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Although this article is motivated by the Cadillac SRX battery problems I’ve experienced, I believe that all Cadillac owners will benefit from reading it. When my 2009 Cadillac SRX started to push beyond its six birthday I started wondering how long the original equipment battery would last. The model number on the OE unit is 48–7YR. In General Motors speak this translates to a 48 series battery intended to last seven years from the build date on the door jam.
This was intriguing to me, because I’ve never had a battery last more than about five years. The thought of getting seven years out of a car battery was amazing to me. Since the mighty Delco was now about 76 months old, yet experiencing no signs of a problem I decided to try and get a little more out of it. However, I was concerned that the car would not start at some point and leave me stranded. Therefore, I purchased a battery jump box and kept it in the car just in case. You can see which one I bought below.
I believe the quality of the original equipment Delco battery is beyond reproach. However, when I went to the Cadillac dealership to get a new one, I got sticker shock. They wanted $250 to cash and carry a new Delco battery. Then I would be left with disposal of the original equipment. If I had the service department perform the operation this pushed the price to $375 after paying a .
Amazon sells a 48 – 7YR for less than $200, you can check that out below. Unfortunately, I didn’t want my alternator to blow up while I waited for delivery. This left me with two choices in my area. I could get a never start battery from Wal-Mart for $140, but it wasn’t an AGM. I also had two choices at the local AutoZone. They stocked a standard lead acid battery or their Platinum Series AGM battery for $180.00.
GM rated the original equipment CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) at 730. They rated the platinum series Duralast CCA at 760. Unfortunately, this battery had been on the shelf for seven months. I prefer not to buy old stock when it comes to car batteries. However, with my back against the wall I decided to go with the AGM Duralast. After a couple of weeks of driving around the battery charged up nicely. My battery voltage indicator now reads between 12.5 and 13 V during normal operation.
I have been writing here on this blog for several years. Every once in a while I hear about an intermittent no start condition after replacing the original car battery. Although I don’t have a definitive answer to the problem, it seems that incorrect replacement batteries had been selected in these circumstances. You don’t want to save money and get a smaller battery that doesn’t fit properly.
You also don’t want to select a battery with less cold cranking amps than the original one. Our Cadillac’s call for a 48 BCI (Battery Council International) group battery. This is a large sized battery case with recessed positive and negative terminals. Not everybody stocks these replacement units and they can try to talk you into something they have on hand. Hold out for the right one.
On my Cadillac SRX the battery fits tightly against the firewall on the passenger side of the vehicle. There is a plastic shelf that extends partially over the battery, making the replacement more difficult. This is actually the fresh air intake for the ventilation system and also the .
Once you remove the positive and then the negative battery cables you can remove the bolt from the battery hold down clamp. There’s no clamp bolts for the battery terminals. Cadillac uses a lever latching system to assure the proper tightness. However, they take a substantial amount of force to release and re-clamp. Once the battery is loose it will come out without removing anything else, but it is tight. I had a friend lift up on the plastic shelf which gave me an extra inch of clearance allowing the battery to come right out.
With that said, this re-emphasizes the importance of finding a direct replacement 48 series battery of the same proportions and style. If you think a larger battery with more cold cranking amps will last longer you’ll have a lot of . Finally, before you reconnect the battery cables I recommend using terminal protection spray and color-coded corrosion pads. This will help reduce the maintenance required over the next seven years or however long it lasts. You can find both of these items below.
After removing the Delco battery it was about 20 minutes before I connected the new Duralast Platinum to the automobile. I thought for sure I would lose all my radio station presets. Nevertheless, that didn’t happen. There must be a capacitor on board to keep the settings alive. Although the radio stations remained the clock needed correction.
The thing I didn’t expect to have an issue with was the express up and down window features. I went to a drive-through and pushed down on the driver side window from the master control switch and the window only went down an inch. Despite engaging the express down feature, it no longer functioned after replacing the battery. Fortunately, resetting this feature is simple.
Push and hold the window switch all the way down. Continue holding it down after the window, reaches the bottom of its travel for five seconds. Then run the window all the way up and again hold the up position for five seconds after it reaches its full upward travel. You do this from the master switch and it re-sets the express window functions.
There‘s additional information available on this site for people with other types of electrical problems. You can visit this article if your . I also have an article with general information not related to Cadillac brand automobiles. Finally, on the auto-facts.org website I have a popular article that talks about under a variety of conditions and circumstances. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
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