srtruck

I was under the hood of my 2005 F150 with the 4.2 v6 yesterday and noticed that the battery sight glass was yellow. I took the cover off and started looking at the battery which appears to be the factory one. It says Motorcraft Ford Motor Co. Dearborn MI on the side. Part number BXT-59 with 540 CCA.

The only numbers that I found to determine the date of the battery were on the top close to the negative post. They are...

059540XOV SHO
05E10H276 0211

Im guessing since these start with 05 it means the battery is an 05 which means my battery is 9 years old and probably overdue for replacement.

I had orileys load test the battery and their machine said its bad, however besides the yellow indicator I have had no signs of a bad battery. It always starts real good.

I am going to start shopping for a battery soon but the question is should I get a series 59 or 65 battery?

The one in there now is a 59 and it seems to work fine but I wonder if the extra power of the 65 would be a good thing. Everything on the truck is stock except for led tail lights and 3rd brake light.

So far the best prices I have found on batteries are...

Menards has an Exide NASCAR Extreme 65 series, 750 cca, 40 month warranty on sale for $83.66

I can also get a Meijer pro cell silver 65 series, 875 cca, 3yr warranty for $95 (from my research this battery is made for meijer by east penn/deka)

I would appreciate any suggestions on battery series and brand. I am also curious if anyone else had their factory battery last this long.

snowborderus

There may be a sticker somewhere on the battery that'll say when it was built, (F/08) or something like that. If you're not having problems with the battery, it's your choice to replace it or not, but with the cold season among us, it'd be a good idea. Where I work services batteries on a daily basis, every so often we will see a 10+ year old battery. Not common, but it happens. Our batteries come from Johnson Controls (who makes Optima batteries) here in Oregon. Those prices that you have listed seem about right.

Scuba_Dave

Also have a 2005 & replaced my battery this past summer, 9 years its time to replace it
I went with Interstate Megatron+ 850CCA....more is better
I didn't want to risk a dead battery in a New England Winter

gdfishwell

I just replaced the original battery in my 2006 F150 4.6, it was not giving any trouble but I did not want it to leave me stranded. Went back with the Motorcraft 850CCA instead of the original 540CCA.

Jetdriver480

Here in Arizona we can rarely get 3 years out of our batteries...

srtruck

Yeah I read that the heat is what kills batteries, you just don't realize it until it gets cold out.

Does anyone know if since my truck is a manual trans can I pop the clutch and roll start it if the battery were to be dead. I did this once with my 79 but am not sure if the new trucks electronics would let this happen.

snowborderus

Pretty sure you can. May not always be the best procedure. The battery is only used for not engine running times. If you can force the engine to turn over (pop start) the alternator will generate some power and hopefully give the truck enough juice.

Ratsan_Fratsan

Unless things have changed then that's not true. Most alternators won't even make power until they have been spinning for bit and none at all under a certain rpm. That means no pop start on just the alternator. You need some battery power.

On the other hand a battery may not have enough power to start the engine but plenty to run it. In this case yes you can pop start but replace the battery as soon as possible or you might damage the alternator. They don't like having a bad battery to work with. Your electronics will thank you as well.

Anyway last car I truly worked on was a 1980 so take with salt..

redeye3745

I had the original battery in my truck for 8 years. When I got it tuned up and everything around 95k miles I got it replaced so it doesn't die on me. It was still working just fine. Better safe then sorry.

08_FX4

Get the 65 series battery. Bolts right in and its worth the upgrade.

Ratsan is right by the way, your not gonna be able to push start the truck if the battery is completly dead. If it still has some power and just wont crank over fast enough you may get lucky turning the key forward and then trying to pop the clutch..but if its fully dead, no way.

As it was said a few posts back, your not gonna suddenly generate voltage from the couple turns of the motor you get when you pop the clutch. They dont start generating voltage typically to a few hundred RPMs.