- My model of MX-5 is: RFSky activ G__
- I’m based near: __Basingstoke
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __can the standard battery be replaced with an AGM battery
Do you have i-ELOOP? If you do then the battery is very different and I would suggest proceed with caution and make sure the battery supplier is fully guaranteeing that it is compatible.
If you don’t then I think the world is your oyster as long as the replacement ‘fits’ correctly.
Pardon my ignorance but what on earth is e loop and how do i know if i have it cant find it in the manual
Here you go Mazda MX-5 Owner’s Manual
It all suggests that you do not have it.
Weirdly (surprisingly) 
the local Mazda dealer was £££ cheaper for my 4 year old ND2 battery replacement. Although still starting OK, the stop/start had ceased working as the battery was not up to scratch. Started working a couple of hours after fitting the new battery. £110 from memory for an official Mazda part.
Hi J,
I know you have already purchased a new battery but if you have a reoccurrence of the stop start not working try just taking the negative terminal off for half an hour and reconnect.
My 30AE and another I know had this problem when nearly new and this method has worked for both of us.
The stop start on ND2 does not rely too heavily on the battery to restart (which is why it only has relatively light feeble battery) as the engine is stopped just as a combustion cycle is about to take place. On restart the ignition is fired to complete the burn cycle thus starting the car. All very clever and hi-tech or to put it another way, something else to go wrong!!!
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Good job it’s a Mazda then, “Mazdas don’t go wrong”.
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Yep, been doing that and it was a pain, disconnect, separate the voltage sensor, stand on one leg, offer a sacrifice and, wow, worked for a few days.
Most often the issue would rear it’s ugly head after using an AGM CTEK battery minder over the winter 
Interestingly (or not) the little battery picture never changed to blue and if that happens the stop/start will never work as it decrees the battery is not good enough.
The new battery has cured all the issues… until the next time
Thanks for all the advice i am just trying to avoid having to check electrolyte level having not have to do it on the last few cars.cant find (apparently) a suitable agm battery on line. All say not available wth stop start. Perhaps i should be satisfied with a great car as it is!
I had the same issue of people advertising AGM stop/start and when you check, they are not. Really annoying that Google search engine seems to look at the first part of the search and ignore everything else and push paid ads. Amazon search does the same, search for a blue thingyabob and you get a list of green ones.
Phone your dealer, you may be as surprised as I was.
My ‘other’ car is a 2013 Mazda6 Sport which has i-ELOOP and i-stop. I’ve had the car for four years and until I got my NB it was my daily driver. These days it gets used infrequently but I try to give it a decent run once a fortnight or so.
With i-ELOOP, my experience is that it’s a clever system, and priotitises battery charge before it allows any of the exotic stuff to kick in. I won’t see anything happening on the i-ELOOP display for at least 20 miles or so and I need to give it a proper run of a hour or so before the battery has enough charge for the i-stop to start working.
My Mazda main dealer who service the car told me the battery was knackered (they used a more technical term), and quoted me a new battery at £155, but in my experience, unless you seriously run the battery down and leave it like that, it will recover. It’s survived two lock-down winters anyway.
In the meantime, as long as I use the car once a fortnight or so, and give it a good long run now and again (good excuse to visit the grandchildren…), it’s fine.
Of course, the ideal solution is a battery conditioner but unfortunately my garage is full of woodturning paraphernalia so the car won’t fit 
Hope this is useful…
You can always extend the wires on the conditioner. Some decent quality flex and a few bullet connectors or similar and you’re golden.
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My garage is full, but not with such worthy stuff I have a CTEK conditioner and one CTEK extension lead (they say not to use 2). That is connected to their M6 connector so the battery cover only comes off once to fit it.
I drive up to the garage and can run the extension cable under the garage door which is then closed and locked.
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EMG Cambridge charged me £118.55 Inc vat for the new battery.
Extension leads for chargers are on Amazon, I bought a 5 metre extension so the charger stays safely in the dry in the garage and the lead reaches under the door to my Eunos or Mk4.
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Thanks for all the charging suggestions. 