See, the Mazda CX-5, particularly the one I drive—the one equipped with a 2.2-liter turbodiesel—uses a large (and heavy) 3SM battery. According to one website I found, it weighs 23.4 kilograms. Whether that’s true or not, I can confirm that it’s a heavy boy. If its sheer mass wasn’t enough, it’s nestled at the edge of the bulkhead meaning either you need extra long limbs or herculean strength (preferably both) just to get it in and out.

Now, I’ve hard my CX-5 for about four years now, and during the 21,000-or-so odd kilometers, would you believe that I’ve gone through two battery replacement already? The OE battery that came with the car made it to 2021 or about three years if I were to include the time my CX-5 arrived in the country (it’s a 2018 model). However, my second one, a Made in India one with a predominantly red design lasted just two. And that included the time it was sitting in my garage hooked up to a battery tender because of the pandemic.

Okay, for those wondering: the original battery gave up after 117 hours (11,692 kilometers of usage) of being on idle start/stop. My second battery gave up after just 64 hours (9,807 kilometers of usage). This is based off the CX-5’s rather informative display. 

So, call me unpleasantly surprised when I tried starting up my CX-5 yesterday only to find out it refused to. Since I had two events that day, I had to profusely apologize to my two hosts before proceeding to do the dreaded battery replacement.

Now, as much as I’d like to try out the Yuasa EFB battery, the one being sold through Mazda Philippines’ official channels, because my CX-5 won’t start (even if I trickle charged it using a battery tender), it was time to go the aftermarket route. This time, I wanted to try a different battery brand: AC Delco.

AC Delco should be a very familiar brand to most of you, especially if you happen to own a GM vehicle. Nowadays, they’ve expanded to cover most Asian, American, and European makes and offer a wide range of products including, you guessed it, Enhanced Flood Batteries or EFBs. Tthey also make regular lead-acid maintenance-free batteries and AGM batteries, if you wanted to know.

Now, a battery replacement is typically a ‘hate purchase’ meaning you don’t think about it until your car decides not to work. But I’ve learned that AC Delco is made in Korea by…surprise, surprise: Yuasa. Yet, they’re priced in the middle of EFB batteries made in India and Japan which means they’re pretty good value (the 3M battery I got set me back around P 11,000).

Since it’s just been installed, I can’t vouch for its longevity just yet, but if its construction is any indication, it’s off to a great start. It’s slightly more compact than my previous battery which makes sliding it into the battery cradle much easier. The design also comes with a double lid which makes the entire top anti-leak just in case it gets tilted. Its full-framed grid also promises better conductivity while resisting corrosion.

After about 30 minutes of continuous grunting and fear of getting herniated, I managed to plop the new battery in and start my CX-5 up. So far, so good. I just hope this AC Delco battery lasts longer than my previous two batteries (I keep the i-Stop system on all the time). At my present condition, I can’t keep on deadlifting a new battery into the engine bay every two years or so.

Learn more about AC Delco batteries here.