Hi,
Just felt like sharing my experience with my 3 1/2 year old Interstate Battery Model MTP-24 (megatron plus) which has 800CCA and 30 Months replacement warranty/ 6 Year Performance Warranty.
The battery worked fine for the first two years but after that I had to crank it longer than usual in the cold. and if I didnt drive it for 3 days it wont start. I did a load test and I was told the battery runs fine. today I was fed up with that battery as it was getting weaker and weaker. When i turn on wipers the lights go Dim. I even get one headlamp turn off randomly on me which is a common problem in lexus cars as well as one daylight too (opposite side). I did replace all lamps with no luck. I suspect its the battery but I will have to replace it to confirm that.

So today the battery failed the load test and i was happy as Interstate mentioned on their website that if i replace it after 30Months and as long as its under 4 years i get 45% discount. My mechanic told me its all bull**** and he quoted me 24$ discount from 212$ Canadian. I was shocked and disappointed. I will never buy these batteries again and I am off to Costco to get the Krikland ones which i heard good things about, at least honor their warranty. I am not welling to spend double the price to get top of the line (e.g. optima). I wanted to get Odyssey but in canada its way more expensive than US.

Others might have good luck with Interstate, not me and I am not going to give it another chance as there are lots of other options on the market even if some belong to the same mother company as i feel there must be a difference in one way or another.

 

I always just get the. lexus battery, which I’ve been told is interstate, and have never had any warranty issues with the dealer so long as I have the receipt, and it ends up being the same price if not cheaper than an equivalent from Adcance Auto or other parts strides

 

I would test your cars alternator! You may have an alternator slowly going bad on you. If the alternator doesnt provide enough voltage to the battery to store it overnight, each day the battery will have less juice in it.

 

good thinking, I did replace the alternator 2 years ago so i dont think it was the reason, once i get the new battery I will do an amp draw test just to make sure my car is not sucking up battery power while its asleep. i was told that i want it not to exceed 0.050 amps.

I have bought a very good battery voltage checker which plugs into the cig lighter for few bucks. my battery voltage before i crank the engine is 11.9 and 13.5-14v while driving. as per my mechanic the problem was with the CCA

 

I'm going to just throw this in for consideration, as a audio battery, Optima batteries SUCK.... BAAADLY! Under load, it won't hold charge like you would expect (then again i'm throwing 2Kw+ RMS at it, and throwing an 80a draw everytime my compressors go off). I coupled this with my Mechman alternator so it holds OKAY, not crazy good but OKAY.

However, I've had my battery for 5 years now, almost moving onto 6. ZERO start-up problems whatsoever.

Once again, In my eyes, GREAT start-up battery, TERRIBLE audio/loaded battery. It wouldn't handle 700w RMS either when I was throwing a steady 700 at it back when I first got it.

I don't know how much it is where you're at, but in FL, a standard red top (nothing special) I believe was 240ish-260ish when i purchased it for my coworker.

There's always rebates and coupons floating around for these batteries, I'd keep an eye out for it if I were you.

GL!

 

Did you guys know that the majority of the worlds batteries are all made by one company. Johson controls is the plant batteries

 

Hey there, just wanted to put my 2 cents in... I was in the market for a new battery for my Lexus.. yesterday I stopped at my local Lexus dealership and asked how much for a new battery... They told me $300 bucks. When I asked why so much, at first they tried to tell me it was an AGM battery, which it is not.. finally the service writer called the parts dept. to confirm it was not an agm. Shortly after that, someone else told me it may be because they sold interstate batteries there.. even so, 300 bucks.. no thanks... anyway I went to a local interstate all battery center today and they installed a new megatron plus 24f in my car. way more juice than the oem battery.. the new one has 800 Cold Cranking amps and 1000 cranking amps.. I asked one of the employees at interstate why Lexus would charge 300 bucks for an interstate battery.. he informed me that they did supply batteries to Lexus, but said they are not Interstate batteries. Anyway, instead of $300 for a battery at the dealership that would just meet oem specs, I got more powerfull battery for less than 125.00 out the door. Just something to think about.

