Never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad I bought a Duralast battery

Well, the day I got my XJ the battery conveniently died (really shady dealership - truck had frame damage too but that's another story) so I just went with a Duralast Gold yellow top conventional battery.

Yesterday, my XJ had progressively more and more trouble starting, and by the time I had to have someone jump start me I decided to go by AutoZone and replace the battery.

It turns out the battery was fully covered by their warranty - no prorating, nothing. They covered the whole thing.

Given that I was ready to shell out ~$100 or so for a new battery, I asked if they could apply that as credit toward the purchase of a higher-end battery. So, $100 and some change later, I'm now the proud owner of an Optima yellow top D34/78.

In any case, I just wanted to throw out a friendly +1 for AutoZone, given how rarely they make me this happy. If you've got a Duralast that craps out on you, keep this in mind when you go to replace it.

Autozone lifetime replacements are great! They come in handy all the time.

I did a lot of research on a battery for my dad's F-150. From what I found, almost all of the lead-acid batteries out there are made by Johnson Controls and the only real difference between them is the warranty, and Autozone was the longest at 3-year free/8-year pro-rated. That's also longer than the dry-cell and gel batteries.

I have been running one of their cheapo Duralast batteries in my Jeep for a few years (NOT the top-end battery but the cheapest I could find on Xmas Eve) and it's held up fine. So my experience is that all of the wet-cell stuff is all pretty much the same and you really want to focus on being able to get a replacement quickly and easily,

A tip I've learned over the years. When you replace a battery, do an inspection of the alternator before installing the new battery.

Good deal on the Optima though.

Fortunately, the alternator is doing great - once started, the car ran like a champ. I even jump-started my back-up car (the ol' Camry wagon) off of my jump-started XJ on my way to AutoZone (to move the Camry into the driveway to get it on a trickle charger, since I haven't driven it in months).

It is showing slightly less than 14V on the dash gauge while running, though - I need to check it with a multimeter sometime today.

clean the wire terminals, makes a big difference on how well the battery is able to load and hold

For what it's worth, my circa-2005 Duralast Gold bit the dust after I left the interior lights on for a couple days in January. AutoZone charged me something on the order of $34 for the Optima D34.

Can't say that the situation could've turned out any better.

When your battery craps out at 1am, Wal-Mart is the only place open. I needed to get home, I tried to jump start but some plates must of welded together so it wouldn't jump. Knock on wood, so far, so good. I rarely buy fancy batteries.

Nice they let you upgrade, that is definitely a plus.

cjsxj87 said:

Autozone lifetime replacements are great! They come in handy all the time.

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Yes, because you are replacing the items for the lifetime of them since they suck. They are nice every once and a while, but I've had enough of replacing them that I'd rather shell out a few more money the first time then have to lose my time later on having to replace them constantly.

Begster said:

Nice they let you upgrade, that is definitely a plus.




Yes, because you are replacing the items for the lifetime of them since they suck. They are nice every once and a while, but I've had enough of replacing them that I'd rather shell out a few more money the first time then have to lose my time later on having to replace them constantly.

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most of us have more time than money mister deep pockets