1996 Tacoma Battery Upgrade

My prior battery (up until a week ago) was a Super Starter Premium which was 5 years old and it never died on me, BUT to be safe before going on several road trips this summer. I decided to change it out and upgrade it.

Originally I was going to go Optima, but I have been hearing recently they outsourced to Mexico and the quality has gone to shit. So instead I asked on of the techs at my work (Toyota) what would be the best AGM battery thats not breaking the bank for my truck, he told me to check out Bosch.

I ended up picking up a Bosch 24F (flipped terminals and same as a 24R; which is factory size) Platinum AGM battery out the door for $180

Plus it has a longer reserve than the optima and the same Cold Cranking Amps at 0*F

Most Importantly Optima’s warranty is only 3 years while Bosch’s warranty is 4 years.

 

Nice, it's not always easy to find our size with the reversed terminals. Who makes that Bosch battery? I guess Bosch might but it looks like a rebranded Odyssey doesn't it? If so, that's a very very good price on a very good battery

 

Okay so it looks like the Bosch batteries are made by Exide. They seem to be a decent battery. That's a fair price imo for an AGM battery OP

 

Tacoma's use a type"F" there are the same as a Ford battery hence the "F".

 

I thought I've always seen it spec'ed as a type 'R' like 24R which I thought stood for reverse. But tomato, tomahta
Edit: maineah above is right on. Don't know where I got the 'R' from...

 

Good plan. For several years now, I've been proactively replacing batteries that I bought at Advance within a few months after the 3-year warranty expired. Amazingly they would develop a short by 42 months. It must be some type of service life programming. I've noticed that a good battery helps keep the charging and starting system healthy. I have a buddy on Long Island that swears by Bosch batteries. I don't know of a Bosch dealer in my area or I would try one.

Right now I have four vehicles that all use the 24F battery. I like it.

 

Made in USA. Guessing its Excide like other said, was going to go 35R Odyssey but too much money and also my tech Recommended this one so im guessing he has heard good things. Funny part is, in our shop yesterday we had a dead optima redtop that was only 2 months old

 

We have oreilly and autozone every other block, but my Toyota does all our aftermarket work through AutoPlus and we have a shop here that gives discounts for being employee.

 

There's only a few battery manufacturers and 100s of "brands". Bosch is an exide battery.

 

Yup

 

I’ve run optima batteries for over 20 years and never had a bad experience.

Yellow in the Tahoe and red top in the Tacoma.

I’ve had 4 red tops in the Tacoma over 21 years. Two lasted about 7 years each, last one lasted 4 years
and I have a few years going strong in there now.

 

Yes, they used to be good around 10 years ago but outsourced to mexico and autoparts stores across countries are getting returns in masses cause they are failing

 

I like you’re display pic

 

Yeah, I'd avoid Optima. I've had 3 and they all failed prematurely. I know some people's Optimas are fine, I'm just stating my experience with them

 

Thanks, part of it was from internet but I had to photoshop alot of it, such as the color, the glare, the tires and the skidplate and only half the truck was there

 

also what bumper is that? im looking to get a new bumper soon for more steep approaches.... not trying to break the bank though cause I am still a student

 

Wow, so how long did they last and we’re they under warranty

 

So this would've been around 2007 or so, but I had a yellow top from Costco in an 80 series Cruiser for just under a year until it went bad. So Costco replaced it and that one lasted 2 years. Until I got sick of needing to baby it and went and got an Odyssey for it and that odyssey is still in it. My pops bought truck off me years ago.
I also had a red top in my 40 series that I'd only drive a couple times a month and after a few months it wouldn't hold a charge and I just got my money back and went for a standard Interstate after that.
Might've just been flukes but it left a sour taste in mouth so just dropped Optima. This was around the time I believe they just started importing the batts from Mexico. It seems just some of them weren't good. Some people got years and years out of em even as late as when I bought those Optimas. Bad luck prolly.
Costco carries Interstate now and I'll likely move all vehicles over to Interstate. I like Interstate and I like Costco warranty

 

Maybe I'm just lucky my yellow top in the Tahoe is 6 years old still running strong