Battery life.

Unclviny.....whoops....just read your post again...i was rushing out to get the tide for a spot of fishing...your stereo guy is CORRECT!!!!:redface:
I have an MY05 Forester and the alternator is rated at 90amps.
We don't get an option of anything else here in OZ. Doesn't appear we need anything bigger though.
I was talking to my mate a last night about the yellow Optima he had and he said it was a complete dud. This was a few years ago but it doesn't take much searching to dig up some bad reviews about them.
Now for the coffee!!:lol:
 
No worries,

Did you catch anything?

Optima NEVER had quality issues until the company changed hands but since the ownership-change they seem to have gone downhill HARD (and that's too bad).

The bigger output Alternator is (I think) the WRX/STI one that I have been told is physically the same as the Forrie unit (but it is expensive).

No Starbucks, only "real" Coffee!

Unclviny
 
I bought an Optima Red Top back in 2001 for my 2001 RX Liberty and transferred it into the Forester in July 2003 and it died last year.

I wanted to replace it with another but after hearing of the company changing hands along with the decline in the quality area then the moving of the factory to Mexico was just too much on the negative side of the ledger for me to consider buying another.
Bloody shame really as I liked that "no worries" battery, it never ever let us down once, the only reason I replaced it was because during Winter it started to take 2 -3 cranks to get the engine fired up whereas normally it was just the one crank under any circumstance.
 
Sooo...after a bit of mucking around at the battery place and then the auto elec we were a bit confused.
The battery is a 610cca capacity and was holding about 600 but the charge going in was only a bit over 12v until it was hit with a bit of a load. Just turning the parkers on was enough to jump it up to around 13.5v and when they were turned of it would drop back to a steady 12v.
The 'eye' did change to red so it does work.
So i went around to the auto elec and it did exactly the same thing but he mentioned that he was not sure if it was a 'computer controlled' alternator so i headed off to the local Subaru dealer and got a really helpful service guy and he said that it is doing exactly what they do.
It is a computer controlled alternator and as soon as it senses a load it jumps into action.
It does appear that the CD player is not enough of a load for it though as i almost always have it on.
The battery must have lost some charge so drive around with the headlights on to get it topped up and all will be good.
He did say that generally the Mitsibishi alternators were pretty bullet proof.
So at the moment it appers the old battery did die of old age and the new one needs a bit of time to come up to full charge.
Opinions????
 
sonds really weird!! wouldnt have thought it'd work like that. the alternator would cut in when the voltage drops below say 12.3 volts the the alternator cuts in.
 
I guess it sort of makes sense. It's just maintaining everything and why work if you don't have too?
Still....i've done 3 30 min trips with the lights on and the 'eye' has not gone green to indicate a full charge. It starts ok and if a charge was not going in i suppose i wouldn't be going anywhere.
I'll keep a watch on it and if nothing happens i will go back to Subaru and get them to check the alternator and take it from there.
 
Like a few others have commented, the Supercharge batteries (in Aus) seem to be good value and last pretty well for a standard wet cell type battery. I guess if you are going for a heavy duty deep cycle or gel type battery, then the comments on Optima etc. are interesting.

One of my vehicles would have trouble keeping the battery viewport green, and it would often stay in the clear/white level. Replaced the vehicle side terminals, and that fixed it, even though they seemed to be tight and OK!

I had a Fullriver gel battery for my fridge in a portable battery carrier - lasted about 4 years with very heavy use with deep discharges (not good for a gel battery, but couldn't be avoided). I was happy with that.
 
All is good with mine now. A couple of longer trips with the lights on and it's gone to green. Also had my alternator checked when i got the new rear springs done and according to Subaru it's running perfect. 13.9volts.:)
 
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