I finally took the original battery out of my '00 300M tonight.

I was at the point of giving the original battery in my year-2000 300m an over-night boost with a battery charger about once every week for the past month, and noticing that the engine wasn't turning over with the same pep that it should.

I'm sure this god-damn heat we've had this summer hasn't helped.

I really wanted for it to go another 2 months - when it would be 12 years old.

And now I discover that the electrical cord under the hood that I've been using on some of those cold winter nights is actually connected to a 70-watt battery warmer/blanket - not a block heater.

I'll get a new battery tommorrow. I'll clean up this old one and take some pictures of it before it goes to the recycler. I'll try to get a build-date and manufacturer from it.

Reply to
MoPar Man
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Living on the Oregon coast close to Newport area, which has a narrow temperature range (38 to 70), my 2001 PT is still on its first/original battery. I did have to clean corrosion off one of the terminals a few weeks ago. Nearest "competitive" priced Chrysler dealers is about 70 miles away (one way). Local dealer (phased out Chrysler a few years ago) and tried to get $40.00 for law/of/if from me. Albany (Oregon) dealer is still actively advertising and always has a "deal." will have to spend a day there soon, as the PT has 102,000+ miles on it.

5 speed and with miles of travel without lights or stops or traffic and getting into 5th within .25 miles from home, it gets 27 to 28 MPG consistently (still). h
Reply to
howard

Correction.

There appears to be a block heater AND battery heater.

The under-hood power cord goes to a connector along the front frame-rail. The other end of that connector goes to the battery heater as well as some other place near / under the engine (can't trace it easily).

Reply to
MoPar Man

There are only 2 or 3 battery manufacturers. Last time I checked, the Costco Kirkland brand was equivalent to the Sears Diehard Gold line, manufactured by Johnson Controls. The price was not equivalent, the Kirkland label was about $30 less than the Die Hard label. With either label, it is an excellent battery.

Reply to
Greg Houston

Correct. The "Cold Weather Group" package that you have contains both heaters. The block heater is a coil inside a frost plug, the battery heater keeps it nice and toasty for those cold morning starts. (Or those re-starts after spending 15 minutes parked in the power outlet equipped parking lot of the Fairbanks McDonalds.)

It does use quite a bit of juice though, check with a Kill-a-Watt or similar power meter. I'd recommend using a heavy duty timer to start

2-3 hours before you start the engine.
Reply to
Greg Houston

I'm in SW-Ontario (not somewhere way up north) and this "cold weather group" wasn't an option at the time I bought this car, so I'm assuming that all Canadian 300m's had this by default.

This battery heater says that it's 70 watts.

I put in a new battery yesterday, and I did not re-install the battery heater. This car has been kept in an insulated garage every evening for it's entire life. It's probably spent less than 100 winter nights outside overnight over the past 12 years (probably more like 25 to 50 nights) and this will continue for the forseeable future. The garage has a small heater and the temp never goes below 45f during the coldest winter nights. So I really have no use for a battery heater.

I have plugged this cable in maybe a few dozen times to keep the engine warm in my garage overnight, and I'll keep doing this when-ever I feel like it, but like I said above I don't need to be heating the battery at the same time.

Reply to
MoPar Man

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