Anyone With An Optima D27F In VE/WM?

[Wonky]

The battery in the Senator is on its last legs, so much so that when Jez came around to do the relearn on the TPMS system after my rim swap yesterday, he wasn't game to start anything else involving flashing anything because just repumping up the four tyres from half full or more had totally killed the battery. It had already been on charge 12+ hours overnight after having been driven almost 100km yesterday.

Knowing VEs had a habit of running batteries flat in short time I decided to get another Optima Yellow Top. I SMSd the man at Optima I'd bought the D34 in the ute from and he said a number of taxi drivers with WMs have been using the D27F and suggested one of those. Quite similar in price but almost 200 CCA higher. A little bigger physically but apparently still fits, so I have booked in tomorrow to have it fitted for me. Unfortunately not at the same place as he's overseas at the moment, so somewhere closer to home who weren't sure a D27F would fit in a VE. I'm working on the assumption that VE and WM battery holders are the same and the place I'm going to know the guy who told me about the D27F supplies them so they were happy to take his word.

I'd never heard of the D27F before - has anyone here put one in a VE/WM? It looks at least like the terminals are on the right way around.

[Wonky]

Update: just had the D27F fitted by the guys at HS Auto Elec in Ringwood. They had to make a minor alteration to a bracket but apart from that it was apparently straight forward.

Compared to the D34 many people have used in VEs it's a better option I believe. Similar price but CCA of 830 amps compared to 750 for the D34 (I was thinking 650 in my first post ) and MCA of 1025 amps compared to 870.

Most importantly I believe the terminals are not back to front as on the D34.

All up $329 inc free fitting. The guys at HS were great - very friendly and smiles all round. They also sell them on eBay but I didn't go through eBay.

[white lie]

Good stuff Wonks
I didn't see your OP but I thought the D35 was actually the better fit for Commodores, even though the D34 seems to be more common. The terminals are around the other way

[Red CV8 R]

I run the D35, terminals are correct for a V series Holden. It works really well.

[Wonky]

True but it's only 620 amps CCA for almost the same money.

[mechatron]

Not having a go but I don't know why people choose the Optima batteries over something like the Deka Intimidator 9A34R. You can generally get them for under $300 and they have 775CCA. That's what I have in my SS ( well 2 Dekas actually) and they're brilliant

[Red CV8 R]

I paid $270 for my D35, I thought that was decent.

[Micks]

That's good you got it all sorted & a huge one @ that. Good thing though as the Senators are built on Calais Lux level & have heaps of elec loads above the ordinary VE cars too!
Just on Batt. life in the VE's we've had ours since new & coming up five years now, what life should we expect? ours is a Calais V Sportswagon.

[white lie]

Around about 5 years I reckon Micks lol

[Micks]

Around about 5 years I reckon Micks lol

So up for one soon then

[BLACK 346]

My 2010 Calais V is on it's OEM battery and still going strong. Gets a once a month CTEK charge FWIW. Is now on CTEK for 7 weeks whilst I am away for work, so will be interesting to see now long it lasts when I get back.

[Wonky]

I believe Mike had had several batteries in the Senator since he got it late 2008 and the one I just replaced was the first one which would last longer than 5 days without being used. Now we've moved the Senator will occasionally go that long without being started, plus I've had an alarm added which in the ute seemed to add a bit of a drain on the battery. It's not all that easy for me to hook a charger up so I wanted a battery which gave me the greatest safety margin.

The Yellow Tops can also handle being totally flattened and recharged without suffering like standard batteries.

[markone2]

She who must be obeyed at ALL times had me replace the original Holden battery in her VE Calais V 3 months ago...build date of car 2007
Not a bad run imho. given AC and lights are both set on auto


.

[whitels1ss]

She who must be obeyed at ALL times

.

I can't really imagine you obeying her at all times Mark.

You know all the tricks for getting around everything.

[XUV]

So up for one soon then

Yep, you better start a 'Recommend me a battery thread'