Which suitable 12v battery brand for replacement

[KWCT200h]

Hi all, 

I will need to replace my 12v Battery very soon and I have no clues of which model or brand to get? 

There are so many out there in the market, I am just looking for something which is cost effective but last !

Any recommendations on Battery model and brand would be appreciated. 

Thanks

 

 

[ColinBarber]

I don't think brand is too important but you should get an AGM one, for safety reasons and so that can stand up to deep cycling better than standard flooded batteries which is important on a hybrid.

These don't tend to last more that 5 years so others hopefully can give you their brand recommendations.

[200h]

hi kenton

what price is cost effective for you ???

here is a link for a yuasa Battery on eBay but its £178.88 inc delivery

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Car-Batteries/61504?Car%20Make=Lexus&Model=CT&Type=AGM%20Battery&rt=nc

[KWCT200h]

Hi Mark, 

Thanks for your reply. 

In the region of £150, would that get me a descent Battery that would last for 5years plus? 

The Yuassa battery’s CCA is 325, can you get a batteries which has much powerful CCA? 

Also does it need a start stop batteries feature in the CT200h? 

Many Thanks

K

[200h]

i have just found another Battery this time from euro carparts

it is £269.99 then use code MID60 and the cost is then £148.49

i am sure there is a euro carparts near you.

[KWCT200h]

Hi Mark,  

Many thanks for your reply. 

Just wondering if this batteries I found is the same one as you first recommended? 

 

[200h]

as long as they are AGM batteries (absorbed glass mat) then they should be the same.

[KWCT200h]

Great Thanks Mark. 

[holiday]

That’s way too expensive for a car Battery. I had to replace my Battery and went to the dealership and they charged me £125 with a 5 year warranty. Furthermore this is OEM. 

[holiday]

 

4 minutes ago, holiday said:

That’s way too expensive for a car Battery. I had to replace my Battery and went to the dealership and they charged me £125 with a 5 year warranty. Furthermore this is OEM. 

https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/lexus-essential-care/ this the link for the car batter 

[Britprius]

Exide make an AGM Battery of the correct size with the correct size and layout of terminals. They are sold under the title of "Exide Edge". 
The cranking amps do not matter with a hybrid since the Battery is not used for cranking the engine. Virtually all batteries of the physical size of that fitted in the CT200H have a 45 amp hour capacity, and it is the AH capacity that matters for hybrid vehicles.
There is however a Battery that will fit is an AGM and has a capacity of over 60 AH. The down side is that it comes with different terminals to the standard post type. This however is not really a problem.

The Battery I refer to is made for mobility scooters from a number of manufacturers including Lucas, and are priced at circa £100. I used one in my Prius "the CT is a Prius in different clothes"

Normal car batteries of the same size can be fitted without problems, and are available for circa £45. The difference is that they contain more liquid acid than an AGM Battery. So if the Battery is damaged in an accident there is the remote possibility of rear seat passengers being splashed with dilute acid because the Battery is carried under the floor of the boot.
AGM stands for "absorbed glass mat" where the liquid acid is held in a 90% saturated mat between the plates rather like a sponge so there is little chance of acid escape. 
The downside of AGM batteries is that they can dry out faster than "flooded standard car batteries" because they have no reserves of liquid acid as does standard car batteries.

John.

[Adnan Raza]

Do you need to program the Battery with hybrid system once you change it or just change and go?

[Poundy]

I replaced mine last November at Lexus Birmingham they fitted a AGM Toyota branded one, which looking at the number could be Yuasa made, and is a higher AH than the original. They fitted it, set it up and disposed of the old one for a total price of £95 inc Vat and was a good £50 cheaper than I could find for supply only online. Of course having a service plan entitles you to 10% discount on all spares, labour costs and accessories, don't forget to ask for it if you are on a plan.

[Britprius]

11 hours ago, Poundy said:

I replaced mine last November at Lexus Birmingham they fitted a AGM Toyota branded one, which looking at the number could be Yuasa made, and is a higher AH than the original. They fitted it, set it up and disposed of the old one for a total price of £95 inc Vat and was a good £50 cheaper than I could find for supply only online. Of course having a service plan entitles you to 10% discount on all spares, labour costs and accessories, don't forget to ask for it if you are on a plan.

