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MG MGF Technical - New Battery

Well my car is five years old and the battery has died - won't hold any charge.
As it was a bit urgent that I get a new battery I didn't have time to phone round or wait for one to arrive by post, so I went to my local car accessory shop.
They listed two sizes for the F - when I looked at the car I could see that behind the standard size battery there is another mounting bolt position, allowing the fitting of a physically larger battery.
Bought the larger size, and larger capacity, battery for £35 with a 3 year guarantee.
Not a bad price I thought, but wonder why there are mounting positions for 2 different sizes of batteries and Rover fit the smaller size?
Jason H
Jason H

Air con and not?
I have not heard of this, do you know the battery number (mine in an 063, I thought that the 065 was a larger capacity but the same physical size battery, I wonder why they didn't spec this?)

Will
Will Munns

The cars with power steering require a larger capacity battery, 90 amps instead of 70 amps.
Spyros Papageorghiou

so my 063 _is_ the larger capacity?
Will Munns

There are two positions for the battery clamp. When I changed mine last year it had the smaller one fitted (car has PAS) but I upgraded to a heavy duty as the price increase was marginal.
Steve White

My car has PAS and Air con, so I would have expected the larger battery if one was required, but I had the smaller size fitted. As Steve said, the cost to go to the larger (size and capacity) battery was not much so worth doing, imho.
Nevertheless this does not answer the the question as to why there is another mounting position provided? If Rover really were trying to cut costs by fitting the smallest battery possible, why fit a second position complete with spare bolt and washer?
Jason H
Jason H

The larger size is for cars with EPAS.

The smaller size is for cars without EPAS.

That is according to my copy of the Workshop manual.

Ted
Ted Newman

Ted,
As Will has said, I think the 2 batteries from Rover are the same physical size, just different capacities -that would explain why my standard battery was the smaller physical size yet was fitted to a car with EPAS and Aircon.
How are the capacities specified in the manual - are they in battery capacity Ah, or in cold test current A ?
Jason H
Jason H

Battery Manual Steer Power Steer
Type - Maintenance free YGD 10003 ...................... YGD10012
Cold crank 405 amps ................................. 480amps
Reserve capacity 70 amps ............................ 90amps
JohnP

Jason

You may well be right BUT I do remember the mechanic at my dealer saying that the smaller rack was for the smaller battery as used on non-EPAS cars and in fact when I needed to get a new battery a couple of years back the one that was supplied was the physically smaller unit and the guy could see that the existing was much bigger.

Perhaps MGR changed them on later cars!

Ted
Ted Newman

John & Ted,
Thanks - The original battery fitted to my car was the smaller physical size and was 480 amps cold crank.
Perhaps Rover were using two different sources of batteries or something silly like that and so had to fit alternative mountings!

I wonder if the spare bolt and washer in the "spare" mounting position have been removed on the TF as another cost saver? ;)
Jason H
Jason H

This thread was discussed between 04/03/2003 and 05/03/2003

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