Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: Diamond Black Geezer on 22 October 2014, 11:44:32
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Just checking that getting a battery on Trade Club is still the best / most cost effective batteries. I know they've recently introduced some Trade Club battery, or something, no more Go batteries?
Thinking of getting the Diesel type battery, or is that just a fair whack of extra cash for not a lot of real-world benefit?
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Try your local motor factors (independent) - last time I needed one, admittedly not Vx, they were half the price of the big boys for a high spec battery.
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Ah so. VX is looking to be about £70 on Trade club. Not found anything of comparable quality for appreciably under that... :(
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You can buy an Exide from
CarParts4Less ECP via their ebay site for about £50 notes delivered. :y
Here you go. :)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exide-Excell-Car-Battery-Type-096-100-71Ah-670cca-Sealed-3-Year-Warranty-EB712-/331034106667?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Car+Make%3AVauxhall%7CModel%3AOmega%7CCars+Year%3A2003%7CPlat_Gen%3AB%7CCars+Type%3A3.2+V6&hash=item4d132b9b2b
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You can buy an Exide from CarParts4Less via their ebay site for about £50 notes delivered. :y
Yep.....you pointed me in the direction of the one I have, Sir Tig. :y
71 a/h for £58 if memory serves. :y
My error....£52.94. :y
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I believe the standard fit GM battery is a paltry 65 a/h. :-X
Who is the manufacturer?
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Heard Exide weren't in the same 'league' as Vx, Delco? I know Varta are the 'cheap n cheerful' ones. Exide heard both 'terrible' and 'brilliant' in equal measure..
Managed to find this link:
http://oldsite.omegaowners.com//forum/YaBB.pl?num=1293185297 so prices have crept up a little in the last few years. Just rang main Stealer, for future reference Vx quoted me...
65a/h - £66
70a/h - £72
Both prices inc vat
So... the question is... will the Vauxhall battery last 36% longer, to justify it's extra price... hmmmm.....that's in the lap of the gods! Any takers? Can anyone tell me how long their batteries have lasted, and what the makes are?
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I'm not too sure about batteries but many GM parts seem to have been 'dumbed down' over the years.
I hear that genuine GM exhausts are not what they once were.
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Heard Exide weren't in the same 'league' as Vx, Delco? I know Varta are the 'cheap n cheerful' ones. Exide heard both 'terrible' and 'brilliant' in equal measure..
Managed to find this link:
http://oldsite.omegaowners.com//forum/YaBB.pl?num=1293185297 so prices have crept up a little in the last few years. Just rang main Stealer, for future reference Vx quoted me...
65a/h - £66
70a/h - £72
Both prices inc vat
So... the question is... will the Vauxhall battery last 36% longer, to justify it's extra price... hmmmm.....that's in the lap of the gods! Any takers? Can anyone tell me how long their batteries have lasted, and what the makes are?
How long is a piece of string? ;)
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I'd go for the Exide battery..................and a couple of cases of Stella. :)
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Such a tricky one. I mean now people are saying 'don't buy Lemforder' aftermarket, because they've gone downhill. UGH!
There's two schools of thought on this forum - "buy brand new, Genuine GM, nothing but the best". And the other, "it's an old car, I'll maintain it, but I'm not going to spend the car's insurance value on it every 6 months." both of course, very valid arguments.
Will check with the old man how long his last exide lasted, vs his Vx Go one, both now sat in the garage dead.
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Bosch S4 for not many pennies more. Free Delivery from ECP too. :-\
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Looks good, good make etc.. Finding people saying they're rebadged Vartas? Not saying this is automatically a bad thing - Varta like I say have this cheap n cheerful image - but get plenty of excellent reviews. Farming community seem to swear by them.
Ahhh!!! getting confusing now!
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Looks good, good make etc.. Finding people saying they're rebadged Vartas? Not saying this is automatically a bad thing - Varta like I say have this cheap n cheerful image - but get plenty of excellent reviews. Farming community seem to swear by them.
Ahhh!!! getting confusing now!
Most batteries these days come with a three of four year warranty.
I recently bought a 50 a/h Gm battery for the family Corsa (the original was 36 a/h). This came with a 3 year warranty.
It cost £50.
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I don`t think GM batteries are what they used to be, they used to last six or seven years but I think you`d be lucky to get that judging by the comments I last heard on the ABS forum.
I got a 72ah Bosch from GSF a few years ago for £60 when they had a deal on Bosch batteries.
As for diesel batteries, they have a higher CCA (cold cranking amps) so the higher the better.