That Battery is still only 45 AH as said in my earlier post. This is fine for a car that is in regular use, but as the Battery ages, and looses some capacity can become problematic if the car is left for a couple of weeks unused perhaps because it is a second car or is left at an airport while the owner is away.
A Battery is considered deeply discharged at 50% of it's rated capacity, and actual damage can be caused by discharging further.

John.

[Poundy]

3 hours ago, Britprius said:

That battery is still only 45 AH as said in my earlier post. This is fine for a car that is in regular use, but as the battery ages, and looses some capacity can become problematic if the car is left for a couple of weeks unused perhaps because it is a second car or is left at an airport while the owner is away.
A battery is considered deeply discharged at 50% of it's rated capacity, and actual damage can be caused by discharging further.

John.

In all fairness John as you posted before, the Battery has little demand on it and as long as the dash lights up the car should run, no starter motor or excessive drain items. Our Ct200h did less than 2k last year but we never had any no start issues. I do have a comfort lead fitted so that I can connect my C-Tek smart charger if it looks like it will stay unused for extended periods though only used rarely 🙂 I also have a Tacklife T8 max if things get really bad lol!

[BigMartin]

I have just had the same problem with my Wife's CT200 and went for the Yuasa batttery at the Battery Shop (per the link above).

I am hearing mixed messages from so many people on whether this Battery (I believe it is called an Accessory Battery or "Puter Booter") actually fires up the Engine or not. The tyre centre I took it to for a Battery test suggested that it was running at around 50% of the CCA capacity and I know the voltage was dropping to 10V in the cold and I charged it a couple of times myself while waiting for the new one to arrive.

However, the Tyre Centre were absolutely insistent that this Yuasa Battery starts the Petrol Engine and that the Hybrid Batteries only drive the Electric Motor.

What is actually true? Surely if I only needed the accessory Battery to start the computer, then it wouldn't need 325A CCA.

 

[200h]

Martin your tyre centre knows nothing about the lexus hybrid

the 12v Battery powers your keyless entry ,alarm system and computers

in turn the computers power up the hybrid system and starts the engine.

 

[Britprius]

 

I have just had the same problem with my Wife's CT200 and went for the Yuasa batttery at the Battery Shop (per the link above).

I am hearing mixed messages from so many people on whether this battery (I believe it is called an Accessory Battery or "Puter Booter") actually fires up the Engine or not. The tyre centre I took it to for a battery test suggested that it was running at around 50% of the CCA capacity and I know the voltage was dropping to 10V in the cold and I charged it a couple of times myself while waiting for the new one to arrive.

However, the Tyre Centre were absolutely insistent that this Yuasa battery starts the Petrol Engine and that the Hybrid Batteries only drive the Electric Motor.

What is actually true? Surely if I only needed the accessory battery to start the computer, then it wouldn't need 325A CCA.

 

As Mark has already stated the 12 volt Battery does not start "as in turning the engine over" the car.
The cranking amps of the Battery is also almost immaterial as the hardest job it has to do "even before you press the start button" is to pressurise the brake system. This occures  as you try to open the drivers door. If you listen carefully if the car has been standing a few hours as you try to open the door an electric motor will start run for a few seconds then stop. This is the brake accumulator being pressurised to give you power brakes. This action loads the Battery from a low amperage up to around 40 amps as the system gains pressure.
The starter motor "part of the transmission" runs on the hybrid Battery at 201.6 volts. There is no 12 volt starter motor, and no 12 volt alternator.

I would be going back to the tyre centre, and telling them to read up on how hybrids work particularly as this type of work is going to be an increasing part of there customer base. Feeding people the wrong information is misleading them.

John.

[BigMartin]

Thanks to you both for the confirmation.

Let's just say that the Tyre Centre phoned me after two hours to tell me that the car didn't have a Battery.

I had to tell them where to find it and then they called back to say it was down at 50% CCA.

Then they ordered me a replacement which I came back for two days later to find wouldn't fit. I gave up on them then and sorted it myself.

[Dilsha]

On 9/15/2019 at 10:37 PM, 200h said:

as long as they are AGM batteries (absorbed glass mat) then they should be the same.

any ordinary batteries  not good for it???

[200h]

Hi Dilsha

with the Battery being in the passenger compartment of the car

in the event of a rear end accident the occupants could get

showered with Battery acid, with an Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM battery)

there is no liquid sloshing around in the Battery .... yes you've guessed it,

its absored by the glass mat making it safe to have inside the car.

its not to say a normal Battery wont keep everything running its

just not as safe as the AGM.

