Installed a new battery on my 23 year old Maruti 800 5-speed

I had a brand new Denso alternator in stock. Decided to first swap the alternator and see if it's the alternator which is at fault.

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Almost 8 year old Amaron retired, GG gets a brand new battery: Offlate, I've been facing issues with wiper motor acting weird with indicators running, or horn varying it's tone with indicators flashing.

When I checked, this is the voltage readings I got:

Idle RPM with no load: 14.20V

Idle RPM at full load(AC, hazard lights, HL, Fog Light, Both wipers, defogger): 11.7V

The drop at load was what concerned me. To make matters worse, the cell gravity, Bosch hand held scanners all said that the battery is healthy. I still had my doubts given it was almost an 8 year old Unit(Aug 2015 make battery).

To clear the situation, I had a brand new Denso alternator in stock. Decided to first swap the alternator and see if it's the alternator which is at fault. Also charged the old battery for whole day. When tested, the results with new Alternator was exactly the same as my old unit. Thus it was nearly confirmed, it was the battery which had gone weak and beyond revival.

Brand new Denso Alternator vs 23 year old unit:

Tried to search around for Amaron Pro which got 385A CCA and 40Ah spec(as per Amaron's site) opposed to Flo which was 35AH spec. Still couldn't find out Pro anywhere, and had to settle for Flo which was recently upgraded to 385A CCA and 72 months warranty(same as Pro).

Aug 2015 Amaron:

Mar 2023 Amaron, notice the CCA difference despite being same model:

Weirdly, when hooked up against the Bosch C7, the new battery took some time to reach the fully charged state, despite being a March 2023 manufactured unit.

When checked with load, the new setup showed significantly improved readings:

• Idle RPM with no load: 14.20V
• Idle RPM at full load(AC, hazard lights, HL, Fog Light, Both wipers, defogger): 12.95-13.0V.

Cost of new battery Rs. 3800

Cost of old battery Rs. 800

Net paid: Rs. 3000

A word on Amaron: This was my first experience with the brand, which was a disaster in beginning. Barely after few days, the brand new unit died but Amaron replaced it without any question. The battery then went on to live almost 8 years, the maximum I've seen on GG. Earlier all it's Exide batteries used to die around the 4.5 to 5 year mark. Surely the regular maintenance with Bosch C7 helped prolong Amaron's life.

Reason for not opting for Exide: Had a fantastic run with Amaron, plus even Exide's best offering, the Epic had significantly lower CCA ratings than Amaron. Also the Exide was significantly more expensive. Thus it was a no brainer.

Need to replace the water pump and compressor belts too, they were last replaced in 2018 and are due for replacement. Order placed on Boodmo.

Regards,

Shashi

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