Smaller battery?

S3AMJ

S3AMJ

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Afternoon all,

Just curious if we can run a smaller battery on our cars? I think the original is rated 70ah 760cca, this means the battery is roughly 278mm long, 175mm wide and 190mm high. I'm currently designing a ramair feed to a custom airbox to accommedate an OEM cone filter I've sourced. I need to free up a little space without relocating the battery if I can help it.

Thanks in advance,

Ash
 
Nice one, thanks for that VAG-Slag, so looking through these, would the 680cca be enough?
 
Perfect, great find! Really appreciate it. It'll certainly make my design much easier now! Once I've got everything out together and painted I'll upload some pictures.
 
Has anyone had experience using these racing batteries? Odyssey state that there not suitable for normal road use cars, because on continuous low voltage discharge and it'll long term damage the battery?
 
audi upgrades
That's good to know pedrosousa, I think I maybe need smaller still for what I'm planning. I should get all the components together this weekend and suss out exactly what I can get away with battery size. I rang MerlinMotorsport and they don't seem to think it's an issues running a racing battery on our cars providing there not left for a few weeks, as this kills the battery.
 
S3AMJ said:
That's good to know pedrosousa, I think I maybe need smaller still for what I'm planning. I should get all the components together this weekend and suss out exactly what I can get away with battery size. I rang MerlinMotorsport and they don't seem to think it's an issues running a racing battery on our cars providing there not left for a few weeks, as this kills the battery.
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We had a customer that ran one of these race batteries on his daily with no problems, I'm still in touch with him on FB actually, can ask if he's had any issues if you want? . . Also worth bearing in mind you can't use a normal charger on these, you need a charger that compatible with AGM batteries
 
nah, ingore lewis, you can use a normal charger on an AGM just fine :laugh:

I use an Odessey PC680 on the track car.

I imagine it'd be absolutely fine on a daily that's used regularly, but if the battery isn't isolated I wouldn't want to have one on something that's laid up for a few weeks on end as they DO drain down when connected because of the alarm and other such things.
 
VAG-Slag said:
We had a customer that ran one of these race batteries on his daily with no problems, I'm still in touch with him on FB actually, can ask if he's had any issues if you want? . . Also worth bearing in mind you can't use a normal charger on these, you need a charger that compatible with AGM batteries
Click to expand...
I'd hugely appreciate it if you don't mind asking him mate, just gives me some piece of mind before I commit to buying one.

Prawn said:
nah, ingore lewis, you can use a normal charger on an AGM just fine :laugh:

I use an Odessey PC680 on the track car.

I imagine it'd be absolutely fine on a daily that's used regularly, but if the battery isn't isolated I wouldn't want to have one on something that's laid up for a few weeks on end as they DO drain down when connected because of the alarm and other such things.
Click to expand...

I'd be looking at getting the PC680, it's got the same cranking power as our normal batteries, I drive my car everyday so I shouldn't run into any issues with the battery going flat, if I were to disappear for a couple weeks, I could just pull the battery out and trickle charge it with my CTEK charger. That's one that MerlinMotorsport have suggested using.
 
CTEK is odeal with a pc680 yes.
I drove mine once or twice a week and it's fine, if i leave it much longer I need to isolate it and it'll hold its charge just fine for months on end without a trickle charger even. It's just when leaving it hooked up that the small things running within the car slowly drain it.
 
Got my PC680 guys :) will be trying it on the car today but fitting it properly at the weekend. Prawn, your track car still use aircon, electric windows, etc?
 
Ran some tests, car starts up and runs smoothly. All on at the same time Heaters flat out, windows going up and down, radio on, interior lights on, exterior light on and main beam, windscreen washer going and a constant ready idle. Happy days!



Size difference between standard wet battery to Odyssey PC680 racing battery.
 
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VAG-Slag said:
Massive difference isn't it... Surprised it's not a more common mod/conversion

Did you buy a cage or bracket or you just going to bodge something up?
Click to expand...

Yeah it's a huge difference, you could fit 4 pc680's inside the space of the standard battery!

I was thinking about getting the cage but I'm going to make something up for it and a little cover to keep it looking OEM.

The great thing with these batteries to is you can have them on there side, upside down, etc because there dry. Possibilities are endless ;)

The battery was £87.60 and £112 with the correct terminals and next day delivery from MerlinMotorsport.
 
Last edited:
superkarl said:
Are the terminals the same size?

I need to do this, will allow me to route a 63mm boost/map sensor to the throttle body comfortably.
Click to expand...

The terminals you buy with the battery are for those standard connectors. One is bigger than the other, purpose is so you don't "accidentally" put negative on positive.
 
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Updated*

Hi all, just an update on this thread. I've had the oddessy racing battery on my car now since August and I've not had a single issue with it, not even with the cold weather we've experienced lately. Highly recommended
 
Image
 
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My oddessy ran faultlessly for a good year or so when was a daily but swelled like a balloon when discharged heavily and charged







It was said to have been rather hot and could smell it, hence the tub of water.

Be careful if you do drain it quite heavily
 
StaceyS3 said:
My oddessy ran faultlessly for a good year or so when was a daily but swelled like a balloon when discharged heavily and charged







It was said to have been rather hot and could smell it, hence the tub of water.

Be careful if you do drain it quite heavily
Click to expand...

Ouch, looks potentially hazardous! . . What sorta charger/setting did you charge on out of interest?
 
Dam! That's pretty bad. It's perfect for a daily, I've added a kill switch to mine now so if I leave me car for a length of time without use.... Say between 6-9 days it won't discharge.

I'd be interested to know which charger you used. Because they state to only use certain charger, the normal conventional battery charger apparently is a no go
 
Whats the weight saving on one of these batteries?
 
I used to use Hawker Genesis batteries when I did robot wars, quite a few of the top robots used 2 16Ah batteries to give a 16Ah 24V supply.
They are essentially the same as these and made by the same company.
They are fantastic for the amount of current you can get out of them for their size and they have the ability to be recharged very quickly.
They do have one issue though and that is when they are discharged to a low level and not recharged straight away. The battery plates get internally shorted by sulphate crystals and then the battery just turns into a big resistor and gets hot.
 
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A few people have mentioned running a kill switch/isolation to avoid residual drain from leaving the flat on a daily. Does that give many annoying niggles such as radio codes needing to be constantly input, alarm problems etc or are they generally ok?

I'm considering getting something similar (perhaps in the region of 22-25Ah) but my car is used either daily(ish) or left for weeks/month at a time. Would make sense to make the change when I relocate the battery to the boot but liveability needs to be convenient really.
 
VAG-Slag said:
Ouch, looks potentially hazardous! . . What sorta charger/setting did you charge on out of interest?
Click to expand...

Tbh I don't know what charger was used as was at Bills when it happened, pretty sure he said it was a Ceetex charger?

He did say he could smell the battery as was tucked in the cavity behind the rear interior panels.
 
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