Which battery needs to be the best?

[jonnyboy54321]

All

My 95 3.0td needs a battery. The o/side one is kaput, n/s one rated as good by my little tester.
Question - which of the batteries need to be the better one? o/s or n/s? Have a new one on the way.

Thanks

 

[Shayne]

Single battery 90's only have one on the drivers side so i guess that's where your starter takes its power from .

 

[Beau]

One dead battery will drain the other, and eventually ruin the good one. Like Shayne said, I think the drivers side one is the more important one though I'm not sure it matters as batteries are in parallel???

 

[DaveVoorhis]

They're wired in parallel without isolation so if one is bad it'll drain the good one. Replace both or take out the bad one and just run with the good one.

 

[karl webster]

They're wired in parallel without isolation so if one is bad it'll drain the good one. Replace both or take out the bad one and just run with the good one.

Agree. If it has two replace both. Battery megastore are doing them. £50 each inc delivery. Can't fault the batteries yet

 

[StarCruiser]

Agree with Karl on this. If you replace only one and the remaining one is anything but exactly the same, it will have an adverse effect on the new battery.

 

[Bob]

I often wondered why Toyota bothered with dual batteries on the 95. As far as I can see it's completely unnecessary, and more of an added complication. Mine has a single battery, and even in the worst winters we had (minus 15) it started first turn.

I have thought of adding a 2nd battery in the space it should be, but purely as a leisure battery

 

[DaveVoorhis]

It's part of the "winter package", which is the same whether you buy a 95 in the UK with mild winters, or in Finland or Sweden where it can get cold enough for the extra battery capacity to perhaps make a difference.

 

[StarCruiser]

If there is the option to run on one good quality battery then this is far preferable to two in parallel due to the possibility of mutual discharge. If you decide to do this you could do a leisure battery set up in the vacant battery tray.

 

[uHu]

Absolutely replace both at the same time, preferably find a matched pair with the same production date. The two batteries act as one, divided into two packages, and has to be treated as such.
Alternatively, as suggested above here, convert the wiring to run with only one battery with a high CCA as the starter battery, and make the other one isolated from the starter circuit for running fridge, camping lights, etc. Or just chuck it away.

 

[jonnyboy54321]

Hmmm.
Not what I was expecting.
Will give my pal a (another) call - he bought a shedload from ECP when they had a stupid clearance offer on. Already had the one off him....
TY all.