2003 Elantra Replacement Battery

What rating do I need for a replacement battery?

 

Why not just replace it with the same rating that's in it?

 

You should have at least 500 CCA. I'm not sure about the other specs.

 

Agree with Hyundaitech that 500CCA should be minimum.

But what this gentleman may be asking is what battery (other than from the
dealer) might even work in the Elantra. Admittedly, that is a tough one.

I own an '02 Elantra, and, just to be safe, have been doing some checking in
to battery sizes and so forth, just in case mine dies this Fall. There
isn't a lot to choose from.

For example, there is only one Sears DieHard available, and it is a very
expensive and unusual battery that is part of their international series.
It is readily available but VERY expensive. In other places that usually
have battery after battery to choose from for every other car, I have been
lucky to find one fitment for the Elantra.

Besides DieHard, the only other ones who can really help (besides the
dealer) is probably your friendlly Interstate battery people. Again, it
won't be cheap.

Hope this helps.

Tom Wenndt

 

Hmmmmmm.... you've got my curiosity up Tom. Admitedly, I have not gone out
an looked at my wife's '04 Sonata to see what kind of battery it uses, but
precisely what is it about your battery that makes it so difficult to find a
replacement?

Generally, size (physical size) it the biggest hurdle to get over and that's
not usually such a big hurdle. After that it's usually not a big deal.
Batteries generally come in enough configurations that you can easily find a
physical and CCA match without much trouble at all. It has been my
experience that WalMart will have a battery for every single need I've ever
encountered - and a lot cheaper than Sears or Interstate.

There are only two or three battery manufacturers out there. While there
certainly are different specs to batteries, there is not as much difference
between batteries from WalMart and Sears or even Interstate, as one might be
lead to believe. The biggest portion of the line of batteries from every
vendor is pretty much the same battery.

There Tom - you had to go and get my curiosity arroused, didn't you?

 

Mike Marlow asked me: "Hmmmmmm.... you've got my curiosity up Tom.
Admitedly, I have not gone out and looked at my wife's '04 Sonata to see
what kind of battery it uses, but precisely what is it about your battery
that makes it so difficult to find a replacement?"......

I can only suggest that you do what I did. I went to the battery section of
a few stores, and looked through the fitment guide for a suitable
replacement for my make, model and year.

Usually these books are pretty generous, giving you anything that would fit
under your hood, work with the connection terminals and be considered at
least somewhat suitable, whether it was an exact match or not.

For example, I had a Dodge Intrepid a few years ago that had a listing of
four different acceptable battery size no's. You multiply that by the
number of different batteries the suppliers have in each size (a 72-month,
an 84-month, etc.) and you had quite a selection to choose from.

But when I go to the '02 Hyundai Elantra, it shows the original battery no.
and the original CCA. But then, for any suitable replacement, it just gives
a page wide of dashes, meaning none of the replacements work, and
undoubtedly because of size issues and more. And the original battery is
such an unusual number (anything but a 65 or 34/78, or 35 or 75 or 24) that
most battery suppliers won't have that size unless they can order it.

As I said, Sears DieHard has one in their "International" section, which
both makes sense and is very telling. The battery is also very expensive.
Many other places have nothing.

So I suggest, now that it is Fall, that you spend a few minutes checking out
the battery fitment guide for your car in a few auto parts stores and
battery suppliers. I have no idea what you will find for your car, but at
least you won't be flying blind when and if your battery does go dead.

Hope this helps.

Tom Wenndt

 

Have been doing the same for my 2001 Elantra, still has the original
going fairly strong after 5 years.

Kragens and K-Mart have batteries that seems to spec out Ok
for about $75, Interstate want $75 also for a direct replacement,
the dealer wants $85 but I believe Hyndai Tech says the dealer's
Korean made battery is not that great.

 

The dealer batteries are okay. They're made by Interstate. In my opinion,
they're overpriced, though.

It's the original batteries in the vehicles I think are crap.

 

For what it's worth, the 24F fits just fine. I'm not sure what the size
designation is for Elantra, but I wind up installing a Sonata battery in
most cases because it fits, it's a better battery, and we sell it for the
same price.

 

Just replaced my battery in my 2000 elantra with walmart everstart 600 cca
and free install 2 yr free replacement and 6 yr prorated for 39.95 Happy so
far with it.

 

Funny you should mention the 24F battery.

In the 2002-'05 Kia Sedona, while the original battery is not a 24F, that is
listed as a recommended replacement, and indeed, it fits just fine.

But I have a local farm store that sells some pretty good quality batteries.
They do NOT list the 24F as fitting the Elantra, but they have something
called the 24FH. It seems to be only for selected Hyundai models, and it is
listed as the fit for the Elantra. It sells for the same price as the 24F,
and I can guess that the 'H' designation stands for Hyundai. On sale, I can
get it for $63, and the only available 24FH is their top-line model. Just
in the last three months, it started showing up in stock in their stores.

I will comfortably use that if I need it, but I am curious what that is all
about.

Thanx for the info, everyone.

Tom Wenndt

 

I don't need a battery yet, but looked at Walmart recently because i
was buying my son a battery. They had one listed for my 03 Elantra and
I've used their batteries before in other cars so I wouldn't hesitate.

 

I have mine, the original (Elantra 2000) getting on the seventh year.
Never had such satisfaction with any US batteries.

 

My is the original still going strong (Elantra 2000). Never had such a
thing with any US stuff.

 

Ditto with my 2001 Elantra, maybe we lucked out with that
batch of batteries.

 

It may be the area you live in. If it doesn't get really hot or really
cold, batteries will last longer.

 

Could be, Northern California, temps rarely get over 80
and in the winter dip below 25. Lots of rain though,
and the odd earthquake every few months.

 

Well, that's pretty temperate by the standards of other parts of the
country.

 

walmart....me too!

 

This thread was about how it was hard to find batteries for an elantra.
I've also found that the Duralast 47-DL (found at autozone) fits
perfectly. It's 590 CCA, about $60, and it's their middle of the road
line (they have a cheap line and a "gold" line, neither of which had a
battery even listed).

Last year I had tried the 24(something) which was listed as a "best
fit" at sam's club. I wish I could remember what letters the
(something) was, but it's been a while. The battery fit in the space,
and the posts were in the right place, but it didn't fit into the
flange that hold down the lip on the bottom of the battery. I could
have used a generic battery tie down system, but I couldn't believe
that a battery that fit would be very difficult to find so I just
returned it.

And my experience with the solite battery was generally good, it lasted
from 2001 till now through chicago winters and summers and hadn't flat
out failed, I just noticed it cranking even slower than usual on those
0 degree F days, so I thought I'd be safe before another winter came
around.

Ben