Bosch Silver battery date code?

[pteron]

Just bought a new (I hope) battery from europarts and thought I'd stick it on my ctek to top it up before putting on the car.

4 hours later it's still charging. At 3.6A that's almost 15Ah out of a 63Ah battery. So I'm suspicious that it's been sitting on a shelf for quite a while.

The only info I can find online to decode battery date codes suggests that a stamp starting E4 means May 04. I don't think that Euro car parts could possibly keep it that long. Anybody know how to decode the date code on a Bosch Silver 027 (S5005)

Tnx

[Geriatric mel]

My last battery Bosch S4 Purchased from Europarts Jan 2014. It had the following Code laser etched 66C2120220609
Presumably manufactured c = march 2 =2002 making it almost 3 years old.

Complaining to Europarts they were not even aware of the date code but they changed it without question when I found it would not fully charge to 12.8 volts nor hold its charge with minimal drain of 0.04 amps [ clock and voltmeter ] no alarm fitted !

The exchange battery was still 9 months old according to the date code and that too would not accept a full charge. However charging it with my old battery charger to initially 16 volts seemed to have blasted any sulphate off the plates and it now retains its charge of 12.8 volts. My smart chargers Pulse Charge had no effect in curing the problem.

I have recently had the same problem with a battery replaced by Volvo -[ their own brand of battery ] which appeared to be 9 months old. Their dealers too, seemed unaware of the battery code.They would not change it but after perseverance they presumably high voltage super-charged it and finally got it to charge up to the anticipated 12.8 volts.

In another incidence I had a similar faulty Bosch battery which I returned to the stockist and to my horror they put the faulty battery back on their shelf for some other less well informed customer to purchase.

I have had a Bosch 74 A/H that lasted for 13 years; the car to which it was fitted was run for at least 25 miles on a daily basis. Presumably this happened to be a newly manufactured battery.

It appears that the stockists do not have a reliable system of stock control or is a deliberate built in marketing obsolescence ploy.


Geriatric Mel 83 Maidenhead

[Splitpin2008]

pteron said:

Just bought a new (I hope) battery from europarts and thought I'd stick it on my ctek to top it up before putting on the car.

4 hours later it's still charging. At 3.6A that's almost 15Ah out of a 63Ah battery. So I'm suspicious that it's been sitting on a shelf for quite a while.

The only info I can find online to decode battery date codes suggests that a stamp starting E4 means May 04. I don't think that Euro car parts could possibly keep it that long. Anybody know how to decode the date code on a Bosch Silver 027 (S5005)

Tnx

I think you're correct - its is an 04 battery.
Is this the info you found?
http://www.ilmc.org/Basel%20Project/Workshop/Guide...

[Geriatric mel]

Additional information Re Battery Codes

http://corporate.interstatebatteries.com/

http://www.batteries-faq.com/activekb/index.php

http://www.batteries-faq.com/activekb/questions.ph...

See Attatchments Date Codes at bottom

Geriatric mel

[ac427]

A bit of a thread revival but....

I have two Bosch S4 004 car batteries and I'm having difficulty working out how old they are.

I've found the following numbers on the top right hand corner of both Bosch S4 batteries:

G3C205141-0340-536239-208A 13

And

E3C211281-0385-536239

Can someone please decode the battery manufacturer dates from the codes above, thanks.

[Krikkit]

Why don't you google it instead of reviving an ancient thread to ask someone else to do it

[ac427]

I've already tried that smart arse

[Ian Wegg]

Ironically one of the first Google hits is this topic.

ac427 said:

I have two Bosch S4 004 car batteries and I'm having difficulty working out how old they are.

I've found the following numbers on the top right hand corner of both Bosch S4 batteries:

G3C205141-0340-536239-208A 13

And

E3C211281-0385-536239

For comparison, my battery has

C5C717212-8667-536571

I found most of the online articles are generic but Bosch (and Varta) don't conform to systems used by any other manufacturers.

The best description I found specific to Bosch is in this video: https://youtu.be/zo7sMhLSCR4 and the article linked in the description: https://akubiz.biz/kopalnia-wiedzy/19-Porady/49-Ja...

Put simply, the date is encoded in the 4th, 5th and 6th numbers. Before 2014 it was simply YMM but after that, you need the table.

The two quoted are therefore 205 (May 2012) and 211 (Nov 2012). My 717 equates to Jan 2017.



Hope that helps someone.

[ac427]

Thanks Ian. Bizarrely the 211 battery was purchased sometime in 2014 from ECP.

I sent the codes to a well known battery retailer and they insisted they were both 4 months old and that they had confirmed this with their Bosch representative!

[Rotaree]

At the risk of being flamed for restarting an old thread, I have been googling for an hour to no avail so I wondered if someone might be able to help please?
I have a Bosch battery (S5 007) that I'm trying to find the date of but the only code I can find stamped into the battery itself as opposed to the generic label is 'YG10 31'. Can anyone shed any light onto the date of manufacture or, as I'm likely to replace it anyway and I don't use the car very often, can anyone tell me whether there is a suitable Bosch upgrade that's the same size and will fitting a more powerful battery cause any problems (2005 987 Boxster S 3.2)? (With apologies for the possibly daft questions, I'm OK with spanners but electrics is a black art as far as I'm concerned!).