My friend's 2002 Daewoo Lanos was not starting.
So, I went over to his house to jump start it. The car started right up. The battery was an older Duralast model, so I advised him to replace the battery regardless.
For curiosity, I took the battery out of the car and drove to the O'Reilly's down the street. They tested the battery and deemed it to be toast. Not surprised. They then tried to sell me their Super Start Extreme battery for $93. I asked the counter guy what the free replacement period was, and he said two years.
I remembered that Sears sells a Diehard Gold in this size (Group 86) that carries a free replacement period of three years, but for the same price. So, I drove over to Sears and bought the battery.
When I got back to his house to install the battery, I discovered that the near 2" wide OE battery holddown would not fit on this Diehard Gold. Why? Because the Diehard Gold has raised vented caps, and the space between the two caps cannot fit such a wide holddown. Or at least it won't hold the battery tightly...you get the idea.
My plan was to return the Diehard and buy the O'Reilly's battery since I remember it being completely sealed with no vent caps. Super frustrated, I drove back to Sears to tell them that their battery doesn't fit, and that there's something wrong with the layout of the vent caps for this application.
The sales guy and I decided to compare the layout of the new battery versus the old one. We measured the gap between the raised vent caps on both batteries and found them to be the same. So, how did the "bad battery" fit in the car all this time? I suddenly remembered that gooey piece of rubber/newspaper that was stuck to the back of the battery tiedown-- the last installer had used a piece of rubber/newspaper and stuffed it in the gap between the two raised vent caps in order to create a level surface for the tiedown! In other words, it got the job done, but it didn't secure the battery too well.
After returning the battery (and making a fool of myself), I went to O'Reilly and bought their Super Start Extreme battery. As it turns out, this battery actually carries a three-year free replacement period. It even has more CCA-- 640 vs. 525 for the Diehard. The store manager also threw in a little discount to make me happy. The install went fine, but the terminal protectors would not fit due to the built-in plastic protectors on the OE Daewoo terminals, so I wasted $1. The positive terminal was also slightly cracked, but it still fit the terminal tightly enough so I left it alone. The car now starts up very quickly.
Now, here's the question. This Super Start Extreme battery does not say it is manufactured by DEKA. In fact, it is Made in Korea. On the O'Reilly website, it shows that the "east coast" version of this particular battery has 720CCA while the west coast version has 640CCA. DEKA's website shows a 720CCA model available for this Group size. So, I'm not certain that DEKA makes the west coast version of the Super Start Extreme. I don't know if it's Johnson Controls either, as the Johnson Control Diehard Gold has raised vent caps (the Super Start Extreme is completely sealed with no caps) and only 525CCA. The AutoZone battery has the same amount of CCA as the Super Start Extreme, but I can't tell from the picture if it has raised vent caps. So, does anyone know who makes the Super Start Extreme for the west coast?
So, I went over to his house to jump start it. The car started right up. The battery was an older Duralast model, so I advised him to replace the battery regardless.
For curiosity, I took the battery out of the car and drove to the O'Reilly's down the street. They tested the battery and deemed it to be toast. Not surprised. They then tried to sell me their Super Start Extreme battery for $93. I asked the counter guy what the free replacement period was, and he said two years.
I remembered that Sears sells a Diehard Gold in this size (Group 86) that carries a free replacement period of three years, but for the same price. So, I drove over to Sears and bought the battery.
When I got back to his house to install the battery, I discovered that the near 2" wide OE battery holddown would not fit on this Diehard Gold. Why? Because the Diehard Gold has raised vented caps, and the space between the two caps cannot fit such a wide holddown. Or at least it won't hold the battery tightly...you get the idea.
My plan was to return the Diehard and buy the O'Reilly's battery since I remember it being completely sealed with no vent caps. Super frustrated, I drove back to Sears to tell them that their battery doesn't fit, and that there's something wrong with the layout of the vent caps for this application.
The sales guy and I decided to compare the layout of the new battery versus the old one. We measured the gap between the raised vent caps on both batteries and found them to be the same. So, how did the "bad battery" fit in the car all this time? I suddenly remembered that gooey piece of rubber/newspaper that was stuck to the back of the battery tiedown-- the last installer had used a piece of rubber/newspaper and stuffed it in the gap between the two raised vent caps in order to create a level surface for the tiedown! In other words, it got the job done, but it didn't secure the battery too well.
After returning the battery (and making a fool of myself), I went to O'Reilly and bought their Super Start Extreme battery. As it turns out, this battery actually carries a three-year free replacement period. It even has more CCA-- 640 vs. 525 for the Diehard. The store manager also threw in a little discount to make me happy. The install went fine, but the terminal protectors would not fit due to the built-in plastic protectors on the OE Daewoo terminals, so I wasted $1. The positive terminal was also slightly cracked, but it still fit the terminal tightly enough so I left it alone. The car now starts up very quickly.
Now, here's the question. This Super Start Extreme battery does not say it is manufactured by DEKA. In fact, it is Made in Korea. On the O'Reilly website, it shows that the "east coast" version of this particular battery has 720CCA while the west coast version has 640CCA. DEKA's website shows a 720CCA model available for this Group size. So, I'm not certain that DEKA makes the west coast version of the Super Start Extreme. I don't know if it's Johnson Controls either, as the Johnson Control Diehard Gold has raised vent caps (the Super Start Extreme is completely sealed with no caps) and only 525CCA. The AutoZone battery has the same amount of CCA as the Super Start Extreme, but I can't tell from the picture if it has raised vent caps. So, does anyone know who makes the Super Start Extreme for the west coast?
