Roll call on Batteries for your diesel: Also, I'm looking for a good battery for a 300 SDL, any suggestions for brand and type?

Whatever Autozone sells for ~$60 works for me but our winter starting conditions are 40F at worst.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Interstate batteries have been very good for me

I've had three of them,(in different benz's) and I would rate their battery's as pretty reliable, at least for a diesel benz. The model they make for the benz diesels have a 900+ CCA, which helps out in the winter...

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240_Dizzell

74 240D Auto,Beige (Totaled)
82 240D 4-Speed Manual,Gray (Retired) 260,000
97 E300 D Auto, Blue (Current) 240,000
05 E320 CDI Auto,TITANITE RED (Current) 158,000

The big interstate. Batteries are one of the few things I'll spend up on.

i have a duralast silver series battery and it works great so far. i had it all winter (even though az winters arnt that cold) and it workes just fine. ive had it for about a year and it still works as good as new.

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have no worries.....President Obama swears "If you like your gun, you can keep it

Depending on how long you plan on keeping your Benz, if less than five years, buy a middle of the road battery for say 60 or 70 bucks that has high cold cranking amp hours. I never looked to see what my Diehard International specs out to, I'll look tomorrow.

Few people keep cars much past five years on average, but my guess is that people that own older Benzs are an exception to that rule and may keep them far longer. If so, I would consider spending $175. and buy a ROLLS battery of sufficiant size and amp hour output. These batteries can last upwards from 10 years, and I've known several to go beyond 15 years, a few 20 years.

These ROLLS batteries compaired with the defunct SURRETT battery company. Surrett batteries were the finest money could buy, but Surrett I believe went out of business many years ago. Rolls as far as I know, is the only superior quality battery available, better known to the marine business and Electric golf carts. Rolls starting type batteries act like deep cycle batteries but because they have more lead, they have more capacity similar to deep cycle battery. These batteries hold out cranking amps far longer than the average battery and are ideal for diesels!

I mention ROLLS because they will almost never let you down, and if you keep your Benz a long time, it may be cheaper in the long run.

Back in the late 60's, a friend worked at a US AIR FORCE Base near by and was a jet fighter mechanic. When the batteries aboard these jet aircraft reached a predetermined service life, they were replaced with new. My friend had kept a few of the old batteries and sneaked them off the base to home! One of these batteries was a 12-volt battery. What comes to mind was the casings on these batteries, we had never seen a clear plastic battery casing before, you could see everything inside them including a built in gauge to show specific gravity! Wonder what those had cost?

My friend put one of these batteries in the early sixties OLDSMOBILE Holiday 88, big V-8! He proceeded to crank and crank for a very long time trying to get it to start. We were all amazed how long that engine cranked and never slowed a bit in all that cranking (an hour or more) trying to start it. We were amazed! None of us had ever seen a battery last like this before! Any other battery would have been dead long before, yet this battery continued not sweating a drop and never lost it's punch! It was apparent to us back then that the US AIR FORCE had access to a technology that was not known, or available outside the government!

Just a quick mention about another observation while on the subject. While I lived briefly on a farm, I say briefly because the marriage didn't last, I had a amongst other farm macines, I had a 66 Ford F-600 gas dump. The rear tires were Korean vintage army truck tires dated 1952. These tires have been on that dump for more than 25 years and exposed to the eliments yet the rubber on these tires, evan half deflated for years, there are no cracks anywhere in the rubber and the rubber is a s plyable as though it were new yesterday!

I got on a role here but I thought it would be interesting to share this! Funny how these technologies were never made available to the people my guess, I wonder how many other similar technologies available only to the government.

I'm with Sixto on this.

The $60.00 Autozone Duralast battery cannot be beat. If it lasts six years and you get a brand new one at that time, you are still way ahead of the game as compared to batteries costing upwards of $100.

Additionally, the $100 battery might last 10 years, however, its last few years will be marginal in cold weather. Far better to buy the $60. battery and keep it six years and get a new one. I believe that it has a seven year warranty on it so, clearly, it is not a battery that is likely to go less than five.

I agree with Sixto on the AutoZone/Duralast battery as well. That's all I have ever used in my cars and have been very pleased with the value.

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TXBill



Former owner of a few diesel MB cars
1998 Lexus ES 300 In Chicago We Trust

I just put the biggest big@ss battery that will fit.

I've got Delco batteries in the 300CD and 240D.

Trojan group 94 battery, around $86 at an industrial battery store...

I bought an OE battery for the SDL and it cranks like crazy, and I have yet to run it down when I was cranking. I have done a lot of cranking. Their was an Autozone battery in it when I got the car and it leaked acid all over and ruined the paint under the tray. I would buy an Intersate to their good batterys, but the OE was $105 or $115 and the Intetstate was $90, but I wanted the OE look and was willing to pay. I know of two 10 year old OE battery's that are still going strong.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I spoke with a batter rep. a while back and he told me that there are basically only 4 battery manufacturers in the States. Some batteries cost more and some cost less but in the long run there really isn't much difference. He said that everyone has a story about a battery lasting 20 years and some may but on the average if you get 5+years out of one, esp. in severe (either very cold or very hot) conditions you are doing pretty well.

Diesel batteries: He said the trick here is not to get one that has a lot of CCA in a relatively small case. If a normal battery has say 750 CCA and you find one the same size that has 1100 CCA don't buy it. The problem comes in that to get that extra power they put in more plates. To get more plates in the same size cast they make them thinner and put them closer together. The thinner they are the quicker they will warp under high amp discharges. The closer the plates the easier they ground out on each other and the harder it is for them to stay cool. He said that heat is the fastest killer of a battery.

The best bet is to buy a reasonable quality battery that has low to medium CCA for the case size. Keep the terminals clean, the cables in good repair, the connections clean and tight, the electrolite full, and don't over stress it will long cranking.

I cant imagine why anybody would put a dinky size battery in a car that's got more than 350 lbs. compression in the cylinders.

Go directly to the end of the shelf and pick out the biggest, meanest and baddest battery in the store. Dont even bother negotiating - just tell the guy you want the ballsiest battery on the rack.

Parts shops that dont know diesels will get squeemish and try to pass off a regular sized automobile battery.... but dont ever settle for anything less than the gorrilla battery - you will know it when you see it.

And anything under 900 amps is probably inadequate...... that's about where I'd draw the line.

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Last edited by 300SDog; 09-04-2004 at 08:32 PM.