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Battery Deka or OEM Subaru
Reviews
Yes and you can go the route I suggested earlier, with a Group 47 AGM , Deka brand. I paid $135 for mine 4 years ago at Battery Mart. Fit is good, just add a wedge under the battery hold clamp. Cannot leak acid due to the design. I run diesel farm tractors, too. AGM's are the only batteries I can get a decent life from due to the vibration. The extra capacity over the standard lead acid batteries is great for the cold morning diesel start. My point is that they are quite durable. An AGM for a Rabbit is not overkill when you consider the quality problems in regular lead-acid batteries these days.
Pros: durable, cannot leak acid
Cons: add a wedge
Vehicle:
Volkswagen
Part number: 47
I've always been a fan of Deka batteries, their ETX15 should be the correct battery.
Pros: good batteries
Part number: ETX15
Deka aka East Penn is the best battery manufacturer out there. They dont leak as much, they last typically 3-6 years depending on circumstances
Pros: best battery manufacturer
Cons: depends on circumstances
So we bought a new 550CCA battery and installed it and it started right up. When I pulled the 18 month old OEM battery out, I was shocked at the CCA rating: 356. 356!!!! That's insane.
Pros: car started right up
Cons: low CCA rating
Vehicle:
Subaru Outback
I'm using Deka. But it's a good choice. I haven't any problems with it.
Pros: good choice, no problems
Deka batteries are still good quality. They are somewhat harder to find than other brands.
Pros: good quality
Cons: harder to find
Just use a Deka ETX20L. I think they're 15 pounds or so and they're cheap and widely available. Mine seem to last about 2-3 years, although they usually die from me forgetting to turn the headlights off. I was able to recharge my last one using a wall charger and I squeezed another 6 months out of it before finally replacing it.
Pros: cheap, widely available
Cons: last about 2-3 years
Part number: ETX-20L
This happened to me during rush hour on a busy street! 2020 Legacy, they told me it was a known issue with the battery and replaced it for free. It was an incredibly stressful morning though.
Pros: replaced for free
Cons: stressful morning, known issue
Vehicle:
Subaru Legacy
I had this problem with my 2019 Forester in stop and go traffic on the Dallas North Tollway. I was able to force the car into park and shut it off and back on manually, and this happened about a half dozen more times before my dealer finally admitted that there was a class action on those batteries. I’ve since had it replaced two additional times under a labor warranty. Like I guess it’s fine because it’s free, but very annoying that I bought a Subaru for reliability and I’m in the shop at least every 9 months for a new battery.
Pros: replaced under warranty
Cons: repeated failures, annoying, frequent replacements
Vehicle:
Subaru Forester
The auto start/stop failed to start the car today while waiting in a left hand turn lane at a red light in traffic. Potentially dangerous situation for anyone. Fortunately the person behind me got out of his car and pushed my car across two traffic lanes to the right curb. The Subaru dealer told me last week when I had the 42k mile maintenance done that the battery was fine based on a battery test. I had specifically asked for the battery to be checked because the starts sounded weak. Now I’m back at the dealer after the failure incident and the diagnoses is a bad battery. It is not safe to have the car automatically shut down on the road when the battery does not have the power to auto start.
Cons: failed to start, weak starts, bad battery
Vehicle:
Subaru Legacy
Mileage: 67592 km
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