I thought I would update my battery experience since I posted on this thread earlier. For decades I have always been a proponent of Interstate batteries and that's all I've ever used in my ERA. Specifically, it was the Interstate Megatron II Group 47/H5 and originally it had a
75 month warranty and was generally good for seven years or more. That's a moderately big deal because changing the battery out in a late model ERA requires a bit of work while not dropping or losing the ten button head cap screws or rupturing your back wiggling the battery out of that wheel well. Specifically, you have to:
1) Remove the front passenger wheel and the four lower horizontal button head cap screws from the bottom of the wheel well access panel.
2) Remove the two lower shorter button head cap screws from the vertical side of the panel and a third longer cap screw at the very top.
3) From inside the engine bay, remove three more button head cap screws on the engine side of the access panel. Then ease the panel out towards the front of the car without ripping the the black ventilation duct tube.
4) Unbolt and remove the negative battery cut-off switch from the battery terminal. Disconnect the positive battery cable at the solenoid.
5) Remove the single hold down nut from the threaded tap. Years ago I added a threaded tap from underneath the tray as it made putting the clamp back on easier with just a nut.
6) Pull that 30 pound battery out through the wheel well with the positive cable still attached to it while not dropping it on your foot in the process.
7) Reverse the steps with the new battery.
It used to take me about an hour and a half to do the job. Then a little over two hours. This time we're going on three hours....
But the reason I'm posting this update is so you don't make the same mistake I did, which was not noticing that the Interstate MT battery that used to have a 75 month warranty now only had a
24 month warranty and ended up going completely dead in my garage after four years. Somewhere in the last ten years or so Interstate took what was the top of the line battery and downgraded it to where it was the lowest quality battery but kept the exact same name... and I never noticed (even though it is clearly printed on the battery). In 2012 I paid $125 for the super high-quality Interstate. In 2020 I paid $165 for the lowest quality.
So, I replaced it with an Interstate MTZ AGM battery... top of the line at $400, thank you very much for that screwing. At least it has a 48 month warranty, which should get me a safe five years. By that time, it'll probably take me six hours to do the replacement.
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Interstate Battery Update
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