# Diesel Battery Part Number



## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

diesel said:


> Well, looks like my battery is finally on its last legs after 150K miles. Does anybody have the correct part number for the battery? I went to gmpartsnow.com but they don't list a part number.


You are looking for a 94RAGM.
That number is likely on the decal on your battery.

Batteries use industry numbers, like brakes and bearings, so, this is a, 94 series case-Right side positive terminal-Absorbed Glass Mat battery.........94RAGM.

Search that number...all brands, including Delco, will come up.

Rob


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

I suggest that you look at Odyssey. It is the best battery on the market.


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

Tomko said:


> I suggest that you look at Odyssey. It is the best battery on the market.


Tomko?

I'm not so sure about the Odyssey recommendation anymore.....I'm hearing lots of premature failure stories from the collector crowd.

I cannot substantiate, but the rumor mill has a story of ownership change around five years ago.
But something has changed.....lots of self discharge stories.

Coming from the average consumer, I would tend to discount, but coming from folks that keep and preserve vehicles, I give a fair amount of credibility to.

Rob


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

Robby said:


> Tomko?
> 
> I'm not so sure about the Odyssey recommendation anymore.....I'm hearing lots of premature failure stories from the collector crowd.
> 
> ...


I'm not aware of an ownership change but I do know that there was somekind of internal politics that developed within the parent company Enersys with the losers moving to Northstar. Since then Northstar has come on pretty strong to challenge Odyssey and I suspect are paying spiffs to the frontline people to increase their footprint. 

In terms of quality decline I'm not aware of any. I just got an Odyssey battery for a friend that has a production date of November 27, 2015, so I'll be watching. 

I know of no better battery on the market. 

Here's their promo video of design and construction:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3P-wqckJ2nM

In other news, and complete speculation on my part, but the Delco battery that came in my CTD looks suspiciously similar to an Odyssey design. I wonder if it's possible that Delco went with Enersys for that model rather than Johnson Controls as used for its other designs?


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

costco batteries are awesome 

i get 10yrs out of em


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

I was out of town and at the mercy of the local dealership. They told me about the 88864542 94RAGM but ended up putting in 88864065. It seems like the 94RAGM is 800 CCA but the 88864065 is 765 CCA. I am pretty sure it will work fine, but I am not sure if there will be a difference in extreme cold starting. 

Any of you battery experts have an opinion on the substitution?

By the way, it has been cranking slow all week but in the morning it almost didn't start the car. The transmission got stuck in first gear for a couple minutes. I figured that the computer didn't have enough juice to tell the transmission to shift. I know that low voltage can cause issues like that.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

diesel said:


> I was out of town and at the mercy of the local dealership. They told me about the 88864542 94RAGM but ended up putting in 88864065. It seems like the 94RAGM is 800 CCA but the 88864065 is 765 CCA. I am pretty sure it will work fine, but I am not sure if there will be a difference in extreme cold starting.
> 
> Any of you battery experts have an opinion on the substitution?
> 
> By the way, it has been cranking slow all week but in the morning it almost didn't start the car. The transmission got stuck in first gear for a couple minutes. I figured that the computer didn't have enough juice to tell the transmission to shift. I know that low voltage can cause issues like that.


you dont deal with extreme enough temps to worry aboot it

i recommend anyone travelling to have one of those portable power pack battery jumpers anyways....they work awesome, watched neighbor start his duramax with one...almost fits in your pocket


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

boraz said:


> you dont deal with extreme enough temps to worry aboot it
> 
> i recommend anyone travelling to have one of those portable power pack battery jumpers anyways....they work awesome, watched neighbor start his duramax with one...almost fits in your pocket


True. The most extreme I will ever see is still probably 20-30 degrees warmer than what you get regularly.


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

I've read some more on Odyssey corporate: 

It seems that Odyssey was bought by Enersys about five years ago. Around that time the CTO and at least one engineer left Odyssey and went to Northstar. 