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What's really important with car batteries is how long they've been sitting on the shelf. You really need one that has been there less than 6 months. Buy from somewhere with fast moving stock.
I've had some duff (stale) decent brand batteries over the years. I bought a battery for a friend from Vx on Trade Club and it wouldn't start his car. I went back to the Main Dealer with a digital voltmeter to get a decent replacement. After they had bought a few out, all flat, they let me go out back. They had a pallet of dusty and duff new batteries!
I bought I nice Bosch S5 from Costco and that was always iffy. In the end, after 3.5 years it started to fail badly. Fortunately Costco batteries have a 5 year warranty, so I took it back and to my surprise got a full cash refund. I went to the battery section and challenged the chap there to give me a fresh battery. He pointed at some "delivered last week", bought one - it's great even though it's a lower Ah than the one I brought back.
Bosch and I think someone else just re-badge the Varta batteries. Varta car batteries are quite "high end" these days; there's a lot of cheaper nastier stuff out there.
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No mention of Yuasa yet then? ....them or Gm for me. I've seen too many failures of everything else, from Bosch to Halfords, to consider much else. Don't get me wrong I'm sure every manufacturer has failures, but some names keep coming up.
As you mentioned earlier there's two lines of thinking on here re parts. Imo if your omega is a longtermer, and most are on here, it's worth investing in decent parts. But getting them at the cheapest price is the key :)
Let's face it, we've all been looking for an omega replacememt. There's been sooo many threads on what to replace it with and we've come up with nothing. We're going to be omega'ing for some time yet. So it seems to me it's best to fit something that won't give agro down the line, where possible.
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Oh, and when I mention gm, that does not include the GO batteries they where peddling a while back.
...and while a long warranty is better than a short warranty, that won't help when your stranded Middle off nowhere with a dead car.
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So perhaps the best approach would be to buy to a budget and treat as a service item, replacing every November :-\
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Oh, and when I mention gm, that does not include the GO batteries they where peddling a while back.
...and while a long warranty is better than a short warranty, that won't help when your stranded Middle off nowhere with a dead car.
No - But the saving on an 'expensive' battery could be well spent on a cheap booster pack to keep in the boot.
Then return the 'faulty' battery to the counter and get a new one FOC???
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So perhaps the best approach would be to buy to a budget and treat as a service item, replacing every November :-\
Possibly. But then that's a third approach. ;D
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::)
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What's really important with car batteries is how long they've been sitting on the shelf. You really need one that has been there less than 6 months. Buy from somewhere with fast moving stock.
I've had some duff (stale) decent brand batteries over the years. I bought a battery for a friend from Vx on Trade Club and it wouldn't start his car. I went back to the Main Dealer with a digital voltmeter to get a decent replacement. After they had bought a few out, all flat, they let me go out back. They had a pallet of dusty and duff new batteries!
I bought I nice Bosch S5 from Costco and that was always iffy. In the end, after 3.5 years it started to fail badly. Fortunately Costco batteries have a 5 year warranty, so I took it back and to my surprise got a full cash refund. I went to the battery section and challenged the chap there to give me a fresh battery. He pointed at some "delivered last week", bought one - it's great even though it's a lower Ah than the one I brought back.
Bosch and I think someone else just re-badge the Varta batteries. Varta car batteries are quite "high end" these days; there's a lot of cheaper nastier stuff out there.
I couldn't find any sort of date stamp on my old GM battery. I did check.
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Oh, and when I mention gm, that does not include the GO batteries they where peddling a while back.
...and while a long warranty is better than a short warranty, that won't help when your stranded Middle off nowhere with a dead car.
No - But the saving on an 'expensive' battery could be well spent on a cheap booster pack to keep in the boot.
Then return the 'faulty' battery to the counter and get a new one FOC???
Like I said, best parts at the cheapest price. But first you need to Id the best parts. Hence this thread.
And it depends how the battery fails. I've had one turn off like a switch. Luckily outside Halfords door as it happened. It failed open circuit. No booster pack will fix that.
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::)
So what battery is so cheap it only lasts a year? Or warrants changing every year? Or wouldn't be THE most expensive way of going about things?
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Just checking that getting a battery on Trade Club is still the best / most cost effective batteries. I know they've recently introduced some Trade Club battery, or something, no more Go batteries?
Thinking of getting the Diesel type battery, or is that just a fair whack of extra cash for not a lot of real-world benefit?
