Mine is fitted with a 063 battery. However, Euro Car Parts website says it should be a 012 which is 15mm taller, all other dimensions and terminal layout the same. I know there's little practical difference but just curious.

Does you car have fuses mounted above the battery on the top portion that clips into the battery box base? If it has this, a 15mm taller battery will not fit correctly.

Ah that'll be why then. Shame on ECP for recommending wrong battery

Is there a way to move that fusebox around to get a bigger, higher Ah battery in? Or is it easier to just stick with 063?

In the end I fitted a 096 to my MPI which fitted perfectly fine. Filled up all the space in the battery box. I found that the battery box does indeed have the additional 15mm space on top (I think by putting a DVD case on top and closing the lid), so it may be that the clearance issue relates to other models.

Battery dimensions

063 (L:207 W:175 H:175)

012 (L:207 W:175 H:190)

027 (L:242 W:175 H:190)

100 (L:278 W:175 H:175)

096 (L:278 W:175 H:190)

^^Thank you, sir. From ECP with website discount? Just noticed headlights dimming under hard steering....so am going to buy a multimeter to test the battery. Hopefully it's just that and not one of the more expensive power steering components!

Headlights dimming when steering at slow speeds is normal, even happens with the uprated battery. Think it's just because the steering assist is electric and draws more power at slow speeds. Also I understand one component to look at is the earth wire, the short thick black one from the battery negative to the metal of the car on the suspension turret. Apparently the original part is not up to scratch, and replacements are now uprated.

The main reason I got the uprated one myself is if the car was unused for a couple of weeks, the battery would be dead with the alarm etc installed.

Edited 29 February, 201214 yr by anewman

Oh that's a relief to hear....I'll leave uprating the battery for later then. tyvm!

On another note, is this multimeter a bit overkill? I read somewhere that for auto use I should get one that can measure DC current up to 20A instead of 10A....and this is the cheapest I could find....apart from the gunson/fluke types that are a bit too professional for my needs.

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item519de37c7a

I just use the cheapest possible digital multimeter, think it was £6 from Maplins. Probably not 100% accurate, but good enough for my needs.