I have a 2003 Accent and am having battery problems. Basically, the car was struggling to turn over and now won't start. I was able to jump start it to get it going thank goodness.
The problem is the battery problem occured at around 6PM on a Friday Night, after the dealership closed. I went to 2 places and called 3 more, and was told they either didn't carry a battery for the car or it had to be special ordered. The fact I only got a little over 2 years out of the battery doesn't give me much confidence in Hyundai's batteries either.
My wife has a 2002 Accent and was able to find a new battery without a problem, but I wasn't. I have never in my life had this problem with finding a battery.
It's really frustrating that I may have to do without a car for the weekend over something as simple and common as a battery.
I wonder if anyone else has experienced anything like this?
Before you replace it, have you checked the fluid levels? Contrary to what battery ads may say, there is no such thing as a "maintenance free" battery, unless you want to replace your battery frequently and unnecessarily. Pop the caps and if the fluid levels are low, top them off with DISTILLED water, which is available at supermarkets and drug stores.
Battery life will depend a lot on the climate you live in and the way the battery is treated. Hot climates kill batteries pretty quickly. Allowing the battery to fully discharge (by leaving your lights on accidently, etc.) will damage a battery and shorten its life.
Go to Sears; they're bound to have a battery that will work and it's easy to find a store when you need a new battery. There's nothing special about Hyundai batteries and I would certainly not bother to try to find an OEM replacement.
We've had a pretty hot summer down here in south Louisiana this year, which might be part of the problem. I do check the fluids on my battery and they are OK right now. The only problem is a couple of times, the car had a hard time starting up so I figured the battery was going, I just hoped it would hold out a little longer.
I've tried Autozone, PepBoys, Adavance Auto Parts, O'Reilly, Carquest(2 locations) and WalMart to no avail. I just find it strange a battery would be so hard to replace. I've had bad luck with Sears batteries over the years, as has the rest of my family, so we quit using them since they never last more than a year is seems.
My last car, a Ford Escort, had the factory battery(Motorcraft) in it for 5 years and never a problem and when it finally went, AutoZone had a new one. Never seen anything like what I've experienced trying to get a battery for this Hyundai.
Fortunately, the dealer is open today and they have one in stock, for $75. Might be my only option.
I was able to get a battery finally, and cheaper than I expected. I got it from Carquest. They were more knowlegable than the other places.
There were 2 problems I had when trying to find this battery. One was the places I went to didn't have it in the computer and since it wasn't in the computer, they insisted they couldn't supply it. The other was the hot terminal has a different connector than one would expect. It basically fits over the entire battery post, instead of just around it. These other places insisted that was a proprietary terminal and they couldn't supply the battery for it.
The guy from Carquest looked at it and said it shouldn't be a problem and it turned out he was right. I've got the new battery and it works fine. From now on, I plan to avoid Autozone, Pep Boys, and Advanced Auto Parts and stick with Carquest.
Glad this little ordeal is finally over, but I still think the original battery should have lasted more than 2 years.
That's why when I need a battery, I take it into the store. compare it with what they have and buy one that's as close to identical as possible. It eliminates the BS about whether it's in their list or not.
FWIW, I've heard that Hyundai had problems with the batteries they used in '01-'03 cars. Early failures like yours were not uncommon. Supposedly, they switched suppliers in '04.
That's a good way to do it to eliminate that problem. The only downside to that is at Autozone and these other places, they have a diagnostic machine they can connect up to the vehicle to see if the problem is indeed the battery and not the alternator or something else. Even though the car is only 2 years old and an alternator failure is unlikely, I wanted them to put the car on the diagnostic machine so I'd know for sure. If there was a cheap machine that does something similar I could buy to keep here at home, I'd probably get one for that reason.
I mentioned before, I talked to the service manager at the local Hyundai dealership. He has done work on my wife's 2002 Accent, and he told me it was a common battery and if they just took a look at it, meaured it, etc., they'd probably have something else in stock that would work. If I had gone to the dealership to have the battery installed, it would have cost around $110 which to me was out of line but expected, since dealerships like to gouge.
Like I also said before, these other places don't usually hire car people, they hire salespeople, who don't know much about the product and take the position "if it's not in the computer, we don't have it." When I took the old battery back to Carquest for my core credit, the man who sold me the first battery asked me if it worked and when I told him it did, he started telling the supervisor about how these other places insisted they couldn't sell me a battery that would work because of the unusual connector. Both of them got a laugh out of the ignorance of these other places, as did I, but it still wasn't funny what I had to go through just to get a battery.
I read something similar in thie newsgroup when I ran a search on Google Groups about Hyundai batteries. I found some posts from a year or so ago saying there were alot of battery failures from that vintage occuring. The Carquest battery I bought has a 60 month warranty on it, hopefully it will last near that long.
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