...and the diesel omega batteries won't physically fit. I tried. ;D
So big the engine is in the way.
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::)
So what battery is so cheap it only lasts a year? Or warrants changing every year? Or wouldn't be THE most expensive way of going about things?
I was thinking along the lines of preventative maintenance rather than getting stuck out of the blue... for the sake of a quid a week :-\
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So perhaps the best approach would be to buy to a budget and treat as a service item, replacing every November :-\
Batteries are, and always have been, a service item. But you can't say how long they're going to last, as some seem to go on forever. I see a lot of suddenly faulty batteries at this time of year(and again in the spring!), some of which were original on 13 year-old cars. Others are little more than 3 years old, which seems to me to be the acceptable cut-off. Personally, I would buy a midpriced battery for a daily used car, and insist on the best you could afford for a rarely used one.
Mine is a Bosch S3, bought from ECP for £53 2 years ago when the one fitted wouldn't start the car one Saturday morning. The cheaper one they offered was only about £5 less and was a brand I'd not heard of. Not a worthwhile saving.
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..and by the time we have any experience of a decent battery (by which I mean one that will last 6 or 7 years or more) you can bet that you won't be able to buy the same battery any more anyway and, in the case of GM batteries, they'll have changed their supplier about 3 times by then.
For example, I bought a Yuasa professional 100 battery for my Omega about 18 months ago. It was a good price and turned the engine over a lot quicker than the previous GM one even when it was in good condition. I can't recommend it because it's now discontinued. ::)
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Hmmmm... which is where the brand loyalty can be a positive. If a company makes consistently good products, then, for years, we can faithfully buy things, knowing them to be good. Sadly, people don't tend to have brand loyalty, and the companies have realised this. Make a reputation, then start churning out the cheap rubbish. Kettles are a good example. No matter what kettle we buy, a Tesco special, which looks like it'll last a week is chugging along nicely after 3 years, its predecessor swanky Morphy Richards 'considerably richer than yow' went pop after a year >:(
Of course was it people didn't have brand loyalty, so then the companies realised there's no harm is cutting the quality, because they're not going to buy your model anyway... or was it the companies started cutting back on quality, so people stopped buying from them? Chicken and egg, I suppose.
I like the advice about buying fast moving stock - that makes sense.
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,....... in the case of GM batteries, they'll have changed their supplier about 3 times by then.
Which is why I wouldn't buy a GM/VX battery as you don't know what you're buying. They might well be supplied by a quality battery manufacturer like Bosch or Varta but are they the same as their own branded batteries? :-\ Personally I think they are from China and have a GM/VX sticker slapped on and you could probably say the same for many 'Genuine GM' parts like HBV's for example now that the Omega is a geriatric. ::)
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I think, then, the best option is something with a long guarantee, which, if it fails (within the period, of course) you've always got the back up of that guarantee
Shame Snap-On don't do batteries! :y
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Just a thought - in terms of 'fast-moving stock' what about one on a brand-new Vauxhall? Safe to say the batteries on them don't hang around in the factory long, not with tens of thousands of cars rolling out a week. I know that's a case of 'well where are you going to get one of them from?' Do any OOFers work at Vx Garage/Ellesmere Port that could acquire one - and I mean legitimately, by the way! :)
The only name I know is Andy at Drive, I don't know the chap personally, just heard his name mentioned favourably many times
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How will you get a guarantee? ::)
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No, fair point.
I'm just working off the logic that as we've discussed, the ones with fast-moving stock are likely to be the best to go for. I mean, literally we could spend £100+ on a battery, with a 5 year guarantee. But it's been sitting on the shelf for a year or two. It's be no good after not too long.. or, worse, it'll be good for 5 years and a week! Whereas a genuine genuine factory Vx one, which in theory could only be on its last legs after 13 years (as we've seen, some Omegas still on their original batteries/only now being replaced) would be a good option.
It's all theory, I'm literally theorising. Person A could spend £100 on a Bosch, it's dead in 3 years, Person B could spend £20 at a scrapyard, it's good for 10 years. Just trying to get some of the 'luck of the draw' element out as much as poss. :)
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I think you're over thinking this. ::) ;D
As said 50 odd notes will see a decent branded battery with a 3 year guarantee land on your doorstep tomorrow if you order it this morning. Job Jobbed! :y
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I think you're over thinking this. ::) ;D
As said 50 odd notes will see a decent branded battery with a 3 year guarantee land on your doorstep tomorrow if you order it this morning. Job Jobbed! :y
Agreed.
