Optima batteries aren't what they used to be.

Another great option is xs d4700. Fits right in the sport battery tray and hold down.

 

Optima batteries aren't what they used to be.

Another great option is xs d4700. Fits right in the sport battery tray and hold down.

Ahh... Yeah it doesn't look like any of those optima batteries really fit anywho...

Just curious but why not run the Motorcraft BXT-90T5-590 battery? I run a set of Motorcraft batteries in my 250 7.3L diesel and have gotten excellent service out of them and the warranty is just as good as any. Tested Tough MAX - 100-month Limited Warranty, 36-month free replacement and is supported nationwide by Ford and Lincoln dealers and Ford Authorized Distributors (See seller for limited warranty details).Plus they are less than the "High End" options.

Oh wow. Is that a higher rated battery then the stock battery? Interesting

 

Just curious but why not run the Motorcraft BXT-90T5-590 battery? I run a set of Motorcraft batteries in my 250 7.3L diesel and have gotten excellent service out of them and the warranty is just as good as any. Tested Tough MAX - 100-month Limited Warranty, 36-month free replacement and is supported nationwide by Ford and Lincoln dealers and Ford Authorized Distributors (See seller for limited warranty details).Plus they are less than the "High End" options.

 

Oh wow. Is that a higher rated battery then the stock battery? Interesting

No those are the actual Motorcraft batteries for our car. My point was I have run Motorcraft batteries in my 2002 F250 diesel and they have been great!

 

I'd try to fit a Group 65 battery. If you look at the battery tray, they used an adapter to fit the smaller stock size battery. It almost looks like the tray is the same one they use in the Taurus, which takes a full Group 65 battery. I've never experimented with this, but it's probably the only thing I'd try. The AGM batteries are only good if you intend to run the car in desert environments with 120F+ ambient all the time. Otherwise they don't really last that much longer than standard flooded batteries. Group 65 has a much larger capacity than whatever battery size Ford picked for the Fusion.

 

Anyone find the right size?


The stock battery part # is BXT-90T5-590 which sounds like a BCI Group 90. My dealer swapped out the factory dead battery with a new Motorcraft, 590 CCA, 3-year free replacement / 100-month pro-rated. So this is like the DieHard / Autocraft "Gold" batteries in terms of replacement warranty.


I did a search in the Tasca catalog and there is a Group 48 / H6 battery that isn't available for sale, but is possibly OEM-equipped on vehicles with start-stop capability. If you do a search for BCI Group 48, it is about the same width, but longer and slightly taller. The stock battery tray seems like it would actually fit the Group 48, which has much more reserve capacity and cranking amps.


Optima makes a yellowtop H6 which is grossly overpriced, but everyone sells an AGM equivalent to the Group 48 / 90 batteries these days at nearly $200 a pop.

 

I tried a Grp65 battery, a brute for sure. Their book said it would "work", which it would do, just not fit. Lugs in bottom edge of the battery, intended to slide under matching lugs in the tray, will not slide into place due to mismatch of angles. Looks to me like one could dismount the tray and match them up, but one would have to engineer a way to secure the assembly in the car. This is like, a 60 lb battery, and the tray appears to be securely mounted. Another complication is the wire loom passing directly across in front of the tray, requiring some modification from my view. I can't deny that big battery would look great in that tray! I have no doubt that it would solve the "no start" BS I've dealt with, and after one visit for steering bolt recall and 1st oil change, and a call to "service advisor" that was not helpful, I have some doubts about my local "Blue Oval boys".



Glenn

 

Thanks for trying to fit the 65. I think the biggest battery that would fit in our tray would be H6 / Group 48. I believe the hybrid models get an AGM battery from Ford.
The other Fords I've owned have always taken a Group 65: Crown Vic, E-250, Explorer, Taurus, etc...

 

Is there a smaller/lighter factory battery for the Fusion? Maybe that came with the 1.6l?

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

FYI - The group H7 battery will not fit if you have a Steeda CAI. The battery is too long and interferes with the intake.

 

My 2019 FFS came with a Group 90 (aka T5) battery which is 2-11/16" shorter than the 94R (H7). Moreover the 94R are 3/4" taller and would have a hard time going under the hood cowling. I would be interested in hearing if anyone managed to squeeze one in.

That being said, it It does appear that you could use easily use a group 91 (T6) battery (1-5/16" longer all other dimensions the same) since there already exists another screw hole for securing that size in the stock battery tray.

