Battery relocation, trunk vs bin
 

I will be relocating my battery soon. I am just not sure if I should place it just behind the rear panel/seat or in the storage bin.

Many in the forum seem to prefer the storage bin but the distance between the two is not much. The storage bin is lower so I guess a bit better for centre of gravity.

It is just that the storage bin area looks very inconvenient in real life scenarios when you need to jump start the car. When you pull up in emergency lane no one can park on your right to help you and I don't think most cars will have such long jumper cables. Plus it's a tight fit so again if jumper cables have thick ends it won't fit in the storage bin etc.

What are your experiences? Should I relocate mine to the trunk or the storage bin?

Btw, I am thinking of buying an Odyssey PC925. Some of the issues I mentioned would not be a problem with PC680 but it goes flat too quick.

Storage bin...how often do you plan on needing to jump the car?? and if you are pulling up to an emergency lane, chances are its not because of a dead battery or you'll have bigger issues to deal with than getting a jump. Carry your own cables of longer length and appropriate fit.

Storage bin for cleaner install, lower gravity and just my personal pref.

the previous owner of my car put it in the rear storage area. I hate the way it looks, but it makes life easier since I don't have an Odyssey battery. Super easy to get to and change the battery, and it makes jumping other people's cars (it seems like I'm the one all my friends call for a jump) so much easier.

Just put a terminal in the front of the car and you can still jump the car from under the hood with the battery in the bin. Thats how I have mine done and I dont have any problems.

I had my battery in the bin then in the hatch. But in my case I had to cause I went with jdm rear seats.

Those couple of pounds won't mean much to weight distribution cause you figure when they figured out the fd's 50/50, probably wasn't on a full tank of gas and without driver/passenger.

Yea I think this is very true. I think alot of people miss this. Isn't corner balancing used to combat stuff like this anyway?

i have it in the rear bins, its not that hard to jump. in real life scenarios i think its actually easier since the car jumping you doesnt have to turn around and face you... i can get jump with a car just behind me... doesnt need to be on the side.. and with the hatch open is very accessible.

^ +1
Mine is in the bin on the driver's side. No problems if the car needs jumped and no problems with large cables. Plus it's hidden away in a space I'm less likely to use than the "trunk"

I guess you guys are right, it's not like I will jump the car everyday.

I don't know any shops here which do corner balancing.

I'm not sure about putting the terminal in the engine bay, I don't know the pros and cons.

Eitherway I'm convinced, so I will relocate the battery to the storage bin.

lol when i used to store the car most of the time during the winter months back in the day, it was a pain to get the car jumped when the battery was in the bins.

I then resulted into just buying a jumper pack (every car guy should have one anyway). It made things a lot easier although even fitting a jumper pack by the bins is a PITA too.

If i had to go back, i probably wont. Not using the hatch for a "hatch" kinda sucks. It would also suck if i had to change a flat and needed that spare (never had to *knock on wood*) and IMHO, it makes the car more "race like" lol.

I cant tell you how many times i had people comment me about the battery, just because it was in the hatch. They thought my car was pure track. When they saw the battery, they immediately asked me if i had a roll bar or was going to put one in. They thought i did that mod for better weight distribution. I told them i had no choice cause of my FMIC piping up front, and my jdm rear seat inside. I think im happy where its at.

Here is what mine looks like.

Attachment 717090

I should have mine in the hatch pretty soon. I made myself a metal bracket to hold the battery. I will post pics of my work by the end of the week.

I put it (PC680) in the trunk, because:

A. Helps rear weight
B. It's not like I carry a lot of luggage in the FD, but the bins are handy for quick detailer, oil, premix, etc.
C. I have a pig-tail connector for a battery tender, and it's a lot easier to hook up in the garage by just popping the hatch.

I actually put it in the back of the spare tire well, since the spare won't go over my brakes anyway.

Is there something holding the battery down inside that box? How about a gromet on the cable where it passes through the box so vibrations don't cut through the insulation?

OP if you want to do it proper:
1) You need to have something under the battery to absorb vibrations like styrofoam, that's what comes under OEM battery trays these days. It makes the battery last longer because the vibrations will speed up the process of the lead plates breaking down as sulphur builds up on them.

2) It needs something to bolt it down for obvious safety reasons.

3) A sealed battery is better for two reasons. They don't vent fumes so they don't need to be put inside of a sealed battery box. Also they won't leak acid if they are upside down.

4) Be careful about those wires. When you run them under the car, use rubber grommets for the spots they pass through sheet metal. Otherwise after a few years you're going to get a nasty short. Also make sure the brake lines are run next to a frame rail or something sturdy like how your brake lines are. If you take a hit on the bottom of the car you don't want it to hit your battery cable.

5) If you don't have a fuse, get one. You can use 250 amp ones from the audio shops. If it's not enough, you can stack two of the fuses inside the holder. You don't want an electrical fire inside your car.

