Motormaster (Canadian tire) batteries

[CalgarySupra]

Motormaster (Canadian tire) batteries

Is it me or is Canadian tire batteries designed to fail?

2 auto repair shops already told me this,

many people i know always have problems with them ,

the most recent one was yesterday when i bought a battery from franklin canadian tire , the terminals where loose, you can litterly pull out the terminals from the battery.

The CSR was going to exhcange it then a manager comes out starts YELLING CUSTOMER ABUSE, saying we abused it. I am like what the hell, the auto manager starts insisting they get hardly any back, i told them if that was true , and i abused the battery, why are you yelling at your customers?

my friend made www.canadiantirebattery.com after all the problems he went through, i dont think it loads yet he registered it today. i told him my stories too he added them


anyone have similar problems?

[kevie88]

I have had the same motomaster battery in my Civic for 9 years now, still a -30c champion!

[tsi_neal]

i had a big argument with one of the older guys at the southland CDN tire about their batteries being shit... i went through 3 of them in as many years. Oh i also boiled one at a lapping day in a almost new RX8... they claimed the charging system but it checked out fine at mazda. End of story is i learned my lesson and if it has a CDN tire brand name on it its worth paying more somewhere else...

Right now i have a champion battery and its been in the car for 3 years AND frozen once and still works like a charm.

[CalgarySupra]

Originally posted by tsi_neal
i had a big argument with one of the older guys at the southland CDN tire about their batteries being shit... i went through 3 of them in as many years. Oh i also boiled one at a lapping day in a almost new RX8... they claimed the charging system but it checked out fine at mazda. End of story is i learned my lesson and if it has a CDN tire brand name on it its worth paying more somewhere else...

Right now i have a champion battery and its been in the car for 3 years AND frozen once and still works like a charm.

thats so common they wont admit it, a manager at the cdn tire near market mall told my friend they were told to always insist there batteries are the best.

[pattyt]

i heard this somehwere ...wondering if its true that pretty much all batterys are made by like 2 manufacturers and then they just get different stickers on them and they are sold at different stores. But like the ones made for CDN tire are like the reject ones, lower quality made, and the like other super brand names are made prestigely...but still by the same company?

[GTS Jeff]

I think you deserve the hassle for putting Crappy Tire parts in your car. Optima batteries are cheap from Costco.

[CalgarySupra]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
I think you deserve the hassle for putting Crappy Tire parts in your car. Optima batteries are cheap from Costco.

i never ever initially bought a battery from canadian tire, its always someone or the previous owner.

[CalgarySupra]

Originally posted by pattyt
i heard this somehwere ...wondering if its true that pretty much all batterys are made by like 2 manufacturers and then they just get different stickers on them and they are sold at different stores. But like the ones made for CDN tire are like the reject ones, lower quality made, and the like other super brand names are made prestigely...but still by the same company?

yeah canadian batteries are same as part source and a few other disposable junk batteries.

[racin_jayson]

nver had great luck with motomaster anything
napa batteries are great and they hold true to thier warranty

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by CalgarySupra
i never ever initially bought a battery from canadian tire, its always someone or the previous owner.

Are you sure about that?

Originally posted by CalgarySupra
i bought a battery from franklin canadian tire

[whiskas]

The replacement battery they gave me was a dud, something must've been wrong with a cell in the battery because it refused to charge over 10.6V, I replaced it again under warranty with one that works perfectly.

They also include road assistance with the battery warranty in case you need a boost.

[adam c]

careful that Canadian Tire doesn't turn around and sue your buddy for slander..

[CalgarySupra]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff


Are you sure about that?

i am 100 percent sure!

[sneek]

haha...CT batteries.. they suck but the warranty isn't bad.

[translog]

Here is the story.

Purchased a new battery May 2013 from CT. Issue was not the battery but my alternator. OK great, new bat and alternator. Should have no more issues.

Aug rolls around and suddenly the battery light on the 2005 Mazda 3 starts going on and off. Check the forums find out that there are a few possibilities so I go back to my garage to check if its the ALT or Bat.

He checks the charging system as I can duplicate the light coming on and off at will. No issues charging at 13.8 amps light on or off. So its not the ALT. He then puts a sophisticated battery tester, & inputs the cold cranking amps at 0 degrees C indicated on the CT BAT which states 710 A at oC and 570 at -18C.

Since its 20C outside he puts in 710 A at 0 C, hits the button and voila 580 A and a response from the unit that says BAD BAT.

He suggest that the BAT is defective and warns me that all of CT BAT are a like...just bad news. He is not even offering to sell me a new BAT.

I go to CT and a discussion ensues after the tech guy enters at first the 710 A at 0 C which his unit says that the BAT needs replacing but then says that he should be using the 570 A -18 C number which he re inputs and that states the battery is good.

Look how absurd your logic is I state, its 20 C outside not -18, the unit should not produce 570 at 20C, the BAT is a DUD and causing an issue on my car.

The parts manager does a deal with me to purchase a new BAT and if the new one happens to solve the issue he will refund the money .

I was going to return it one way or another , but the battery change did resolve the problem.

So once I got the refund I went back to my garage to complete some more work the following day. Once there I asked that he test this new battery. He did, and the same issue but not 580 A we get 595 A reading instead.

So I asked that he do the same test on another battery to compare. He pointed to a 1998 Mercedes. The cold crank A at 0 C was 850. He did the test and guess what it returned 850 exactly with a response from the unit indicating that the battery was good.

One note, the parts manager assured me that any battery would never return the maximum that's indicated on the battery.

I paid $ 118 plus tax for the battery at CT. MY garage guy would have provided the same type in terms of Cold cranking for $ 98 and would have shown me the results of the test guaranteeing that it would be good before installing it.

Lessons learned for certain. Hope this helps someone.

[translog]

Just to clarify, despite the lower reading of the new second battery my mechanic stated that the testers of today take in a lot of parameters when it decides that the battery has not passed the test. Despite the lower 595 A reading the fault was not necessarily the same type of issue in the battery that would cause the Mazda to reject it.

There you go.

Hope it helps some of you.

[403ep3]

Coles note: Don't buy a battery at CT

[M.alex]

Originally posted by 403ep3
Coles note: Don't buy a battery at CT

Disagree. On average the lead/acid batteries I've bought from Canadian tire have lasted anywhere from 7-9yrs.

The one time I had an issue (2yr life span) it got swapped out under warranty with no issues.

CT battery on my lawn tractor usually lasts 3-4yrs before needing replacement.

I'm 110% satisfied with their batteries ... actually, they've all outlasted my optimas by a large margin, lol

[xnvy]

Bump 6 year old thread?
I go to East Penn/Deka for all my batteries. They're out by the airport. Bought an AGM battery for the Miata in May and has worked like a charm for the past few months.

[bspot]

Originally posted by xnvy
Bump 6 year old thread?
I go to East Penn/Deka for all my batteries. They're out by the airport. Bought an AGM battery for the Miata in May and has worked like a charm for the past few months.

Any battery that is still working after 4 months of use in the summer MUST be good

I now stick to batteries made by Johson Controls. The Die Hards at Kal tire and a few others are Johnson.