Why not date stamp batteries in the same way as tyres?
That way we would know how long it had been gathering dust.
I'm surprised the EU hasn't demanded this already...... ::) ::) ::) ;)
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I think you're over thinking this. ::) ;D
As said 50 odd notes will see a decent branded battery with a 3 year guarantee land on your doorstep tomorrow if you order it this morning. Job Jobbed! :y
Agreed.
Why not date stamp batteries in the same way as tyres?
That way we would know how long it had been gathering dust.
I'm surprised the EU hasn't demanded this already...... ::) ::) ::) ;)
Most batteries will have some kind of date code on them - for administration of the warranty if nothing else.
It's the cost of half a tank of petrol these days.. Not really worth over-thinking IMHO.
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Top brand would be Yuasa as I understand it.
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If GM sold 'Genuine GM Tyres' would we buy them just because they had GM/VX stamped on them? ::)
That's a whole different can of worms though!! :D ;D
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If GM sold 'Genuine GM Tyres' would we buy them just because they had GM/VX stamped on them? ::)
That's a whole different can of worms though!! :D ;D
You can guarantee if ANYTHING has gm written on it, certain members would refuse to buy it purely in that basis. Wouldn't they Tig. ::)
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If GM sold 'Genuine GM Tyres' would we buy them just because they had GM/VX stamped on them? ::)
That's a whole different can of worms though!! :D ;D
You can guarantee if ANYTHING has gm written on it, certain members would definitely buy it purely in that basis. ::)
You could take the opposite view as well Chris. ;)
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If GM sold 'Genuine GM Tyres' would we buy them just because they had GM/VX stamped on them? ::)
That's a whole different can of worms though!! :D ;D
You can guarantee if ANYTHING has gm written on it, certain members would definitely buy it purely in that basis. ::)
You could take the opposite view as well Chris. ;)
Ah yes, the well versed Genuine vs Pattern argument... ::)
Where's Bored Bigyin when you need him ;D
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If GM sold 'Genuine GM Tyres' would we buy them just because they had GM/VX stamped on them? ::)
That's a whole different can of worms though!! :D ;D
You can guarantee if ANYTHING has gm written on it, certain members would definitely buy it purely in that basis. ::)
You could take the opposite view as well Chris. ;)
Right. I've got my rubber mallet out now and I'm going to use it to knock some sense into Tiggers thick OPPSING head. :)
The idea is, (whack) to get the best parts at the best price. (whack) This means (whack) a combination of (whack) gm (whack) and Oe equivelant parts (whack) and sometimes (whack) pattern parts (whack) in order to get the most cost effective options. (whack) It does NOT mean buying purely (whack) pattern (whack) or purely gm (whack) parts. It means (whack) buying (whack) the (whack) best (whack) parts (whack) for (whack) the (whack)best(whack)money.
NOT (whack) THE (whack) CHEAPEST (whack) SHITE (whack) MONEY (whack) CAN (whack)BUY .....TIGGER WHACK
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Top brand would be Yuasa as I understand it.
Common on Japanese motorcycles.....or at least that used to be the case.
The pissy little Yuasa battery for my Yamaha RD 250 cost something in the region of £30 way back in 1977/78...... :o :o :o
Vibration made short work of it. :-\
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I think you're over thinking this. ::) ;D
As said 50 odd notes will see a decent branded battery with a 3 year guarantee land on your doorstep tomorrow if you order it this morning. Job Jobbed! :y
Agreed.
Why not date stamp batteries in the same way as tyres?
That way we would know how long it had been gathering dust.
I'm surprised the EU hasn't demanded this already...... ::) ::) ::) ;)
Most batteries will have some kind of date code on them - for administration of the warranty if nothing else.
It's the cost of half a tank of petrol these days.. Not really worth over-thinking IMHO.
I can't find anything on my old Omega battery, Kevin.
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I think you're over thinking this. ::) ;D
As said 50 odd notes will see a decent branded battery with a 3 year guarantee land on your doorstep tomorrow if you order it this morning. Job Jobbed! :y
Agreed.
Why not date stamp batteries in the same way as tyres?
That way we would know how long it had been gathering dust.
I'm surprised the EU hasn't demanded this already...... ::) ::) ::) ;)
Most batteries will have some kind of date code on them - for administration of the warranty if nothing else.
It's the cost of half a tank of petrol these days.. Not really worth over-thinking IMHO.
I can't find anything on my old Omega battery, Kevin.
They only started date stamping thirty years ago.
