Just when I thought I was going to have an extra $200 spending money after coming in 2nd place in a fantasy football league, my battery goes kaput. I drove 50 miles, stopped to gas up and car wouldn't start. I got a jump from the mechanic guys there then I get to my destination, parked for about 2 hours and the car started. I then head to the mall for a little bit of xmas shopping, get back to my car, battery is dead and needed a jump again. Fortunately I was about 5 miles away from a Porsche dealership with its service department open on Saturdays and bought a new battery. Funny thing is, I was the 3rd person today to buy a battery from them. Anyways, bye bye $200.

 

I'm about to drop a fresh one in mine just for good measure. My car sits alot.

 

Do NOT get the Porsche battery!

 

any specific reason?

 

I agree from experience. Interstate is the way to go. Always OEM, but not in this case.

 

I agree with ‘Wross966TT’ & ‘co79’ in battery replacement, but only if you need to replace it again as there are better replacements.
However, you should look into why it’s happening, any battery dies quickly when constant drain is put on it between charging. Most of my issues have been my own fault by leaving the Radar Detector plugged in. Another involved the trunk light never shutting off, (chewed through two batteries to find that one). You won’t notice the drain if you use the car every day/other day, but over time it decreases the life of the battery significantly. As with most exotic vehicles, the batteries are small and light to keep weight down, therefore more fragile or ‘light-duty’ than what you may be used to.
I suggest a trickle-charger for the battery whenever not in use for more than 2/3 days. Many will feel that is too much, and they may be right for cheap chargers, but since I’ve implemented this procedure I haven’t bought a battery for any of my exotics in 5 years.
This is not an area to “purchase for price” as there are a LOT of variables in what’s available. There are some cheap units that will constantly run a charge, never shutting off that will fry a battery too, so learn what’s available and you (should) never have to buy a battery again. THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT: but go with “Battery Tender” or the Sears Battery Maintainer, (although I’m told there’s newer models with different names), but the better ones will cycle the charging for optimum battery life. Oh, and Porsche sells a model too, but don’t know anything about its effectiveness.

 

Ask any reputable Porsche dealer... I am also an interstate (850 CCA) user with their maintainer. Some opt for the weight saving Optimas or odessey...

 

Go to Sears and get yourself a Diehard for $129. P/N for Porsche 996/997 is 22833348 and comes with a 36 Month - Full Replacement/100 Month - Pro Rated warranty. It only cost me $12.99 to install too. The battery has more CCA and is also smaller in size and weight and best of all, no modding needed.

 

I was constantly having battery problems until I put it on a tender. I use the porsche for the car, but I use the battery tender products for the motorcycle and boat.

The porsche product is great. Plugs right into the cig lighter.

I also have an interstate battery in there now. Much better. I don't know what it is about these cars. If I let it sit for a couple weeks off the tender (which I don't do anymore), it's very slow to crank.

 

Guys with battery problems see my thread!

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...hlight=battery

 

Shucks I wish I had a chance to research this before it happened, but I was about 55 miles away from home and a Porsche dealer was less than a mile away from where I was and I didn't want to take the risk of needing a jump again. Hopefully it was just the battery and not the alternator or a trunk light killing my battery, but from my understanding the battery I had in there was the original since the car was new, so hopefully it was just an old battery with the combination of the cold nights we've been having here in the Bay Area.

 

I don't blame you. I probably woulda done the same thing if I hadn't known about the other options. Plus you were out in the middle of nowhere.

Since your car is a 2003 I would put my money on the battery being the issue.

P.S. My Duralast battery from Autozone is still running well after a year! No problems.