 

The original factory Group 90 / T5 in my Cobalt SS Turbo exploded last month (12 years old), so I went and bought a new Advance Auto DieHard Gold. WOW these are super expensive now at $170 and only 3-year warranties. There's no more 100-month prorated. It exploded and split apart, dumping all the acid in my trunk (trunk mounted factory location). I could see inside the plates and everything.

Interesting how the Fusion uses the same size battery. The lowest price I found is at Costco for their Interstate batteries.

 

@metroplex Never buy a battery from Advanced Auto Parts in the store. Always go online and buy it as there is almost always coupons and codes for batteries. Then just pick it up at the store.

 

Yes I'm aware, I've been doing that for over 10 years. The problem is Advance Auto recently changed their policy and no longer accept the 25% or greater coupons for batteries. It's only 10% off now and the batteries are super expensive. Costco's Interstates are significantly lower in price. All made by Johnson Controls and have the same warranty (3-year).

 

Protip: "RMN25" at Advance.

 

Except for batteries. DH10 is all they will accept.

 

I agree that batteries in almost all Automotive stores are really expensive. As Metroplex pointed out in a previous post, there are only a couple of battery producing entities that make the batteries with just different labels on them. I have been purchasing my car batteries from Walmart under the Everstart label. The price has always been very competitive against the automotive chain stores. I have been doing this for about 20 years and have never had a problem with them.

 

Costco has the best prices by far for new batteries. About $99.99 for the Group 90 / T5's for our Fusion Sports as well as the Group 65 if you have an Explorer/Taurus/E-series/F-series/Crown Vic/bunch of other vehicles. The problem is if your Costco tire center is small, they may not have the battery in stock. I had to go to 3 different Costco Tire centers in the SE MI area to get enough batteries for our Fusion Sports. Even Group 65 was hard to find at the smaller Costco, but one larger Costco was overflowing with Group 65 and Group 34 but only had a single Group 90. While Advance Auto, Autozone, and Wal-Mart are definitely more convenient (order and pick up or large inventory), the Costco Interstate prices are more inline with what batteries used to cost over 20 years ago.

 

I had a Cosco membership for a couple of years, but in the end just got rid of it as the closest one is 15-20 mins away and the shopping experience was never pleasant. I also firmly believe that the reason Costco meat is somewhat cheaper than other stores was that they bought meet that was almost expired that no one else would buy. Any meat I would buy from them would go bad in just a few days. That and I just can't stand the free samples tables blocking up the isles. Just not an experience I enjoyed, especially since I had to pay them for that experience. /Cosco rant off

 

You're right. Their pastries seem to go bad very quickly. But their meat has always been top quality here along with their other products, you just have to watch the sell by dates because it varies. The Kirkland 5W30 is certified Dexos 1 Gen 2 and runs the best in one of the GTDI engines I used to work on, not to mention the least expensive oil available. Their new golf clubs are still unknown. The KS1 putter is well made but I still put better with my Evnroll. Their gas is Top Tier and 93 octane is always priced competitively with other gas stations 87 octane. With their Costco Visa you get 4% backon gas and 2% on their purchases plus extra 2 year warranty on appliances. The samples were canceled due to COVID19.

I think it is how they get their supply of grocery/fresh items. Like it comes in batches in large quantities, so the stock gets rotated out among the stores but not always at the same time. Their batteries are very fresh though, I've never seen batteries start off with such a high SOC. Even the Ford dealers have batteries that were sitting on their shelves for months.

The downside is I had to go to 3 Costco stores in the area to get the batteries I wanted and each of them was a different experience. The bigger Costco were not the best shopping experience for me. But I earn enough reward dollars from the credit card to pay for the membership several times over. But I was told they stock batteries based on demand at each location. The really big Costcos had more of the common batteries in stock/overflowing (Group 65, 34) but the smaller Costcos had very limited stock of most batteries. The Group 90/T5 seems to be uncommon although with such a large number of Fusions sold over the years you'd think Group 90 would be high in demand due to the small capacity and ACM/electronics killing them so quickly.

 

Sorry to revive but i used to buy at Costco when they had full 5 year batteries but yhey dont here anymore. Batteries last 3 years here in the desert unless you go with the sealed one. Theres only a rew battery factories but dozens of labels.

 

No one seems to have anything more than a 3 year full replacement. Even DieHard Gold is now a 3 year warranty battery. For the desert we found AGMs to last longer so you'll have to fork out a bit more for the AGMs.