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:y
The old 'Go' battery (the 'good' one that was 'unnecessarily' replaced) that I initially tried using on the V6 is dated as being fitted 2005, December.
The history of the battery is - Bought from Vx Stealer, in regular normal use every day etc.. it was replaced by the previous owner, on the advice of OOFers (poor starting) I would estimate 1 year ago, maybe 2 years. Might be able to find the old thread for an accurate date. Since been charged up once a month, to keep something in it. Reads 12-13v, but that collapses soon as you try and start a car with it.
So I suppose us being near December, that's just under 9 years old. Clearly it was duff after just under 7-8 at a push. And therefore on its way out before then. Hmmm....max of 7 good years, realistically 6 and a bit.. Out of a GM super-duper jobby.
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Top brand would be Yuasa as I understand it.
Common on Japanese motorcycles.....or at least that used to be the case.
The pissy little Yuasa battery for my Yamaha RD 250 cost something in the region of £30 way back in 1977/78...... :o :o :o
Vibration made short work of it. :-\
Well then it wasn't fitted correctly ;)
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Top brand would be Yuasa as I understand it.
Common on Japanese motorcycles.....or at least that used to be the case.
The pissy little Yuasa battery for my Yamaha RD 250 cost something in the region of £30 way back in 1977/78...... :o :o :o
Vibration made short work of it. :-\
Well then it wasn't fitted correctly ;)
Yes it was. It fitted into a tight rubber sleeve. High-tech for 1978.
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If GM sold 'Genuine GM Tyres' would we buy them just because they had GM/VX stamped on them? ::)
That's a whole different can of worms though!! :D ;D
You can guarantee if ANYTHING has gm written on it, certain members would definitely buy it purely in that basis. ::)
You could take the opposite view as well Chris. ;)
Right. I've got my rubber mallet out now and I'm going to use it to knock some sense into Tiggers thick OPPSING head. :)
The idea is, (whack) to get the best parts at the best price. (whack) This means (whack) a combination of (whack) gm (whack) and Oe equivelant parts (whack) and sometimes (whack) pattern parts (whack) in order to get the most cost effective options. (whack) It does NOT mean buying purely (whack) pattern (whack) or purely gm (whack) parts. It means (whack) buying (whack) the (whack) best (whack) parts (whack) for (whack) the (whack)best(whack)money.
NOT (whack) THE (whack) CHEAPEST (whack) SHITE (whack) MONEY (whack) CAN (whack)BUY .....TIGGER WHACK
I agree with every whacking word there Chris! ::) You just don't understand me..... :'( ;D
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Top brand would be Yuasa as I understand it.
But then you have to be careful where you buy it from... ...I've had plenty of "Yuasha" batteries on my Kwaka (which was a problem to start on a good day), and I'd suggest each and every one was fake, and rarely stayed on the bike for more than a few months.
We know egay, amazon marketplace and the like all are full of fake tat (there was a report in the IT channel press last year that 95% of branded goods on egay were counterfeit :o). I've heard a few reports now of branded items from EuroShiteParts coming in plain packaging with Made In China on and physically looking sub standard - even little bro, an ECP lover, now buys pattern of egay rather than branded from ECP, because its better quality. We know Autovaux talk 'dangle berries', shifting cheap, nasty parts as "genuine".
So we need to look beyond the brand, but also the supplier... ...just to make life even more difficult :(
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If GM sold 'Genuine GM Tyres' would we buy them just because they had GM/VX stamped on them? ::)
That's a whole different can of worms though!! :D ;D
You can guarantee if ANYTHING has gm written on it, certain members would definitely buy it purely in that basis. ::)
You could take the opposite view as well Chris. ;)
Right. I've got my rubber mallet out now and I'm going to use it to knock some sense into Tiggers thick OPPSING head. :)
The idea is, (whack) to get the best parts at the best price. (whack) This means (whack) a combination of (whack) gm (whack) and Oe equivelant parts (whack) and sometimes (whack) pattern parts (whack) in order to get the most cost effective options. (whack) It does NOT mean buying purely (whack) pattern (whack) or purely gm (whack) parts. It means (whack) buying (whack) the (whack) best (whack) parts (whack) for (whack) the (whack)best(whack)money.
NOT (whack) THE (whack) CHEAPEST (whack) SHITE (whack) MONEY (whack) CAN (whack)BUY .....TIGGER WHACK
I agree with every whacking word there Chris! ::) You just don't understand me..... :'( ;D
Oh, we're supposed to understand you two? I thought it was a male bonding thing you two had going :P ;D
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It pains me to say, I have to agree with Gixer's sentiments about choosing the "best" spares for the car. The "best" may not necessarily be the best quality, cheapest, branded, Genuine etc.
