Jump to content
SAU Community

New Battery Question

ryan_r33

By ryan_r33,
in Car Audio & Electrical

 Share

Recommended Posts

ryan_r33 Explorer

ryan_r33

Posted
Posted

hey everyone,

I've got a 97 gts-t with the battery in the boot and recently i've upgraded my sound system and my car has the cheap jap battery that looks like it would struggle powering a motorbike in the boot so i am looking to upgrade, just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I had a search through the forums but couldn't find enough to make a decision.

I got the idea that a lot of people use Optima yellow tops, if i was to buy one of these what exact model should i buy? Also, does the Cold Crank Amp (CCA) rating affect what battery i do choose?

Thanks.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/299833-new-battery-question/
Share on other sites
Chris Rogers Grand Master

Chris Rogers

Posted
Posted

CCA will help start the thing. look at A/Hr - the higher the better. also bea in mind that the car when running is NOT running on the battery - its running on the alternator- make sure that is also up to scratch if you have done something silly on the audio side of things.

Carbon 34 Grand Master

Carbon 34

Posted
Posted

be warned in advance , some people have issues with DIY battery replacements on R33 when it comes time to put in new terminals security and size is critical

http://www.odysseybattery.com/

http://www.optimabatteries.com.au/Products...aYellowTop.aspx

http://www.kinetikaudio.com/2009/default.asp

a few decent ones above

if you look for CCA , which is for cold start cranking amps, is useless unless you live in the mtns. and it snows the value is a "guess at best".

for a RB to start you need about a 650CCA battery, to make it happy and dependable for a few years.

once you go to AGM, DRY CELL, SPIRAL WOUND and the other catchy term battery they provide huge amounts of instant power,

the yellow tops are for extreme car audio and driving, if you drive short trips they will die.. never recharge completely and short cycle charge

if you go to the park and blast tunes for hours, it will die,, then you need a blue top , same for a boat deep cycle, but you not recommended unless you run a starting battery as well.

if you have a basic decent stereo and dont park and jam the red top will be fine, I had one for 11 years in my old car in snow too

Ive had good luck and bad luck with every battery made so I can only say, buy it from a place that stands behind them for at least a year if not longer..lol

get a drycelll, AGM, or spiral core, your car will thank you for it. but remember to update your terminals when you do that as well, and double your grounding up. run another 4ga wire from the back of you alternator bracket bolt to your chassis to improve your charging circuit, less misfires and smoother idle is a common side affect...all good ones

plus ADR rules suggest that you car battery needs to be a sealed one(non spillable) or the venting of the battery needs to be in place

all the ones above are fine for use , you can mount them upside down if you had too..lol

any of the above batteries in the 850CCA range or higher will fit the bill,, my R34 had 2600CCA in it but the battery failed for no reason, no stereo in the car when it failed... go figure. and it depends on how much weight you want to lug around, the big ones are nearly twice as heavy as normal batteries, but provide twice the service life, power at least.

if your only care about go fast, then you can get by with a smaller one

ryan_r33 Explorer

ryan_r33

Posted
  • Author
Posted

thanks a lot for your help.

I haven't had the alternator looked at but prior to getting audio gear installed the battery was very ordinary. It would go dead in a matter of minutes with the parkers on so i assume the battery is getting old.

The thing is i'm not looking to do any major work, i just want to swap the battery for a more reliable one. I do want to be able to sometimes sit in my car with the engine off and listen to my music and not worry about the battery dying. I don't mean cranking the volume and listening for hours though lol.

Would the red top suit me if i did go for Optima? If so, will it be possible for me to sit, if only for a half hour or so on say medium volume, in my car and listen to music without any worries. I don't want to go as far as installing a second battery for starting the car nor do i want to start running cables from the alternator, i'm looking for the easiest option really lol.

Thanks.

Carbon 34 Grand Master

Carbon 34

Posted
Posted
thanks a lot for your help.

I haven't had the alternator looked at but prior to getting audio gear installed the battery was very ordinary. It would go dead in a matter of minutes with the parkers on so i assume the battery is getting old.

The thing is i'm not looking to do any major work, i just want to swap the battery for a more reliable one. I do want to be able to sometimes sit in my car with the engine off and listen to my music and not worry about the battery dying. I don't mean cranking the volume and listening for hours though lol.

Would the red top suit me if i did go for Optima? If so, will it be possible for me to sit, if only for a half hour or so on say medium volume, in my car and listen to music without any worries. I don't want to go as far as installing a second battery for starting the car nor do i want to start running cables from the alternator, i'm looking for the easiest option really lol.

Thanks.

depending on your car audio system you could run the redtop for a half hour or so , but without exact details of how much current draw and a lot of other variables its hard to say .. if you drive your car often enough and far enough to charge a yellow top then consider that one maybe ?

or dont forget they have a group buy on here and on ebay you can score a generic one for a lot less money and they come from local or AU suppliers ?

most of the dry cells are rebranded anyway just like soooo many other things in this world,, rebranded with pretty logos and marked up a lot.

just make sure you use new terminals and do it right the first time. dont scimp unless you want to walk home when the car dies in the darkness during a downpour.... not me !!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • 04-LOOX
      R34 GTR Vspec Garage Sale - All must go!

      By 04-LOOX · Posted

      Hi, is the HKS  Tower Bar still available ? negotiable ? 🤔
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
×
×
  • Create New...