My battery is dead this morning on my 05 plate 9-3 Aero convertible. I'm thinking that with the car being 5 years old, that the battery probably needs replacing. Is this an easy process or do I need to do anything special with the alarm etc?
Halfords do a Bosch for £120. Good price? seem steep to me, but I havn't bought a battery in years.

after five years it owes you nothing. Definitely time for a nice new one !

£120 sounds waaay too much for me, although Bosch not the cheapest option of course. (IMO Halfords get battery sales based purely on their high st presence/accessibility rather than competitive prices...)

Got a new one for my 9-5 for £62.04 from these people a couple of years ago http://www.shieldbatteries.co.uk/ Lots of good battery info on website broken down by car model, although looks like you have to call 'em for price

Maybe not ideally located for you (but at least Herts so same county...!) Otherwise well worth checking around for online suppliers, many offer next day delivery. Mine came with 2 yr g'tee but no issues at all so far

Don't recall need for any special procedures re alarm etc when changing old to new, maybe others can confirm

Not 100% on your particular car but usually just a case of make sure alarm is off and you have the radio code, disconnect the earth leed first (black) then the poaitive(red) change the battery then reconnect red first followed by black, make sure you get a clean reconnect ie no sparking etc and should be ok. Pity you are not closer as just checked with Halfords @ Lakeside retail Park, my local and Trade price for that battery is £66.78.

Paul

Thanks for the replys. Very helpful.

If the 9-3 is like the 9-5, there is no radio code - the radio is married to the car electronically using Tech-II so you won't have a problem when you disconnect & reconnect (that is, you won't need to do anything special - the Tech-II gear isn't needed when you reconnect the battery for the radio to work).

Hi
I just replaced the batter on my 01 9-3. Bought a Bosch Silver 4 (4year wanranty) for £57 from Eurocarparts. Similar in halfords is as you say £120 ish. Don't know how they can justify their prices.

Just for reference, the RAC replaced my battery on my 2003 Aero last Friday evening. They charged £103 which was the fitted price and it saved a 30 mile walk!

They said that the Aero has a bigger battery than other 9-3s.

I seem to recall looking at batteries last year and £80 was about right.

I was still on the original battery with 62,500 miles on an 03 car - not bad, really.