 

Regarding Optima batteries: I always ran the Red Tops in my off-road F250 and Yellow Tops in my dump trailer, excavator, and tractors. I was replacing batteries every 2-3 years in our 1966 T-bird, which basically just sits under a cover 98% of the time, even with a battery tender, when one of them over loaded and spewed acid all over the battery tray, radiator support, and vent box. I decided to abandon “vintage stock” appearance and install an Optima Red Top. Well, just last week I had to replace it because it wouldn’t turn the car over and I realized it had been in the car since April 2001!!

 

Yeah the Tenders work great. I had an old Group 65 that was from 2008 still work fine in 2021. I wish they made an AGM for Group 90/T5 because the Cobalt battery sits in the trunk. It’s also important to use a good Tender. I have tried a bunch of different brands but alway go back to Battery Tender because they designed the circuitry and operation properly.

 

Spot on! I’ve always use Battery Tender because my father-in-law had a collection of cars and had tried a couple other brands and warned me to stick with Battery Tender.

 

Once upon a time I sat down and logged the voltage/current for the Battery Tender and other brands. The Tenders generally provide the bulk charge up front and during the maintenance (last) phase, it stays around 13.1-13.2 VDC with 80-150mA or as much to combat parasitic drain and keep a charge. This prevents boiling the battery or causing other issues. I had Black and Decker and Pulsetech and some other brands that would cycle on and off going as high as 14 VDC which eventually killed a few batteries. I strongly suspect the Pulsetech did in my Cobalt's original battery from 2008 when it eventually exploded in the trunk and found it would charge at 14 VDC even in the maintenance phase. I do have a BatteryMinder 1500 on my Ducati's Yuasa battery from 2011 though... I mainly use it because of the desulfating pulses. It keeps the battery at 13.4-13.5 VDC which is still leaving me suspect of it a bit, but it's all part of testing different chargers. I must have like 6 or 7 of the Tender waterproof units. I have a 5A and then just got a 4.5A from Costco when they were being sold.

For those that don't have a Tender yet, keep an eye out at Costco's website or in store and they may have the 4.5A for $40+ or so which is a great deal. Otherwise the 800mA waterproof unit is good too - as I use that in odd places like outside the garage year-round or in damp spots. It has enough current to maintain a Group 65. My oldest waterproof Tender is from 2007 and is still going strong. I think my dad might be using it for his riding mower.

 

So have we come to a conclusion on what the biggest battery that will fit is? I have a 2017 FFS with a Steeda CAI. I'll eventually be putting in multiple amps, subs and A DSP. I'd like to go for a yellow top but it sounds like that might not be possible. I might have to go with a second battery but with the equipment I have now it worked beautifully in my last car with only one.

 

Battery finally quit. Went dead from sitting just over the weekend about 3 weeks ago. Dead again this morning after about 4 days sitting.

 

Swapped mine out 2 weekends ago. Old one was new from 2017 dead battery issue. It wasn't dead but wasn't getting full voltage so changed it for upcoming winter cold. Coincidentally the idle was rough (engine hunting a little when stopped at traffic lights) before changing the battery and now its good.
4 years out of a battery isn't bad, considering the temperatures we get here in Canada. Replaced with a like for like Motorcraft battery. Ive had no complaints with it since the battery issue was fixed.

 

Had two complete random shutdowns again in the past month, hoping this was part of the cause.

 

I thought I'd add an update to this:

Looks like the MKZ 3.0 uses the same battery tray as our Fusion Sport, but comes equipped with either the Group 94R flooded or AGM based on their as-built coding in 726-04-01 first 2 digits.
Our stock battery type is 12 (Group 90/T5) and would have to change to 0E for Group 94R flooded or 02 for Group 94R AGM. Probably changes the regulator mode for AGM or flooded.

Looking at the MKZ battery hold down, it is different. The new part is HP5Z-10718-C and is on the very edge of the tray. If you look closely at our tray, there are 3 bolt holes right by the airbox. Looks like the center hole is used to secure the new hold down. The other 2 holes are for wire harnesses, etc... It will be a TIGHT fit but 94R should fit in terms of length and height.

The question is, do you really need to go to a Group 94R? The weight difference is about 20 lb! I had trouble finding a Group 90/T5 with cell caps that can be removed but I think DEKA makes the only ones that unscrew so I may just go with a new DEKA or AGM in the future. The Group 94R, by all engineering logic, should have been the battery equipped in the Fusion Sport with all of the electronics on the 401A models especially with all the options. The Group 90/T5 is just simply a smaller and lighter battery, probably helps with weight distribution and weight reduction.