do you have a name at advanced autoparts that i can swap my red top out wit mine did ok lasted me a few years but then again its florida so not to cold here just wet n hot most of the time, but i got mine from online n dont wanna spend more cash on what should have warranty way, but if u can hit me wit a name to give them to look up so they can swap it out i would appreciate it, oh yeah its an 1000/800 -red top