Thanks very much for that. Knowing it's the same one as fitted to the 319 makes identifying it much easier. I'm actually no stranger to my local Halfords - one member of their staff is particularly helpful - and am fortunate enough to have a trade card for them, although I've found the big discounts are only on Halfords branded products - it's been my experience too that they honour warranty pretty well. I think my first move will be to pop in and see what price they can do one for me. I'm also going to check with Kenny and see what he'd do one of those Ford batteries for me. Your comment about it starting more easily after changing the battery I find very interesting as I've noticed that Becky sometimes cranks for a bit longer than normal on a cold start although it's not a "slow" crank by any means. however this, coupled with the return of the flashing clock, has convinced me I need to do something sooner rather than later about this. I can't say she's not been warning me as the clock started it's "flashing" last winter but stopped doing it in the warmer summer weather. I couldn't have asked for a much better warning that the battery was getting "tired" could I?
Tayna's prices are very good and I've read recommendations for them not only here but also on the Cupra forum - my other online "hang out". However I do feel a bit nervous about sourcing from them - or any online source - because I worry about how the battery may be handled by shippers. It's a long journey up to us here in Edinburgh and I suspect it could spend some of it upside down and being roughly handled. My lovely new compressor was palletised and crated but they still managed to bend the compressor pulley in transit! I've received other stuff over the years which has also obviously been roughly handled - spectacularly a 5 litre container of horticultural SAE 30, Boy that was messy! - Trouble with a battery is you can't see inside it so if some of the paste has been shaken from the plates you'd never know.
