The battery in my truck is the original battery. My truck was manufactured in Oct of 2003 and has 90,000 miles on it. The battery still seems pretty good, I think it has lasted very long for a battery. Anyway, winter is coming and cold weather is coming on here in IL, sometimes when the temp is low the truck does start a little hard, like the battery could use more juice. I suppose I should have it tested like at Autozone or something. But anyway, I was shopping around for batteries and at our local Menards they carry Exide "Nascar performance" batteries. The one for my truck is $77, which is one of the cheapest prices I have found. This one had 750 Cold cranking amps and had a 40 month warranty. I haven't heard anything about these batteries. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this battery, any firsthand experience or anything else to share? I may or may not buy a new battery, I am just worried about going through winter with an 8 year old battery.

 

Exide is a good brand.I have had a few over the years,and they never let me down.
Personally however I do trust the Autozone brand.While I am NOT a fan of most of their parts,their battery,s last,and their warranty is second to none.
I only trust AZ for battery,s ,Oil,and Filters.Otherwise I shop elsewhere.
I suspect if its cold where you live,your,s will let you down indeed.

 

I prefer batteries made by Johnson controls myself. They make the duralast professional, interstate, and motorcraft. They also make some of the wal mart everstart. Usually the everstarts will say on the top manufactured by exide or johnson controls. The only experience I have had with the exide was with everstarts and they both had to be replaced within the warranty period.

 

Exide batteries are fine as are most if you take care of them. Personally I've had the best and most experience with Die Hard and Duralast Gold. I've had several units from those makes and have never had any trouble with them. I had a Die Hard 5-year battery for 8 years and replaced it because I thought I may be pushing my luck just a little.
I've had a Duralast Gold 7-year battery in my 96 Chevy 1500 for 7 years so far and no toubles yet.

 

+1 on Johnson Controls.

I've had very good luck with Costco/Kirkland batteries in the past 20yrs. Before then I was using DieHard Golds. (they're all mfr'd by Johnson Controls) They have the same 100month warranty as the equivalent DieHard's at 2/3 the price. All of mine have last at least 8yrs though I haven't gotten to 8yrs yet on my latest 100month battery.

For the truck, I got the next size up with 800CCA for $79 if I remember right, and it filled the battery tray completely. The stock battery was 650CCA or something; the Costco replacement was $59.

 

In one word...junk....

FYI- johnson sold off all of its battery lines a few years ago.
AC Delco is now interstate...and it goes down hill from there.

Piro to Johnson purchasing Exide, they (Exide) were one of the most ruthless, ill-concerned corporate entities in calif....they "Abandoned" (closed in their words) their central Calif mfg/storage facilities in the 90's.....leaving huge amounts of residual contamination almost down to the water tables, after years & years of improper "product handling"...of course they declared bankrupcy (for that particular entity) so the taxpayers would and did clean up their mess.

 

+1 here. And the AZ folks will even install for free.

 

thanks guys for all the replies. I think after reading them if I do replace the battery I am gonna go with this one from Autozone...
Duralast Gold/Battery (65-DLG) | 2004 Ford F150 1/2 ton P/U 4WD 8 Cylinders 5 5.4L EFI SOHC | AutoZone.com
It has an 8 year warranty and everyone says that they are good about honoring their warranties. Plus it has 850 CCA which should be plenty. I am not sure I will replace it yet. I may have Autozone do their free battery test or whatever, maybe they can tell me some more details about mine. I just think at 8 years old it could be getting close to its end time.

 

If you have a friend that works at a local shop see if he can get you a 65b from autozone. That's their commercial line which is physically identical to motorcraft. We sell them for 79.99 and that's retail. 65 series being a bigger battery they might be higher but still worth looking into. I think the one your looking at is good but you might save a little money this way.

 

OK, thanks for the tip.

 

Consumer Reports just a couple months ago had a write up of batteries in several sizes after a lond and involved test .... Kirkland was up in the top rated ones. I bought one for my '07 .... group size 65. 850 or 900 CCA as I recall, great warranty.

 

I had a pair of Exides in the Ford L-8000 with a 7.8L diesel. They survived the Illinois summer/winters for 11 years on that pair. I replaced them in 2010, they were purchased in 1999. At times the truck would sit 2 or 3 months without being started, and then would have no problems starting up. They finally started to die during the winter in 2010. Still would start the truck till it got down to freezing so I replaced them.

 

The Die Hard Platinum Group 65 has 930CCA; 4yr free replacement, and 100mo pro rated warranty. Locally it's $60 more than the Duralast Gold.

 

remeber, Exide no longer exists....they are Interstate batteries now, just like AC Delco.

 

So if johnson controls owns exide now why do the exides still look completely different? The everstarts at wal mart say on them either manufactured by exide technologies or johnson controls and they also look different depending on who makes them. I'm not saying your wrong it just doesnt make sense to me. I could understand buying out the name but not still making the same product that the former company did instead of using the name on their product. They are both publicly traded companies so maybe the same investment firm owns a large share or majority.