How to Buy a Car Battery

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Aaron Gregory on behalf of Expert Village. And, we're going to talk about what happens when your car battery dies, how to select a new battery, and how to see what the problem is. This battery has a number on it that tells you what size it is, what cars it will fit. It says group size thirty-five. The guys at the auto parts store will probably know what battery to get for your car. This battery didn't seem to fit very well. Let's try to find a better one. So, we went down to our local, friendly, Napa auto parts store and picked up this nice new battery and it's a completely different size category than the old battery that we had. As you can see, this batter is shorter and it's dimensionally smaller which should fit better in our little Honda. And, also the terminals are on opposite sides. This one doesn't have a positive sign. It actually says "POS", positive, and "NEG", negative. But, those positive correspond with the plus sign for positive and the negative is a straight line. And, by switching those terminals that should probably make it fit our car much better. This one says it's a group size twenty-six. More to know about batteries, when selecting a battery, you need to have enough amperage for the appropriate engine that you're trying to crank over. Diesel engines require a lot higher cranking amperage because of the increased compression of a diesel engine. Now, there's cranking amps, called "CA" abbreviated, and "CCA", which is cold cranking amps. When a battery is cold, it's not as efficient as when it's warmed up. And, when the engine and battery are cold in the winter time and there's a foot of snow on top of your car, you need a large reserve of cranking amperage to turn the engine over. A diesel truck requires two hundred to three hundred percent more cold cranking amps than a gasoline engine. So, keep that in mind when you're buying a battery for a truck or any other diesel. "