Poppa

 

I've replaced the battery in my GS and one in the wife's Odyssey ....both in the last few months. I have an Interstate Battery store just 2 blocks away and they test, install, etc....so it's very convenient. Over the years, I've had better luck with their batteries compared to the big box "parts stores". That said, I can't recall EVER having a battery last as long as it's "rated for". My Odyssey battery was a Honda OEM battery that is a 60 month battery. I think I got maybe a little over 4 years out of it. The battery in my GS was brand new when I bought it (they put it in the same day I purchased it in 2015)....and it lasted 2 years and 9 months....and just over 60K miles....and I live in Oklahoma where it's not super cold for long stretches of time. I put in an Interstate Battery in both. My Interstate guy told me that the Honda batteries are actually Interstate with Honda stickers on them. I spent $128 on it, but they do offer their high line battery that is in the $250 range. I'm not keeping this Odyssey too much longer so I didn't see the point in going over the top.

 

Wow, every battery I've ever purchased from my dealer has cost me less than $150, and this is for cars ranging from an LX470 to an IS250, most recently for a GS350, which was covered under warranty, but would have been only $147 out the door. For $300, a dealer is the last place I'd go.

 

Well if you think 3 bills is high for a battery ( and of course I agree with you ), then you'll get a chuckle out of this.. I copied and pasted below part of an ad for a battery at a Lexus dealership near Atlanta..Incredible...

BATTERY

Part Number: 2880038100BATTERY; 80D26R-MF; 80D26R-MF,COLD AREA SPEC WITHOUT

BATTERY
Your Price$ 702.46List PriceUSD$ 777.81
You Save(10%) $ 75.35

 

I run Walmart batteries. Made by Johnson controls which makes Interstate, but dont assume they're made equal.

The first one died in i think a little over a year, but walmart took it in without any questions and exchanged it under warranty. So I guess yay? Still needed a spare car to do the exchange lol.

 

I was aware of this when I did snooping around on interstate batteries.

I was also doing some deep digging on interstate batteries and a lot of people claim that interstate doesn't make batteries like they used to anymore. Meaning they die prematurely a lot, just like other brands.

I was quoted same thing too. I thought it was ridiculous for just a regular battery hahaha.... Anyway, I believe PANASONIC makes batteries for lexus. not 100% but i believe that was it, definitely not interstate though.

Be careful with which batteries you go with. Although cheap batteries may work, when they go bad they strain your alternator a lot more, causing premature alternator failure (which costs a lot more to replace, i believe in another thread, someone who had a gs350 was quoted 800 from independent dealer and 1000+ from dealership).

 

Just had to have the battery replaced in my 15' RC350 today. I can confirm the OEM is a Panasonic made in Japan. Same as my 15' 4Runner. The dealer just delivered my car back to me because they took so long this morning and gave me a loaner. So I popped the hood and guess what, the installed a bright green Interstate battery. I am a little disappointed for one, it is a little bigger and they removed the plastic heat-shield that slips over the factory Panasonic which had some clips on it to hold the positive cable. Oh and it is just UGLY under there! But it was replaced under warranty 3 years on the original. The OEM battery is $702! so I can understand but really? I was expecting an oem replacement and not to be missing parts when I got it back.

Just something I would like to add about batteries. No battery is maintenance free unless it is completely sealed like an AGM. The problem with my battery and probably most premature battery failures is not properly servicing the battery. My car was certified with only 23k miles on it. Guess what, they never serviced the battery. The first time it didn't start this week I opened the caps and the electrolyte was barely covering the tops of the plates. If it have been topped up like it should have been when it was at the low mark it probably would not have failed. I have had batteries last 10 years even after completely killing them a few times and I think it is just because I would top them up with distilled water like you are supposed to. Usually just need to check them once a year before it gets too hot or cold outside to avoid a dead battery.

*EDIT
I called and talked to the service and parts people. They can order the Panasonic batteries which is why they are like $700 for just a conventional battery. They both separately said they replace them with the Interstate batteries because they have better ratings and the Panasonics don't last as long. In this area as both an electrical engineer and a car truck guy who can rebuild a car/engine/transmission I would normally agree a slightly bigger battery is usually not a bad thing but that bright green battery is so damn ugly under the hood. If it was one of my trucks I wouldn't care (except for the heat shield thing). When chatting with the part lady though she did volunteer that the "Lexus" branded replacement batteries are black Interstate batteries. They are supposed to have the Lexus replacement battery that is the stock size that they will be swapping back out tomorrow and reinstall the battery insulator and cable clips.

 

Thanks for your comment, I ended up going with interstate (I had no luck finding a battery that fits my car where i live). after visiting the interstate dealer himself and explained my situation, he gave me a big discount and got the black model ( megatron plus). I forced him to get me the freshest one he has in stock and indeed he did. it is running way better than my older one (its been almost a year). I finally discovered that my local auto shop installed a very old stock that he had on my car previously and that what caused it not to last.