 

[dandreye]

Hi All,

Just to avoid creating yet another thread on the CT200h 12v Battery options: will an identical dimensions/capacity one, say Yuasa YBX5053 do about as good as an AGM one performance wise? Could anyone who's using a lead acid Battery please share their experience with them? To my surprise even my spouse who owns one of these cars wants a lead acid one rather than an AGM one despite all those risks after I voiced their respective prices 🙂 What's more, the YBX5053 (50Ah) is at least 5Ah more than the original one, which might effectively translate into its longer life. Size wise it's just a few cm shorter, otherwise same.

Many thanks in advance!

[Herbie]

39 minutes ago, dandreye said:

will an identical dimensions/capacity one, say Yuasa YBX5053 do about as good as an AGM one performance wise?

In terms of starting the car and the length of time it can stand unused before the Battery goes flat, they're the same.

Where they differ is that the 'wet' type doesn't take kindly to being discharged too often or too much. As Britprius said above, "A Battery is considered deeply discharged at 50% of it's rated capacity, and actual damage can be caused by discharging further. "

I believe an AGM Battery can stand up to this kind of thing a bit better than the wet type.

In terms of capacity (original being 45Ah, Yuasa YBX5053 being 50Ah), the benefit can be calculated like so:

If we assume a brand new, fully-charged Battery and a normal baseline 50mA (0.05A) quiescent current draw to keep such things as the alarm, clock, radio presets etc., live, 45Ah/0.05A = 900 hours (37.5 days or  5.35 weeks) from fully charged to fully discharged.

The extra 5Ah will add an extra 100 hours (5Ah/0.05A = 100 hours or 4.16 days)

However, the reality will be very different, not only because as a Battery ages it loses capacity, but also for the purposes of starting the car it will become useless well before it fully discharges.

[dandreye]

1 hour ago, Herbie said:

Where they differ is that the 'wet' type doesn't take kindly to being discharged too often or too much. As Britprius said above, "A battery is considered deeply discharged at 50% of it's rated capacity, and actual damage can be caused by discharging further. "

Thank you for your prompt reply. Tbh the replies above suggest it's hardly ever loaded, so I really can't imagine how it can possibly go anywhere into so deep discharge unless perhaps the car is left unattended for weeks and weeks. It reportedly pressurizes the brakes upon entry but I suppose quickly gets recharged upon driving, right? In fact it'd be nice to learn how/when exactly it gets recharged w/o a traditional 12V alternator. 

P.S. Thanks for the added calculation: just noticed your update. Just unsure I understood this one: "for the purposes of starting the car it will become useless well before it fully discharges", particularly 'cos the 12V Battery is known not to be used for starting the petrol engine. I thought as Battery ages and loses capacity its voltage (which I suppose is exactly what matters for CT200h) follows in some related fashion, hence the more original capacity the longer the voltage will stay above certain critical threshold for the car to do the needed to light up that Ready light.

[Herbie]

20 minutes ago, dandreye said:

It reportedly pressurizes the brakes upon entry but I suppose quickly gets recharged upon driving, right? In fact it'd be nice to learn how/when exactly it gets recharged w/o a traditional 12V alternator. 

The 12V Battery boots the computers, pressurises the brake accumulator and does one or two other things to get the car into READY mode, which is the hybrid equivalent of the engine idling in a conventional car.

Once in READY mode, hybrid Battery voltage (it varies by model but if I remember correctly it's 288V for the RX) is sent to the DC/DC converter (our equivalent of the alternator) where a box of electronic wizardry drops it down to approximately 14.5V to keep the 12V Battery charged and also to supply and run the 12V system, just like a standard alternator would in a conventional car.

Other interesting little pieces of trivia are - anything normally driven by a belt from a petrol engine is driven by electric motors. I think I remember reading somewhere that the power steering 'pump' is actually a 48V motor. I know that the aircon compressor is driven by a 500V 3-phase variable frequency AC motor, and that there's an electric motor driving the water circulation.

Oh, and of course, there's no starter motor. Once they hybrid system is in READY mode you can drive away on Battery power alone. When the system needs the petrol engine to run, it energises MG1 (motor/generator 1) and uses that to spin the engine up to 1000rpm before the ECU applies fuel and a spark to fire it.

But I'm rambling now and I need another beer so....