As (probably) the biggest Omega-B community in the Universe, we should be well placed to be able to ascertain what are the best options.
The best options are likely to be a blend of Genuine, branded and unbranded pattern, depending on the part concerned. For example, I'd only use Genuine cam cover gaskets, personally I prefer branded tyres such as Dunlop, and bulbs are usually Halfords tat (for convenience - my dealer won't deliver just a handful of bulbs ;D).
For a battery, I have no brand loyalty. I've had reasonable success with GO batteries. I've yet to find a battery that lasts as well as the one fitted in the factory, which usually lasts 10yrs. I'd personally try a Tradeclub one, or buy branded one from a reputatable supplier with a decent warranty. Keep the receipt, as this is a convenient way for the supplier/manufacturer not to honour the warranty of shite batteries... ...they can offer a 100yr warranty, but not have to honour it as they know the vast majority will loose the receipt.
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Which is why I (we used to) keep banging on about trade club. If you can't guarantee a parts supply line through a dealer we really are in trouble. That's not to say we should stuffer some of their prices though. £235 a side for wishbone? And HT leads, £110 a side are they? Outrageous. I'd never pay that.
But then there's steering idlers. £110 retail. Rediculous price. But we know nothing else works. Same as cam cover gaskets. Expensive for what they are. But NOTHING else works as far as we know, therefor, not as expensive as you might think. And certainly not as expensive as pattern ones, which are cheaper, but cause more damage when they fail early.
But then again, People want to buy the cheapest shite parts possible, and to make things doubly bad the want to get those cheap shite parts from ebay. Just throw the money out the window and save the agro of dealing with that poxy website.
....but each to their own. You can lead a stubborn mule to water....you can even whack it with a rubber mallet..... ;D
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Just a thought - in terms of 'fast-moving stock' what about one on a brand-new Vauxhall? Safe to say the batteries on them don't hang around in the factory long, not with tens of thousands of cars rolling out a week. I know that's a case of 'well where are you going to get one of them from?' Do any OOFers work at Vx Garage/Ellesmere Port that could acquire one - and I mean legitimately, by the way! :)
The only name I know is Andy at Drive, I don't know the chap personally, just heard his name mentioned favourably many times
I bought my Tradeclub battery from Evans Hallshaw in Plymouth. Like most things for the Omega they had to order it from Luton. I believe that got me a recently manufactured battery :-\
Andy C (Andy Clear) used to be able to offer tradeclub deals by mail order but IIRC Drive - Bury St Edmunds (where Andy C works) don't do tradeclub any more :(
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But then again, People want to buy the cheapest shite parts possible, and to make things doubly bad the want to get those cheap shite parts from ebay. Just throw the money out the window and save the agro of dealing with that poxy website.
Thing is, apart from a fair majority of owners on here, those on the Polish forum and a few on Autobahnstormers, everyone else will be just buying there parts as cheaply as possible, the cars are worthless to most and any repair over say £200 would mean scrapping it.
As the genuine parts supply starts to dry up our options are going to become severely limited and that's where the enthusiasts (like those running older vehicles on Autobahnstormers) have to look at companies who will make parts for a small production run.
I now regret the pairs of genuine wishbones I've junked, hindsight now tells me I should have re-furbed them. If I snap one of the LSC springs on my 2.6 then it's game over, there are no more new ones. I'm looking for a set of mint Elite Leather seats and steering wheel for the 2.6 due to the usual wear, will I ever find them? It's not looking likely to be honest.
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But then again, People want to buy the cheapest shite parts possible, and to make things doubly bad the want to get those cheap shite parts from ebay. Just throw the money out the window and save the agro of dealing with that poxy website.
Thing is, apart from a fair majority of owners on here, those on the Polish forum and a few on Autobahnstormers, everyone else will be just buying there parts as cheaply as possible, the cars are worthless to most and any repair over say £200 would mean scrapping it.
As the genuine parts supply starts to dry up our options are going to become severely limited and that's where the enthusiasts (like those running older vehicles on Autobahnstormers) have to look at companies who will make parts for a small production run.
I now regret the pairs of genuine wishbones I've junked, hindsight now tells me I should have re-furbed them. If I snap one of the LSC springs on my 2.6 then it's game over, there are no more new ones. I'm looking for a set of mint Elite Leather seats and steering wheel for the 2.6 due to the usual wear, will I ever find them? It's not looking likely to be honest.
