TL;DR

I was foolish to believe that paying a premium for a battery with a 5y guarantee would actually get me a battery that lasted 5y :(

Background

The original battery in my 2010 XC60 died after a little over 5y. I replaced it with an Exide EA852 from Tayna that lasted a bit over 4.7y, so a few months past its 4y guarantee.

It was Oct 2020, so still the midst of Covid craziness, and the XC60 was $wife’s daily driver and needed to be reliable. So I splashed out on a Halfords Yuasa battery with a 5y guarantee as I was able to collect it from the store a few miles away.

Fail, but the wrong sort

I got back from Florida last month to find a car that wouldn’t start, so I had to break out the booster pack. Even after a full charge it was only a few weeks until it failed again.

I got a Topdon battery tester that was telling me it needed replacement.

First visit to Halfords

I took the car to Halfords, and explained the situation then had to wait for somebody to do the test. Whilst waiting I saw this chart:

Hardly very confidence inspiring – essentially a list of reasons why they’ll wriggle out of providing a replacement. After some waiting around whilst they served other customers they attached a Yuasa branded testing machine which apparently reported the battery as OK.

“Did you charge the battery?” – well yes, I did, as I wanted the car to run. “Maybe bring it back next time it’s flat”.

Second visit to Halfords

I didn’t have to wait too long for the car to fail to start again. My tester was even more sure of the need to replace:

I jumped the car with the booster again and headed over to Halfords. Their tester also showed REPLACE, followed by Warranty Rejected.

I expressed my dissatisfaction with the situation – paying a premium for a 5y battery that hadn’t lasted 5y. But apparently I’d been holding it wrong, or driving it wrong, or something like that. The warranty only covers ‘manufacturing defects’ or ‘cell failures’, and a battery with a 5y guarantee isn’t actually guaranteed to last 5y.

Apparently I should put it on a smart charger every week or so, just like all the other perfectly normal people do all the time :/

I did not buy another battery from Halfords. They gave me a boost and I took the car home and ordered another Exide EA852. It was a nightmare to fit, as the bolt for the retaining bracket had rusted into the captive nut in the battery box :( I guess it’s going to be 4.7(ish) years until I need to deal with this stuff again (assuming I keep the car that long).