I'm not trying to be captain safety here but I always wondered what would happen if the car ended up on it's roof? Well I found out one day. Nothing happened! The battery stayed put, it didn't leak, and even though there was massive damage on the underbody the battery cable was unaffected.

This was a different car thank goodness but here are the pics of the setup:
Attachment 717091
Attachment 717092

There's a foam tray under the battery. Yeah I know the cables aren't the best. After I made the positive cable I learned that you can just go to a battery store and they will solder+crimp a connector on a cable for you and put the little heat shrink tubing over the end so it doesn't corrode. I had to redo the ground because I wasn't getting enough current so I went with a bigger cable and it helped. The battery store guys said to not use the side terminals because they add resistance. They also said to not use gold battery terminals because they are only gold plated, inside it's still just lead. So they actually add more resistance. Makes sense.

Pic of said accident:
Attachment 717093

The battery was safe! I can only imagine what that 20 lbs brick would've felt like in the back of my head if it hadn't been bolted down.

O. . M. . .G. . .

http://www.myfacewhen.net/uploads/600-awww-yeah-guy.jpg

looking like a compartment for mexicans

The box you have is a little big for my liking. If I decide to relocate the battery to the trunk I'll try to fit it under the strut brace, behind the right side of the rear panel/seat.

When I spoke to Cam from Pettit, he told me this car was designed as RHD for Japan and then converted to LHD for other markets, but they kept the battery on the same side iow wrong side. So whether in the bin or in the trunk the battery should be on the right side I think.

Hmm, I can't decide once again. At the moment I carry the fire extinguisher in the passenger side storage bin. Incase of emergency I can quickly grab it but if the battery goes in that bin than the fire extinguisher would have to go to the bin behind the driver seat.

A PC680 in the bin shouldn't be a problem when time comes to jump the battery.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2...39a8301e66.jpg

But because you can only fit a PC925 on its side, I don't know how the ends of the jumper cables will fit.

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/772...installed1.jpg

Nah battery just sits there. It doesn't move though I checked. I don't daily the car nor do I track it so movement isn't an issue. Although there is none.

My optima has 15x the vibration resistance compared to standard batteries.

That corrugated plastic wrap my positive cable is in, that's supposed to be a grommet but I guess over time moved out of the hole like a snake. Ill remember to resleeve that cable better.

This mod was done in early 07. I havent had problems.

To OP, yes the box is huge. When I bought it it said for mustang but I thought a box is a box and when I got it, I didn't want to return it so I just used it.lol

Well hopefully you never have to test that. I agree it's a very small possibility of happening. And at least it's an Optima so it won't spray you with acid or anything crazy like that. But on the other hand it doesn't cost very much to install a proper bolt down kit. Just some threaded rod, a couple washers and nuts, and the hold down piece on top. The foam could come out of the packing that comes from a TV. The fuse might be a little more expensive, $40.

Here is a picture of my install:

https://www.stanford.edu/~sunid/Pict...ssengerBin.JPG

I think it looks very clean. :) (Full write up is here.)

I don't understand the need to run jumper cables to the bins. When jump starting, the current needs to get to the starter so attaching the positive cable in the engine bay makes more sense. I attach the positive cable to the line running to the fuse box (see below). The negative cable can me clamped to any metal chassis contact point in the engine bay.

https://www.stanford.edu/~sunid/batt...PreInstall.JPG

That's how i jump the car when I had my battery relocated to the rear bin back in the days..

Only reason you should jump from the battery in the bin is if you relocated all these fuse boxes inside the car like some of you have been doing.

What are pros and cons of moving all fuses and cables in the bin and/or leaving in the engine bay? Is it shorter, cheaper, better current, electrical noise from radio, tidier engine bay etc.?

There are no significant pros to this and it would be a colossal rewiring job. I doubt anybody has ever done it. In my write up, I have added an extra fuse box and placed it in the bins. This fuse box is for aftermarket electrical items.

Honestly, im not really "done" with my car anyway. lol

I said in another thread that i hate FD downtime since this is only a weekend car. So driving the FD on the weekend is basically one of the things i look foward to when the weekend comes. Since i HAD a boring daily driver.

But im picking up a GTO in the next 2 weeks so now FINALLY i can start doing the things i wanted to do to the FD. Because even if there is some FD downtime, i have another car i can enjoy while i do it :D

But yeah when i did the batt rel. to the hatch, it was a quick job i did on a nice spring morning, just to get the job done and continue to have the car drivable.

I then got lazy from then til now and never got back to it lol. Trust me there are A LOT of little things i need to attend to that i always wanted to attend. Now im finally gonna attend to them.

I had it in the truck in my last FD and my current one is in the rear bin. I dislike the bin because it is a small battery and can't do much without draining the battery quickly. I like to use my storage bins to store basic tools, oil and rags/shop towels then the other one for car cleaning supplies.