Quite so. The problem I have with that approach is when they pipe on here and recommend that shite to others as if it's a silk purse for the price of a sows ear.
Conti tech wheel bearings for example. Numerous members banging on about how "good" they are on here. I ask as mine are opposed. Same bearing recommended, I get some and within 3months both new bearings have more play than the ones they replaced.
Ffs! While I appreciate we need to try alternatives as dealer supply tales off or is too expensive, why present shite unproven parts to others? Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! ..... there was a time when opinions could be trusted on here. No more sadly.
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
Yeah. Recommend me some windscreen wipers Tig ;D :P
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
Yeah. Recommend me some windscreen wipers Tig ;D :P
ECP....about £3.50 the pair delivered. Far better than the RAC wipers I paid £9 for. :y
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
Yeah. Recommend me some windscreen wipers Tig ;D :P
ECP....about £3.50 the pair delivered. Far better than the RAC wipers I paid £9 for. :y
£2.74 for a pair of wiper blades delivered and 9 months on they're still going strong. :y What's wrong with that? ???
Suggesting that there are members here that would deliberately recommend shite parts to stitch people up, is nothing but a wild accusation that is bang out of order in my opinion! >:(
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Conti tech wheel bearings for example. Numerous members banging on about how "good" they are on here. I ask as mine are opposed. Same bearing recommended, I get some and within 3months both new bearings have more play than the ones they replaced.
Now that's interesting, I bought a Conti tech one new for one side of the 2.6, went to see Daz and we fitted it, he also had an old stock but brand new Quinten Hazel one that was absolutely identical with the same markings and the same bearing in it, there was absolutely no difference in them at all and as far as I can tell they came out of the same factory. The only difference was manufacturing age.
20K later guess which one has some play in it - nowhere near an MOT failure but still has play.
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
Yeah. Recommend me some windscreen wipers Tig ;D :P
ECP....about £3.50 the pair delivered. Far better than the RAC wipers I paid £9 for. :y
£2.74 for a pair of wiper blades delivered and 9 months on they're still going strong. :y What's wrong with that? ???
Suggesting that there are members here that would deliberately recommend shite parts to stitch people up, is nothing but a wild accusation that is bang out of order in my opinion! >:(
Don't think Chris was aiming that at you, if you think back there are plenty of people on here in the distant past who have recommended parts that they fitted five mins previously - almost as if to satisfy themselves that they know better. Bit like tyres - read any tyre review site and there'll be one that says 'So much more grip than the set I took off' Really? with probably at least 6mm more of tread than those previous?! No shit Sherlock!
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
Yeah. Recommend me some windscreen wipers Tig ;D :P
ECP....about £3.50 the pair delivered. Far better than the RAC wipers I paid £9 for. :y
£2.74 for a pair of wiper blades delivered and 9 months on they're still going strong. :y What's wrong with that? ???
Suggesting that there are members here that would deliberately recommend shite parts to stitch people up, is nothing but a wild accusation that is bang out of order in my opinion! >:(
Don't think Chris was aiming that at you, if you think back there are plenty of people on here in the distant past who have recommended parts that they fitted five mins previously - almost as if to satisfy themselves that they know better. Bit like tyres - read any tyre review site and there'll be one that says 'So much more grip than the set I took off' Really? with probably at least 6mm more of tread than those previous?! No shit Sherlock!
I don't care if he was aiming it at me or not, but I think he's wrong to say that there are members who would deliberately stitch up other people on here in the way he describes. ::)
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
Yeah. Recommend me some windscreen wipers Tig ;D :P
ECP....about £3.50 the pair delivered. Far better than the RAC wipers I paid £9 for. :y
£2.74 for a pair of wiper blades delivered and 9 months on they're still going strong. :y What's wrong with that? ???
Suggesting that there are members here that would deliberately recommend shite parts to stitch people up, is nothing but a wild accusation that is bang out of order in my opinion! >:(
Don't think Chris was aiming that at you, if you think back there are plenty of people on here in the distant past who have recommended parts that they fitted five mins previously - almost as if to satisfy themselves that they know better. Bit like tyres - read any tyre review site and there'll be one that says 'So much more grip than the set I took off' Really? with probably at least 6mm more of tread than those previous?! No shit Sherlock!
