PSA: Great price on 94R batteries

paramedick

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor
Joined
Jul 29, 2001
Location
Versailles, Kentucky
TDI
2015 Audi Q5 TDI
Went by my local Walmart recently. 94R batteries on the shelf for $75. New stock, not outdated. The two I picked up were manufatured 8/09 and 9/09. 3 yr. exchange warranty, then prorated exchange.

YMMV, and this might only be a KY thing.
 

paramedick

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor
Joined
Jul 29, 2001
Location
Versailles, Kentucky
TDI
2015 Audi Q5 TDI
Put your lawnchair away, and give the pigeons the popcorn.

Battery standards are defined by the BCI trade group. The rating for the 94R battery is 80 amp-hours. I have no reason to doubt that this battery does not meet those standards.

Distributed by Exide, and probably made by them. Other ratings are 730 CCA, and 875 CA.

I'll feel very comfortable putting this battery in my 03 Golf that still has the original battery.

If you have doubts, I call. Show your cards.
 

TornadoRed

Top Post Dawg
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West Des Moines (formerly St Paul)
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2003 Jetta TDI wagon, silver; 2003 Jetta TDI wagon, indigo blue; 2003 Golf GL 5-spd, red (PARTED); 2003 Golf GLS 5-spd, indigo blue (SOLD); 2003 Jetta TDI wagon, Candy White (SOLD)
paramedick said:
Went by my local Walmart recently. 94R batteries on the shelf for $75. New stock, not outdated. The two I picked up were manufatured 8/09 and 9/09. 3 yr. exchange warranty, then prorated exchange.

YMMV, and this might only be a KY thing.
It is not a Kentucky-only thing, because I got one of those EverStart Maxx 94R batteries myself just a few weeks ago.

I am pretty sure it is manufactured by Johnson Controls, same as Diehards and Optimas. 910 cranking amps, 765 cold cranking amps.
 

tdidieselbobny

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Stafford,NY (WNY)
TDI
'03 Galactic Blue Jetta TDI, '15 Silk Blue Golf Sportwagen TDI
Hmmm-might have to check this out-there is a Duralast battery in my car(was in when I purchased car 2/05)-and it has been turning over slower when it has been colder out.
 

JB05

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Location
Il.USA
TDI
Golf,2005,anthracite blue
Bruce, a good piece of info; thankyou and please keep us updated. The OEM Varta on my 05 Golf is still going strong even after driving 27 miles without a serp. belt. I found a dead squirrel lodged in the down below the alternator, but the belt survived.
 

paramedick

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor
Joined
Jul 29, 2001
Location
Versailles, Kentucky
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2015 Audi Q5 TDI
The questioning below bothered me. Therefore, I determined that this battery is definitely manufactured by Exide. Called their engineering department and asked the rating on this battery.

81.2 aH. I suspect that this more than meets the spec for the TDIs.......;) :D

I gotta admit that I'm getting tired of being called out every time I post a good deal on something.
 

TornadoRed

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paramedick said:
The questioning below bothered me. Therefore, I determined that this battery is definitely manufactured by Exide. Called their engineering department and asked the rating on this battery.

81.2 aH. I suspect that this more than meets the spec for the TDIs.......;) :D
Hmmm... I went to http://www.autobatteries.com/about/index.asp where it clearly states that:
"AutoBatteries.com is brought to you by Johnson Controls, Inc., North America's leading battery manufacturer. This site is designed to help you as consumers learn more about batteries, choose what battery you want, figure out the right part for your vehicle, and find out where you can buy it."


Then, here it lists the brands made by Johnson Controls:
Mitsubishi
TrueStart
Alliance
Duralast
DieHard
Acura
Honda
Kirkland Signature
EverStart
Energizer
Autocraft
OPTIMA
Blains Farm & Fleet
Mazda

Then if you click on EverStart, it says:
"EverStart – exclusively available at Walmart stores across the U.S."

So you have Exide claiming that they make the battery which you and I both bought at Walmart, and then there's Johnson Controls also taking credit. Who to believe....
 

paramedick

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor
Joined
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Location
Versailles, Kentucky
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2015 Audi Q5 TDI
TornadoRed said:
Then if you click on EverStart, it says:
"EverStart – exclusively available at Walmart stores across the U.S."

So you have Exide claiming that they make the battery which you and I both bought at Walmart, and then there's Johnson Controls also taking credit. Who to believe....
The lady at the Everstart hotline that says "that battery was made by Exide"........ :p She passed me on to the tech support/engineering folks. 1-888-EVSTART

EVERSTART is a Walmart store brand. They contract with different companies to make the batteries.
 

Dimitri16V

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Location
DE
TDI
01 Golf, 04 Golf
Installed an Everstart 94R in my 04 two days ago.
the factory varta bit the dust after 5+ years. Funny how the Varta on my 01 lasted 7+ years.
 

NB_TDi

Vendor
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Mar 16, 2008
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NB, Canada █♣█
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2014 Jetta SE
Sadly I had a Varta that lasted 2 days. I replaced it with my current Exide. Worked well last winter. Hopefully this winter it will perform the same.
 

T_D_I_POWER

Top Post Dawg
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'04 VW PASSAT GLS TDI '06 Audi A4 q Avant 6-Spd Sport Pkg
NB_TDI

Thanks for sharing it. That and the SAE study paper just confirmed how well SAE spec batteries are.

