Best Battery for P5?

[mualan]

So I bought the Optima Red Top at Advance Auto Parts (kind of a hassle due to long wait times and having to drive to another location out of my way). I ended up installing it myself. But it was all worth it since the car jumps to life now, instead of slowly sputtering awake.

Question to anyone with a Protege5 and one of these Optima batteries: How do you secure the Optima battery? The old plastic battery harness doesn't really fit right and the metal bar the secures it is now too high (since the Optima sits lower). Interestingly though, I have this pic that I took at a car show awhile back... it shows an Optima blue top in a Pro5 engine bay, but somehow the black metal bar fits fine over the top of it. I have no idea how they did this with the stock metal bar...

-mualan

 

[rednecks_r_us]

I have a red top Optima in my 92 Dakota. Its been in there since 1998 and I run 700 watts of KC lights.

I have a red top Optima in my 1966 Mustang

I have a red top Optima in my 03 P5.

My red top came with a plastic perch that raised it up an inch. Then I took raw flat steel and bent it as needed. Drilled mounting holes and grinded the edges as needed then painted it laser blue.

 

[Bala]

So I bought the Optima Red Top at Advance Auto Parts (kind of a hassle due to long wait times and having to drive to another location out of my way). I ended up installing it myself. But it was all worth it since the car jumps to life now, instead of slowly sputtering awake.

Question to anyone with a Protege5 and one of these Optima batteries: How do you secure the Optima battery? The old plastic battery harness doesn't really fit right and the metal bar the secures it is now too high (since the Optima sits lower). Interestingly though, I have this pic that I took at a car show awhile back... it shows an Optima blue top in a Pro5 engine bay, but somehow the black metal bar fits fine over the top of it. I have no idea how they did this with the stock metal bar...

-mualan

I can see that the "battery stop" nearest the strut is not touching the battery in this shot, so the bracket is just bent down. A better solution is to use the riser that comes with / is available for the Optima. Another option is to mod the oem bracket by cutting it like this:

Or head over to ebay and search with "billet optima", all sorts of cool mounting brackets are available. Be warned that these brackets can cost as much as the battery - here's a shot of mine:

 

[neuspeed_junker]

my original battery is still good

 

[Ramos]

Well I have an Optima red and it works great! And well I actually used the factory cover box with it. Heres a picture of it installed.

 

[mogi]

First of all, the stock battery is servicable, you can top it off with water if it is looking low. That being said, Optima is over priced unless you are into an expensive ass power draining stereo. I'd recommend going with a solid, affordable Diehard Gold series battery from Sears. Great warranty, decent price, and excellent performance (even in the nasty winters here in Wisconsin).

Unless you want to go for looks or just throw your money away on an Optima, Diehard Gold is where it's at.

 

[rednecks_r_us]

First of all, the stock battery is servicable, you can top it off with water if it is looking low. That being said, Optima is over priced unless you are into an expensive ass power draining stereo. I'd recommend going with a solid, affordable Diehard Gold series battery from Sears. Great warranty, decent price, and excellent performance (even in the nasty winters here in Wisconsin).

Unless you want to go for looks or just throw your money away on an Optima, Diehard Gold is where it's at.

I paid $99 for my first 2 and the 3rd one was $125. The first one I have been running in my truck since 1998 when I took it out of my Jeep before selling it.

 

[Joey Hoser]

I work as an industrial battery tech and our place sells car batteries too. And I can tell you that as long as you don't buy an Exide it doesn't matter. The more CCA the better, but if it's warm all year round where you live or you don't have a big stereo, don't worry about it. A car battery is a car battery.

 

[badboyeee]

First of all, the stock battery is servicable, you can top it off with water if it is looking low. That being said, Optima is over priced unless you are into an expensive ass power draining stereo. I'd recommend going with a solid, affordable Diehard Gold series battery from Sears. Great warranty, decent price, and excellent performance (even in the nasty winters here in Wisconsin).

Unless you want to go for looks or just throw your money away on an Optima, Diehard Gold is where it's at.

i have the stock battery still. i had to jump start it last nite but seems ok today. but i was wondering if u can give more info about he stock battery being "servicable." Do I need to fill water in all those 6? screws?

 

[qualityrockola]

I used to be a part of the school of the redtop. The only thing that really separates it from most other batteries for me is its three year free replacement. There are other, cheaper batteries with similar CCAs and more (i think) RC than the optima, and still include a three year free replacement warranty. So far Ive had good luck with gold duralast batteries from autozone. The optima deep cycles seem to be better than conventional deep cycles, but they do not have the three year warranty.

Optima batteries are good batteries definately, but for me theyre not worth the money.

 

[mogi]

i have the stock battery still. i had to jump start it last nite but seems ok today. but i was wondering if u can give more info about he stock battery being "servicable." Do I need to fill water in all those 6? screws?

There should be directions on the battery casing if I recall. Basically, you just added distilled water to the fill line if it is looking low. I'd also recommend putting it on a charger after doing this, to top it off. Just look for the directions on the battery and follow them.

I never bothered with mine, as I live in a cold climate for a hunk of the year and wanted something with more reliable cold starts.