Quick question...
Did a quick search and really did not find my answer.
Does it make a difference what car battery you put in ?
Would a battery that has cold cranking amps of 795 be harmful to the car or anything ?
The battery is the same width / hight size as the one currently in the car, but wish to make sure asto not fry anything ?
91 Jetta Diesel
no prob at all. I put a much bigger one, and runs fine. (84A/h)
before I had a tiny one (35A/h) and also ran fine
EDIT: in Portugal "cold" cranking amps don't mean much
weee
my car is using an optima with about 900 cca
cool ! thankz for the info guys!
all depends on where you live. the colder the climate, the more CCA's you want, although there was a thread detailing it better... i think some batteries CCA's didn't mean much.
Yeah, that's the bottom line - do you live in snow country ? If so, you can't get too much battery capacity. Many diesels came with duel batteries so they would have much in reserve. If it is really cold, you might need to do several glow plug cycles. This drags down your battery so you will need the reserve so when you crank, you still have full voltage to get the speed you require to start. A gas engine can fire in the cold while cranking really slow, some even when cranking by hand, but with the diesel you must have heat and part of that is the speed of cranking.
If you live in SoCal or Miami, the stock gasser VW battery would work, although I'd still want higher capacity as the battery will last longer.
forgot to mention as well, the battery can only work as good as the connections it is given... so be sure to clean or even install a nice thick ground cable with some conductive grease onto the motor/transmission from the battery. and inspect/clean/replace the positive going to the starter/alternator. this will make a huge difference if you're lacking good contact. the symptoms of bad connections can resemble that of a bad/low battery. :wink: