So my Red Top finally died on me. I bought it for my MX6 in '03 and I moved it over to the MSP in '06. It is over 9 years old so it had a good run.
It failed to start after being out of town a week, so I figured I might have left the dome light on or something and jumped it to get to work. It didn't start after work. It didn't even turn over at all. So I jumped it again, and on my way home the whole car shutoff as I was getting onto the highway. No blinkers, no dash lights, nothing. Had to get a tow home. Hurray for roadside assistance.
So for those of you Optima owners out there, be warned. They go from good to bad very quickly.
Now I am obviously a happy customer after 9 years and I go to Optima's site and use the battery selector. My old one was from the MX6, so I was not surprised that it was a different model number 35 instead of 34/78. Amazon also agreed this was the model for my car.
However, it arrived today, and I was surprised to see that the terminals are reversed. Annoying, but not a huge deal, as I can just turn the battery the other way and stretch my cables a bit. It would annoy me that the label is upside from the driver's side, but there are worse atrocities in the world. However, the battery is narrower than our bracket. I checked and model 34 is 6 7/8" wide, while the model they specify (and Amazon confirmed) is 6 3/4".
You wouldn't think an 1/8" would be a big deal, but with our very non-adjustable bracket, it does not fit snug and can rotate.
So now I have to make my own bracket or send it back and buy the 34. I am going to complain to Optima so hopefully, they pick up the shipping.
What model is everyone else using?
Here are the pics.
Old (model 34/78-OR)
New (model 35)
And you can see from this angle how close it is popping out of the bracket.
It failed to start after being out of town a week, so I figured I might have left the dome light on or something and jumped it to get to work. It didn't start after work. It didn't even turn over at all. So I jumped it again, and on my way home the whole car shutoff as I was getting onto the highway. No blinkers, no dash lights, nothing. Had to get a tow home. Hurray for roadside assistance.
So for those of you Optima owners out there, be warned. They go from good to bad very quickly.
Now I am obviously a happy customer after 9 years and I go to Optima's site and use the battery selector. My old one was from the MX6, so I was not surprised that it was a different model number 35 instead of 34/78. Amazon also agreed this was the model for my car.
However, it arrived today, and I was surprised to see that the terminals are reversed. Annoying, but not a huge deal, as I can just turn the battery the other way and stretch my cables a bit. It would annoy me that the label is upside from the driver's side, but there are worse atrocities in the world. However, the battery is narrower than our bracket. I checked and model 34 is 6 7/8" wide, while the model they specify (and Amazon confirmed) is 6 3/4".
You wouldn't think an 1/8" would be a big deal, but with our very non-adjustable bracket, it does not fit snug and can rotate.
So now I have to make my own bracket or send it back and buy the 34. I am going to complain to Optima so hopefully, they pick up the shipping.
What model is everyone else using?
Here are the pics.
Old (model 34/78-OR)
New (model 35)
And you can see from this angle how close it is popping out of the bracket.
