Toyota Truestart batteries

I have had excellent service from the Weatherhandler series here in Florida. 80 months out of my last one.

Sears screwd me on my only sears battery I will ever purchase again. I jumped my truck a few times went to sears, and they pulled it out and fast charged it, it died again, they refused to load test it or check anything and refused the warranty. I took it to a repair shop and it had a bad cell and failed a load test.

Hi All, Well I can go a bit better than 5 winters.

I bought a new 2.2 ltr Auto CAMRY ...Sept 1995. And I am still on the original battery. 9 years and 6 months later. Car is used every day.

Like you I have never had one last this long. Each day I expect it to just decide to pass into battery heaven.

I for one am amazed at its long life. Anyone else had this kind of life from the original battery supplied with the car.

Of course tomorrow now I have said this it will die lol.

cheers Johnny UK.

Not exactly. You did not get a offer from Toyota. It was from a dealer, or a group of dealers in your metropolitan area.

You should check out the CCA rating of the battery, which is especially important in cold areas. Go to your library and find a Consumers Report issue that deals with batteries so you will know what things to look for in a battery.

One of the biggest problems when shopping for a battery for a Camry is that there are few premium batteries that exactly fit the OEM size (24F). Many premium batteries such as Diehard use the next smaller battery size to fit in the compartment, which means you are giving up some CCA's compared to an exact fit 24F..

Does anyone know if TrueStart batteries are their own brand or made by a major battery manufacturer?

Truestart batteries are made by Johnson Controls (makers of Diehards, Duralast, Energizer, Everstart, Motorcraft, and Pep Boys Prostart, among others).

Motorcraft? Does this mean they are the same as Ford batteries? Gasp!

I would guess that each brand may be of different construction depending on what the brand owner wanted. But they use the same manufacturing line(s).

Sears did not re install the battery hold down correctly on my Toyota years ago. Had to go back to get the parts they left out. I pay more but let the dealer replace my battery.

There are only about 3-4 auto battery manufacturers in North America. Batteries are made to the specifications of the company that sells it under their own brand name. Battery technology is not rocket science, it just depends on how much money the distributor wants to spend on the battery manufacturing, and not who actually makes it.

The retail cost of a battery is the sum of the manufacturing costs, distribution and marketing, and retail mark-up. Given the mark-up that dealers have on other products (like motor oil, plugs, etc), one should be very careful about understanding the specs of the battery they purchase at a dealer.

Everything we all wanted to know about batteries is in this very useful website below, including who makes batteries for which store or brand name. As posted, Johnson Controls makes many familiar brands, all to the brands' own specs, of course. It would be hard to conclude that one brand is the same as another, just because they are made in a Johnson factory. Optima Yellow Top, one of the very best -- and American Hardware's house brand, for example -- are both made to spec by Johnson. Enjoy the site:

Camry.

battery

I had my ford ranger 1994 up here in cold canada and haven changed the battery yet. that is now what 11 years.

Shane wrote: || I had my ford ranger 1994 up here in cold canada and haven changed || the battery yet. that is now what 11 years.

This is a FUCKING Toyota ng. I, for one, do not give a pinch of coon shit about Ford crap.