Was wondering if anyone had tried a Bosch auto battery? Pep boys has one to fit my 300sd for $89. with a 96 month warranty.

My autozone battery quit today. Left the lights on for an hour and she was dead. Have noticed the battery light staying on longer after starting lately. I put on an alternator last year.

So I just figured I would get a new one. The MB battery is $116 with a 2 year free replacement. Which one would you get?

The dummy at the MB parts counter went and looked at the battery to see for me what the CCA was on the thing and came back and said 100amps. I said that would not start my car. He said it would and came back and said that all it said was 100amps. Is this guy and idiot?

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1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

Must be, the OE battery doesn't really have any markings on it. I couldn't find where is states cranking amps or anything like that.

Since I have an Autozone in the SD and an OE in the SDL I can compare them. Both work fine, if you don't want to spend the money buy the Autozone.

However the OE cranks like crazy when it is below zero and seems to have a little more kick. Plus it looks better under the hood, imho.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Beware Pud Boys "warranties". You may find yourself with a so-so battery when new, which holds just enough charge after 3 years that it doesn't quite qualify to give you $50 toward a new battery (which is now $120), etc.etc.

If you want a great battery, get an Interstate.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

autozone batteries in the last 60 days. don't say such stuff.

i was looking thru the ************** 75 mph tips and he suggests an optima. it is supposed to:
1. produce more cranking power
2. hold their charge forever
3 do not gas out causing corrosion to the bat tray.

they are taller than conventional batteries and require longer leads and you must fabricate a cover to prevent the posts from from shorting out.

i just called sears and there is no optima for the mb do the closest is a marine battery. 750 amps, 135 red. blue and yellow 170 bucks.

a buddy just took back a farm and fleet battery used in a gasser and got a replacement no charge....however this was a 22 month old battery. wife has lots of battery juice draining options like remote locks and leaves the lights on auto shut off
but to directly answer your question. no.

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currently
[1981 300 td tdidi 165500 dark brown/palamino-Brownie-mine-3k miles of ownership
1983 240d 162+++ Anthricite grey w/ henna red interior and hella lights-wifes car-Red

the above two cars are for sale
and can be seen on the cars for sale thread here. pix also available.


240d-144+ Manilla Yellow w/ palmino interior-greasecar kit-Blondie-the college kids car

23" gt 21 speed still on original tires-still got the nubs
21" khs tandem

The guy from Bosch just called me back. He said they do not produce their own batteries. They said they just let Autozone, Pep Boys, etc just put their name on the battery.

This answers my question. It's off to the dealer I go.

Thanks.

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1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

Yep. My experience with Bosch battery was it broke in 2 years and it looked exactly like the Duralast I replaced it with. The Duralast came with a longer warranty. I no longer regard new Bosch branded stuff as good. Except for maybe fuel injection stuff, i bet it is just cheap crap with their name on it.

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What Would Rudolph Do?
1975 300D, 1975 240D, 1985 300SD, 1997 300D, 2005 E320 , 2006 Toyota Prius

Battery for your Diesel
Battery for your Diesel

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1985 300SD
1983 300D
1984 190D
2003 Volvo V70
2002 Honda Civic

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do your self a favor and never put an optima in any car. they are crap.
1. they do not produce more power than the 49 series
2.they do not hold their charge forever and if you let it go dead it will never charge the same.
3.they do leak, i have seen it several times.
4.they are over priced and you buy a oe battery for around the same price.
5. the guy that runs ************** does not know what he is talking about

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

If you have an industiral battery store near-by, see if they have any group 49's there. I bought mine at a place called Allied Batteries, and it was some battery made in Korea, but that thing would crank forever when cold...

We've had good luck with Die-Hard "International" batteries.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Well, I went to the stealership and got the Benz battery. It is a 100amp battery. It is definitely a different battery than the past autozone or even Sears Die Hard. With both those batteries it used to take my glow plugs FOREVER to cycle.

Now it only takes less than two seconds. I am amazed. I used to have to wait and wait and wait for them to cycle for what seemed like eternity.

Seriously. It is only about one second to maybe two now with the new Mercedes battery. What a difference.

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1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

I think any of the batteries made by Johnson Controls are good. I have "Energizers" in both my cars now - the biggest sizes that will fit the battery trays. Have had no problems at all so far with those. I had an Eveready battery in my Ford Explorer for about 8 years. It never had problems and was still working fine when removed, but I figured it was a good idea to get a new one by that time! In contrast: The original Motorcraft battery lasted only a few years before it stopped holding a charge.

I hear it's also a good idea to replace, and even upgrade the battery cables to a larger gauge. I haven't done that yet but plan to, eventually.

-AC
'76 240D "Katja"
'92 Ford Explorer "Dora"

My 87 300D had a new Bosch battery when I bought it. Since I plan on selling the car I swapped batteries with my 230CE and that battery sure fills the tray in the 230CE. It really looks nice plus it turns the engine over and starts instantly. I put the old Interstate from the 230CE into the 300D and it works fine. I think its only a group 24 or something like it. It seems to have plenty of CCA's.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I have a new Duralast battery in my 240D. It works alot better than the old DieHard I used to have.

My brother was an engineer with a Johnson Controls battery manufacturing plant once. They would make a run of battery cases for JC Penny one day and Monkey Wards or Sears the next. They all used the same materials, just a little difference in the amount of room at the bottom where sludge accumulates (when enough accumulates to touch the bottom of the plates the cell is shorted and you throw the battery away). An offroad battery has more room at the bottom and stiffer separators therefore less amperage because the plates in an offroad battery are smaller for the same case size as a regular car battery.
He said several manufacturers sold basically the same battery with different warranties.
What you DON'T want is an Exide made battery. They use inferior materials, and have been proven to be junk conmpared to Johnson Controls. I believe I heard that Interstate uses the same materials as Johnson Controls but I can't confirm that. Interstate has a good distributiuon system though, you can exercise a warranty on one in more places than you can almost any battery.

The OE battery I have is fine, it came with the car and I noted it was made in Spain.
Contrary to what katja said, I have had good results with Motorcraft group 49 batteries, over 6 years and they die gracefully.

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!