UNOHOO

iTrader: (3)

How much cold cranking amps and regular output should have for our battery? Reason I ask is some guy at autozone is trying to sell me one that has less than 600 CCA and I. Figured itd be a lot higher

UNOHOO

iTrader: (3)

so i grabbed one up that was 750 cca and 950 ca, i think thats more accurate

Lexmex

Somehow 585 cca sticks in my brain for cca oem.

code58

I think Lexmex is probably about correct, though (Toyota-as a company) doesn't seem to like to tell you on the outside of the battery, any ratings. Some may have it but many don't. My wife's Camry (Japanese manufacture) has a Panasonic battery with absolutely no ratings of any kind. They make an excellent battery but don't want you to know anything about it. Actually the 600CCA is plenty for an RX. I went to get a new battery for my Motorhome (Chev. 454 C.I.) and always preferring larger rather than smaller, I was disappointed when the largest thing Costco even sells for it is a 660CCA. I believe it is actually as large as it came with though. They used to figure 1 CCA per cu.in.. Probably a little more now with so many electronics and dependent on stable voltage but even the 600CCA would have been excess at that rate. Can you ever have to many CCA's? Probably not if you have the alternator to keep it fully charged.

salimshah

I have refrained from answering the question as I did not (and still do not) know the exact cca number. I think it is below 600.

The starter looks like a wiper motor (I grew uo with a diesel which required a heavy starter) and the RX fires up real quick.

The higher CCA is essentially a battery which can supply more current (more plates in parallel and thus heavier).

So reason not to use much more CCA than needed, will be weight/size and also the current demand on the charging circuit (read alternator) when the battery is discharged. What is the upper safe limit? Sorry I dont know.

Salim

ColdLexus

Higher CCA will also help you in colder climates.

UNOHOO

iTrader: (3)

well last winter my oem battery died, i mean it was DEAD, so i went to wal mart to get a new one since i was very broke at the time, they had a little gizzy there that you punched in information and it told you you needed "x" battery, i remember that i didnt quite have enough loot to buy the one i needed so i checked the cca/ca (i dont remember what that was now) and got the best thing i could, so i got a battery that was 700 cca and 850 (i think) ca. i knew it was too small for the car, it didnt even fit in the cradle, it was physically too small to strap it down with the bar in the battery compartment. It worked fine, i knew in the back of my mind that it needed to be replaced and ive been workin on other stuff since then but now at night, when i have the lights on you can see the lights dim with every bass hit from the stereo (still factory) and if i use the power windows you see the lights dim, plus sometimes it idles rough and i think that all the lights dimming will go away after i replace it with the bigger battery.

bob2200

I think you should have put plywood or something under the battery to raise it up enough so that the strap-down would fit snugly. Having a wet-cell battery that can flop around is not good.

code58

Trust me Uno- I have about every type of testing equipment you could have for batteries and have tested more than I would ever care to remember and a 600 CCA battery is plenty adequate for your car, even in
Maryland. My brothers '07 Ford f-150 with the large engine (5.4L) came standard with a 540CCA battery. My '04 F-150 came with the optional 650CCA battery and I also have the largest of the 3 engines that they offer- the 5.4L. If the battery that you bought at Walmart wasn't tall enough that only means that they didn't give you the "riser" that should have come with it for that vehicle application. It doesn't mean that the battery was underpowered for your car. The numbers that you are talking about are full blown overkill. I am pretty sure what LexMex said was true because I changed the battery in my DIL's 99RX and the battery that came out was a Lexus battery but was replacement (a little different than what comes in it new),and was 585CCA. The new battery that I put in was Costco and was the heaviest one they sold for it and was 600CCA. If you are experiencing the problems you stated it is either because the battery is defective or you have such a large battery that the alternator isn't able to keep it fully charged. That is not normal and just throwing in a larger battery may very well not solve your problem of dimming. My wife's Camry and my DIL's RX have the same battery (Costco 600CCA) and there is not a trace of dimming no matter what you have on or use in the way of electrical (at night). For most intents and purposes the battery is only for starting (oversimplification) and your electrical is all run off of the alternator output. A car in good condition produces about 14V + or - a little and should keep the battery fully charged no matter what you have on in the way of electrical. You need to look elsewhere for the cause of the dimming when there is a load (a heavy enough load may produce slight dimming) but the base hit on the factory stereo certainly shouldn't. A large diesel truck or bus normally has 4 heavy duty 12V batteries but that's only for starting. Once running it should be able to run on 1 of those with no problem.

ColdLexus

I believe code58 is bang on. It isn't the battery causing the dimming. You should have someone like a mechanic look at why the power drops off with certain load conditions.
You don't mention what kind & year of car your mom has. And what kind of mechanical condition it is is.