Valley Mazda replaced my factory issued battery today, free, including installation - it was a recall item -
recall is for 04s and some 05s, depending on VIN number. These cars have a small 320-350 cold cranking amps and work pretty good as long as it is warm, cold temperatures and the batteries can weaken and fail (mine did). For some 8s the starter may also be upgraded!

The 320's are usually replaced with a 572 cold cranking amp battery. Due to supply shortage and the fact that Valley Mazda did not want to leave two little old ladies stranded, they used a higher amp that is even better - high amps do not harm car's electrical system but just provide more back up power and do not cause problems during recharging. There was no charge for the replacement or installation. Cost to replace battery not under recall $130 including installation.... Replacement battery is under warrenty - sweet! ( Valley Mazda is Great California Dealership and Service Manager drives an 8!)

Based on advise from the garage, if you pull a battery yourself there is no major problem, just make sure you hook it back up properly - however, you may need to turn your car on and off a couple of times to get electronics to reset so make sure that your car engine is warm before you start this process - if all warning lights come on, don't panic! You may need to drive several miles before they reset and turn themselves off -

Please post any additional notes or experiences

 

Symptoms that battery is going bad -
Sluggishness while driving
All the lights and whistles come on but engine does not turn over
Battery just sucks juice out of a portable jumper without turning over.
Battery appears to be charging but 'dies' overnight, or after a day or two without being driven.

 

Old news ...













but good advise for newbies !

 

New bigger battery allows start ups with all the on switches on...( dumb experiment but takes out a lot of 'did I shut it off worries'.
Really makes a difference when climbing hills (that was a surprise)
Gives much better start up at 14 degrees...no hesitation at all-
Even if current 320 battery is good, it is worth the improvement in response to trade up and get a higher cold cranking amp...

 

When the temps dropped here, my car began to turn over very lazily. Finally the battery crabbed out on me twice in the past week. I have a charger so no harm no fowl but I'll be heading into the shop Monday for a replacement.

 

The stock one?

I took one look at that "panasonic" pos and replaced it.

(..or maybe I read on the forum earlier that the stock battery on the 04's sucked, yeah, that was it.)

 

I have an '05. The 4206F recall was supposed to include battery and starter for some cars in cold climates. Mine were not replaced and I was told that I was all set. Like every car I have ever owned, it cranks a little slower in the cold weather, but it has never failed to start.

How do I know if the battery I have is the better one? Is the cold amperage listed on the battery somewhere?

 

My old one was just a white box, my new one carries the company logo rather than the Mazda logo, and it had more information as well. But if yours gets harder and harder to crank, I bet you a donut that its the older one... Mine did not have problems until temperatures dropped to 11 degrees (or less) they won't do anything about exchanging it until it gets pretty bad, but if you want a fairly cheap improvement to the car that doesn't make any major modifications - you have nothing to lose by looking, asking, and checking to see if your VIN number qualifies.

 

I believe that when the news release on 4206F came out it talked about replacing battery/starter/plugs on older RX-8s. However, when the actual repair procedure came out there was no mention of upgrading battery and starter in affected cars (see http://www.finishlineperformance.com...res_recall.pdf ).

The only way to get the new battery and starter under warranty is if you can get your dealership to do the "Engine cranks no start" service bulletin, which is a bulletin and NOT a recall. Some dealerships believe the bulletin should not be done if your car has not actually flooded. If you have starting issues of any type, I suggest calling the Mazda 800 number if the dealer says no as Mazda has overriden the dealer on this a number of times.

If you have a 2004 or a pre-12/04 2005 you should get your battery/starter upgraded before your warranty expires (48 months or 50K miles).

 

Great info, last wo posts. Thanks.