There have been five cases, that we know of, of battery failure with Exide AGM 12-31 batteries recently. The failures have been total and without warning, other than a slight misfire before stopping entirely, resulting in the cars ending up at the side of the road with no power at all. One also involved the rectifier failing but it is not clear if this was as a result of the battery failing or the cause of the battery failure. The others were fixed with replacement of the battery alone. It's not clear what the problem is with the Exide battery, maybe a bad batch but...... Most of the replaced batteries were not kept for investigation as they were changed under less than perfect conditions. The batteries have worked fine, some up to 18 months, before failure without warning. Most seem to have used battery conditioners with "AGM" selected.
This is bad news as this Exide battery looked like the ideal M3W battery, the correct size, AGM construction, good capacity and all at a reasonable cost. There are a number of suggested batteries on the Alternative Parts List. I have used a Lithium Ion battery for over 6 years now without any issues (kiss of death warning) but they are not cheap.