SAE Home > Publications > Papers

Requirements and Norms of Sli-Batteries in the North European Climate

Document Number: 890015 Date Published: February 1989
Author(s):
M. T. Loponen - Corporate R&D Neste, Finland
A. Nieminen - Corporate R&D Neste, Finland

Abstract:
SLI battery norms effect the performance of a battery in cold starts both directly and indirectly. The indirect influence is for instance due to the prevailing figure of merit, CCA amps (SAE) or 20 h capacity (DIN). The European norms seem to lead to batteries with insufficient cranking power at low temperatures. The SAE norm encourages the manufacturer both directly and indirectly to lower the battery resistance, which results in a higher cranking power and thus in a battery better suited to northern weather conditions.
 

tdidieselbobny

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Stafford,NY (WNY)
TDI
'03 Galactic Blue Jetta TDI, '15 Silk Blue Golf Sportwagen TDI
A question-how do you know date of manufacture? Is it a code or sticker on battery? I need to remember to check my battery before I leave work tomorrow-we have a battery load tester there.There is a Duralast in my car now-was in it when I bought it in 2/05......
 

Lefty

Veteran Member
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Oct 21, 2005
Location
Lazear,Colorado Population 60
TDI
Jetta, 2000,Green GLS
Is this just another Walmart bashing? Oh no Walmart did something right!

I paid over $100 for my Interstate battery a couple of years ago and I got it on a great deal from a friend. If I had bought it from my local Interstate resale store it would be $189 plus tax.

At $75 I might have to consider buying one soon. Oh and I would get my wife's 10% discount on top of that.
 

Sip'n Diesel

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San Joaquin Valley, I have VCDS (KII-USB)
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2003 ALH: 254,000 miles
do Interstate batteries come with some form of warranty/guarantee or whatnot? I seem to remember something about that from way back when I bought an Interstate for a Pontiac... :confused:

I should (need to) get a battery before it gets much colder. at first glance buying OEM from the dealership seems to be the way-to-go... OTOH I've considered going other routes lately due to threads about Interstate (MTP-H7?) being TDI-worthy and this thread as well. thanks for making this info available :)

AFAIK I'm still rollin' with the factory original battery (154,XXX miles... 04/2002 production date :eek:)
 

ofhs93

Veteran Member
Joined
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Location
Scranton, PA
TDI
Jetta GL, 99.5, Silver
FYI...this seems to be nationwide for availability as well.....$75 as was stated originally by our KY Guru :) I also spotted an "exact" replica of this at Pep Boys with a nice Bosch label that they wanted $189 for...wow...I can only imagine how much more power and longevity that Bosch label must provide ;)

For Paremadick and Tornado...were the batteries you bought in a white casing? That is what is on *our* local WM shevles...and also at the Pep Boys.
 

JB05

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Location
Il.USA
TDI
Golf,2005,anthracite blue
The 94R I saw at WM was white with a Nov., 09 sticker on the side. I still wish it had the AH listed as well. I did say made by Exide.
 
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tdidieselbobny

Top Post Dawg
Joined
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Location
Stafford,NY (WNY)
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'03 Galactic Blue Jetta TDI, '15 Silk Blue Golf Sportwagen TDI
They were $75 at my Walmart(checked yesterday)-it was a yellow casing I believe. I checked my battery w/ load tester at work today-car/ignition off, the tester read 11.2 volts-it was just slightly in green saying ok-closer to the weak mark-time to replace???
 
Joined
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Location
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Jetta, Baltic Green
I haven't posted since 2005.
I got the Walmart 94R battery last week in Peterborough, Ontario. It's an Eveready, made by Johnson Controls, 965CA/735CCA, for 145 Cdn. off the shelf. Date is 10/09.
My OEM battery (2nd one) is strugglng on cold mornings now and we haven't even had any snow yet. I left the lights on sans engine running in order to illuminate an unpleasant but necessary task this evening and after 30 minutes the car would not crank. Time to actually put in the new battery. Now if I can only recall where I put the radio re-programming card...:confused:
-Jon Archibald
Indian River, Ontario
 

y2kbird

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2006
Location
earth
TDI
'02 Black Jetta, '03 Blue Jetta
walmart sources batteries from 3 suppliers according to consumer reports

in nwpa/western ny-they are using exide maxx-start 94rn (white battery) for $75 730 CCA, and 875 CA

in eastern ohio-they are using johnson controls maxx-start 94r (black battery) same $75 but 930 CA

note: the 10/09 JC battery had a more modern looking blue maxxstart sticker on the front which said *2 year free replacement*. the 8/09, 9/09, and 11/09 JC batteries in the same rack had the older looking maxx start front stickers which said 3 year free replacement

exides have left me down numerous times. new batteries testing as bad cells, 3 month old batteries testing internal failure, and 1.5yr old batteries with buldging sides.
 

T_D_I_POWER

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BalticgreenA4TDI said:
.....Now if I can only recall where I put the radio re-programming card...:confused:
-Jon Archibald
Indian River, Ontario
For future electrical work in your car whenever you need to disconnect the batt. you might want to consider using this device. I have no issues what so ever.

 
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