Relocating battery to hatch.., wiring? Options

[mark_426]

Hey guys

those of you who have relocated the battery to the hatch - how did you do it?

Did you run two leads back to the hatch, basically extending the old leads? Or did you just ground it in the back somewhere?

What gauge wire did you use?

Any suggestions on where/how to hide wires, or run them through the firewall?

thanks

[95ST]

deffinatly ground it in the trunk, make sure you have a good ground.

Ive seen it done with 4 gauge wire without any problems, but I would consider possibly bigger but I like overkill.

[Dr_Tweak]

Yeah what he said, ground it good in the trunk, and use a VERY heavy guage wire for the positive because it's a long way to travel and you want as little resistance as possible.

-Doc

[mark_426]

When you say VERY heavy, and overkill, are you thinking, like 2, 1, 1/0, etc?

any suggestions of where to hide these wires?

thanks

[Clipsetuner]

0g-4g should be fine I have seen it done all the time with 4g.

I have 4g ran underneath my carpet for my system and soon enough my battery relocate and I have no bludges of any sort, 0g might tho.

In the engine bay you can just Distro block your positives together or just hook them all to the starter.

As far as running it through the firewall I would buy a sealing lock nut grommet like such Grommet.

Make sure you have good grounds between your engine bay and chasis, and you should be set.

DTE

This post has been edited by Clipsetuner: Sep 28, 2005 - 11:36 AM

[Hanyo]

i remember someone using jumper cables as a cheap alternative to buying wires.

If i where to ever do this. I would run jumper cables under the car and zip ties the wires along the underside of the frame.

[Coomer]

I've had my battery relocated for a long time and I used four gauge wire and everything works fine.

[Batman722]

When Manny and I relocated his battery I think they were 4 gauge wires. He had used this to secure the battery to the trunk


He had run the pos and neg to the front of the car and I had also grounded the battery to a secure location behind the back seat bracket (the U bracket in the pic)

also there is an inline fuse block comming off the battery for safety (between the blue wires).

I ran the wires behind of the hatch plastics, the driver's side rear speaker plastics (pictured before I hid/snaked them better),


and under the door sill/carpet to behind the fuse box and through the firewall to the bay.

you can see the "power" box I hooked them to here, top of the pic with the blue and silver wires going to it.


the stock + battery terminal was fitted to the box and the - was grounded to the same spot it was before with new clean 4 gauge wire.

vroom vroom, no probs

[Batman722]

I added to the sticky for a knowledge base

[BonzaiCelica]

i was recently in a toyota basic electronic class at college and the professor who has been working for toyota for over 20 years, had said that small amounts of fumes evaporate from the battery. is that true??

what is the lightest car battery out there??

This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Nov 24, 2009 - 9:04 PM

[richee3]

^^ I believe small amounts of fumes do evaporate from the battery, but you still open your doors and hatch, don't you? That should vent the cabin well enough, considering how miniscule the fumes are.

[JustinCapps]

how would you connect the wire from under the hood to the 4g wire running to the back?
just solder them together?

[hurley97]

i was recently in a toyota basic electronic class at college and the professor who has been working for toyota for over 20 years, had said that small amounts of fumes evaporate from the battery. is that true??

what is the lightest car battery out there??

That's why you use a sealed battery like an Optima.

[BonzaiCelica]

well optima doesnt make lightweight batteries, right?........

hmm well how about braille battery usa. they make a battery that weighs in at 6.6 pounds and a carbon fiber batteries as well. dont see the point in carbon fiber batteries

looks like the 6.6 lb battery can only withstand 60-120 degree weather. But if you move to the 9.5 pound battery i guess it can withstand weather from 32-120 degrees???? anybody know the answer.

so from stock battery that weighs 35 to the leightweight battery that weighs 9.5 pounds you have a 25 pound weight reduction. thats pretty darn good

This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Nov 28, 2009 - 12:59 AM

[lagos]

well optima doesnt make lightweight batteries, right?........

hmm well how about braille battery usa. they make a battery that weighs in at 6.6 pounds and a carbon fiber batteries as well. dont see the point in carbon fiber batteries

looks like the 6.6 lb battery can only withstand 60-120 degree weather. But if you move to the 9.5 pound battery i guess it can withstand weather from 32-120 degrees???? anybody know the answer.

so from stock battery that weighs 35 to the leightweight battery that weighs 9.5 pounds you have a 25 pound weight reduction. thats pretty darn good

Go look on the Evo forums. Those guys are obsessed with mini batteries.
Personally I don't think you will notice much of a difference, and it will put a bigger strain on your electrical system to always have to recharge that tiny battery. Not to mention those batteries cost close to 200$.

[Hanyo]

i was recently in a toyota basic electronic class at college and the professor who has been working for toyota for over 20 years, had said that small amounts of fumes evaporate from the battery. is that true??

what is the lightest car battery out there??

All batteries emit fumes, gel cells batteries like optimas emit less or have a chamber to capture fumes. This also the reason why on any battery that mounted inside the living space has a self contained ventilation system that vents outside the car. The smallest battery that i know which can be safely mounted inside the cabin would be the mazda miata battery. part number: U1RT; with 370 cold cranking amps rating. To put that into perspective the average toyota 35 series battery has around 550CCA and the tiny honda civic battery has around 470. This gives you an idea how much your sacrificing to save weight.

You may ask, Why do i need so much Cold Cranking Amps or power?

Well the more cranking amps your car has the easier it is to start, the more forgiving the car will be to to electrical leaks (leaving your headlights on), and the more stable the power from the alternator will be. As batteries age they produce have less power. So a small battery might be able to start your car when it was new, but as it ages it will slowly produce less and less power and you will notice a dragging starter. The temperature also affects the power of the battery.
Majority of batteries fail are during cold starts, where the age and the cold temperatures pushing batteries past the threshold leaving there owners stranded. The average life of a battery is around 3-4 years. But if you take good care of your battery I had one last up to 7 years before it would go out. This is assuming you are using the properly size battery; A smaller and less powerfull battery will expire sooner because it has to take a deeper discharges everytime you start your car.

[dabazied]

I'll look to see what battery I have, I got a cheapo, but it's a little lighter than the stock and it's about 3/4 of the size, same amount of CCA as well. I'll get back to you on it. Got it from Advanced or Autozone.

[JustinCapps]

nobody answered my question?
what is the best way to connect the 4g wire to the wire that is alrighty there for the positive

[dabazied]

Best way and safest way to hook it up is to get one of those junction boxes that have fuses in it. That way it is bolted down to one section of the engine bay and not dangling, and also you have fuses and stuff for protection. You can usually find them with extra ports too to wire up some other stuff.

[JustinCapps]

sweet! i didnt think of that, but that would work perfect