No explanation given for this change in human resources - but these things happen at the time of corporate mergers and acquisitions. The time is right to make a clean break. Maybe there's some discomfort with new ownership. Maybe their shares were bought out. Could have even been disciplinary. No one knows except for the principals. 

The infusion of new talent at Northstar was said to lead to improvements in its products. Some whispers that improvements brought to Northstar were once considered for Odyssey. But nothing that anyone has actualy identified. So chalk that up to equal sprinkles of internet rumour and marketing. 

Certainly at both the trade and retail levels Northstar sells for $50-100 less than Odyssey. 

For myself in sticking with Odyssey as my recommended no-compromise battery of choice until I have evidence of a superior option.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

diesel said:


> True. The most extreme I will ever see is still probably 20-30 degrees warmer than what you get regularly.


does your car sit for longer periods, iirc youre using the car way often


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

Robby said:


> I'm hearing lots of premature failure stories from the collector crowd.
> 
> I cannot substantiate, but the rumor mill has a story of ownership change around five years ago.
> But something has changed.....lots of self discharge stories.
> ...


I agree these are folks who fall into the category of more knowledgeable than most. And so we should listen as carefully as possible to them. 

One thing I have read is that Odyssey publishes a list of recommended battery chargers and maintainers. It is notable that the Deltran Batterry Tender Plus is not on that list. 

http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ODYSSEY_approved_12V_chargers.pdf

The issue it seems is with float voltage and that Odyssey calls for a slightly higher float voltage than the Battery Tender series puts out. For their part, the folks at Deltran say that in their testing Battery Tenders are safe for Odyssey batteries. 

As for chargers Odyssey calls for a particular regime that is not provided by any Deltran unit. 

http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ProceduretorecoverdeeplydischargedODYSSEY.pdf

For myself, and probably many other enthusiasts, Deltran's Battery Tender is the original and gold standard of maintainers. So what I'm wondering is if the reports you're hearing are related to incorrect charger / maintainer use?


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## GlennGlenn (Nov 27, 2015)

Tomko said:


> For myself in sticking with Odyssey as my recommended no-compromise battery of choice until I have evidence of a superior option.


So, do we know what brand or who makes the battery in our diesel???


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## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

diesel said:


> I was out of town and at the mercy of the local dealership. They told me about the 88864542 94RAGM but ended up putting in 88864065. It seems like the 94RAGM is 800 CCA but the 88864065 is 765 CCA. I am pretty sure it will work fine, but I am not sure if there will be a difference in extreme cold starting.
> 
> Any of you battery experts have an opinion on the substitution?
> 
> By the way, it has been cranking slow all week but in the morning it almost didn't start the car. The transmission got stuck in first gear for a couple minutes. I figured that the computer didn't have enough juice to tell the transmission to shift. I know that low voltage can cause issues like that.


I saw that issue on my wife's van a few weeks ago from low voltage. We were up in Minnesota, and the alternator began to intermittently quit, getting progressively worse over the course of 100 miles or so until complete failure. During the last 50 miles or so, I began to have shifting problems of various kinds as the TCM was getting starved for voltage.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

boraz said:


> does your car sit for longer periods, iirc youre using the car way often


It rarely site for more than a couple days at a time.



revjpeterson said:


> I saw that issue on my wife's van a few weeks ago from low voltage. We were up in Minnesota, and the alternator began to intermittently quit, getting progressively worse over the course of 100 miles or so until complete failure. During the last 50 miles or so, I began to have shifting problems of various kinds as the TCM was getting starved for voltage.


Did the alternator light come on to indicate failure? A faulty alternator had crossed my mind with 150K miles on it, but I never got any indications of charging issues.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

Update on the lower capacity battery. This morning it was about 21 degrees. It cranked over very quickly and no issues with transmission shifting. So, for future reference the group 94 battery with 765 CCA mentioned above seems to be plenty for this car.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

My guess is that the smaller battery would just mean that you'd have to replace it sooner as the battery has less distance to fall before reaching a critical threshold. But my guess is that while shorter, it not likely to be short enough to really be all that noticeable since battery life is pretty variable to begin with.


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