I don't care if he was aiming it at me or not, but I think he's wrong to say that there are members who would deliberately stitch up other people on here in the way he describes. ::)
Apart from an unhealthy tyre obsession that Gixer fella seems to be a decent sort of cove. ;) ;D
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I'm surprised no-one has added 'its how you drive your car' thats quite an important factor, into the mix.....
Lead acid batteries like to be fully charged all the time.....letting them go flat/left in a partly charged state does them no favours.
So, if a car is parked up for weeks on end inbetween starting....that isnt going to do the battery good....as, unless you disconnect the battery every time, theres always going to be a slow drain on the battery.
Also, esp at this time of year, starting, then turning your headlights on and driving for 10 mins to work....isnt long enough to fully recharge the battery.
So, imo, abuse the battery, dont expect it to last for long.....look after it and expect many years of service from it ;)
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
Yeah. Recommend me some windscreen wipers Tig ;D :P
ECP....about £3.50 the pair delivered. Far better than the RAC wipers I paid £9 for. :y
£2.74 for a pair of wiper blades delivered and 9 months on they're still going strong. :y What's wrong with that? ???
Suggesting that there are members here that would deliberately recommend shite parts to stitch people up, is nothing but a wild accusation that is bang out of order in my opinion! >:(
Don't think Chris was aiming that at you, if you think back there are plenty of people on here in the distant past who have recommended parts that they fitted five mins previously - almost as if to satisfy themselves that they know better. Bit like tyres - read any tyre review site and there'll be one that says 'So much more grip than the set I took off' Really? with probably at least 6mm more of tread than those previous?! No shit Sherlock!
I don't care if he was aiming it at me or not, but I think he's wrong to say that there are members who would deliberately stitch up other people on here in the way he describes. ::)
Really? ::)
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Some here even go out of their way to do so thinking it's funny to stitch others up with crap! .....
Really? ::)
Yeah. Recommend me some windscreen wipers Tig ;D :P
ECP....about £3.50 the pair delivered. Far better than the RAC wipers I paid £9 for. :y
£2.74 for a pair of wiper blades delivered and 9 months on they're still going strong. :y What's wrong with that? ???
Suggesting that there are members here that would deliberately recommend shite parts to stitch people up, is nothing but a wild accusation that is bang out of order in my opinion! >:(
Don't think Chris was aiming that at you, if you think back there are plenty of people on here in the distant past who have recommended parts that they fitted five mins previously - almost as if to satisfy themselves that they know better. Bit like tyres - read any tyre review site and there'll be one that says 'So much more grip than the set I took off' Really? with probably at least 6mm more of tread than those previous?! No shit Sherlock!
I don't care if he was aiming it at me or not, but I think he's wrong to say that there are members who would deliberately stitch up other people on here in the way he describes. ::)
Really? ::)
Really.
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Well, at least there's an ounce of passion behind the usual smug smirk. :y
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Once again, boys and girls, play nicely with each other, else the playground will have to have more teachers on duty handing out punishment :-X
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Once again, boys and girls, play nicely with each other, else the playground will have to have more teachers on duty handing out punishment :-X
We could call upon the services of Mistress Zoom to discipline naughty boys. :) ;)
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Once again, boys and girls, play nicely with each other, else the playground will have to have more teachers on duty handing out punishment :-X
We could call upon the services of Mistress Zoom to discipline naughty boys. :) ;)
See, I was thinking purely about bans. You're clearly thinking whips and handcuffs ::)
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Once again, boys and girls, play nicely with each other, else the playground will have to have more teachers on duty handing out punishment :-X
We could call upon the services of Mistress Zoom to discipline naughty boys. :) ;)
See, I was thinking purely about bans. You're clearly thinking whips and handcuffs ::)
But of course. :D ;D
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Once again, boys and girls, play nicely with each other, else the playground will have to have more teachers on duty handing out punishment :-X
We could call upon the services of Mistress Zoom to discipline naughty boys. :) ;)
Not the fluffy pink handcuffs again ::) :D ;D ;D
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Apologies to interrupt this highly intelligent conversation... ;D
But just for any future persons reading this forum, a 70 a/h Vx battery was cheaper than the recommended-fit 65 a/h, at some pence under £60... so looking at the ones on ebay, it only cost literally two or three quid more than Exides... not saying that GM are better than Exide, and no idea if the Exide would have been a better buy than the GM, but with such a little price difference I decided to stick with GM.
Just wish they were still on the GO batteries... I've got a duff GO battery that doesn't hold charge - I could have taken that back with the receipt for the one I just bought and demanded a replacement or my money back!!! :D