Moving battery back to engine bay

[ChunkyTits]

Right, had enough of my battery being in the boot now. The car always turns over sluggishly even after a battery charge and very quickly goes flat, and has been like that ever since it was moved into the boot.

I don't think the battery is actually flat, it's more the resistance in the cable causing it to struggle as it always struggles at the best of times.

I've got my IC pipework going through the battery tray so I can't use a full size battery, but I've heard of micra batteries being used that fit nicely in the remaining space.

Does anyone know which battery is the correct height and have the correct sized battery terminals?

Thanks.

[Actual_Ben_Taylor]

Type 054

[ChunkyTits]

<3

[-ghost-]

You've done it wrong or using a old weak battery then bud.

I always found the little batteries die much quicker.

[Actual_Ben_Taylor]

Mine is permanently hooked up to a battery conditioner when the car is in the garage. Got fed up with replacing them every year!

[mattyb123]

The resistance difference in the size of cable you have used will be tiny mate. Must be a cack battery or possibly a cack earth

[ChunkyTits]

I'm running a large battery from a BMW E36 which was also located in the boot so no issues there.

It could be a crap earth, but more likely the gauge of cable I have can't handle the current required by the starter motor. I've seen it happen in other cars I've relocated the battery in as well.

I'll move it to the front again and see how we get on, can't be arsed to get to the bottom of it or rip the cable out again lol

[autosri]

What size cable have you got running front to back as it could well be volt drop from the high current starting

Put a volt meter on the battery terminals and start the car and watch the volt drop a little not do the same think with the meter up front start it again if it drops much more than the first test your cables are to small or badly connected

You could always get the battery drop tested to see how strong it is

[ChunkyTits]

Well I fitted a smaller battery back under the bonnet and my god what an improvement, it starts SO much better now.

I was using 4AWG (i think) cable which is the pretty thick stuff.

[ChunkyTits]

When the other battery was in the boot, if I switched the engine off I was always nervous about leaving the fans on or side lights, radio etc as I'm pretty sure it would have struggled to get going again. With the battery back in the front I took it out for a spin, killed the engine, left the stereo, fans etc at full chat and all other electrics on and it still started perfectly.

Must be a crap connection to the boot somehow but I can't be bothered to fix it lol

[jumpbike]

I bought my car 5ish years ago, moved the battery that came with it too the boot, been fine every since. Biggest thing people don't do is have good solid ground connections. Make sure you have sanded the ground points on the body back to bare metal. Should have a big fat cable going from the engine to the chassis on good clean metal to metal connections. In the boot I have two well cleaned ground points going to the negative terminal on the battery.

[sparky_s13]

My car struggles now with the new engine being so tight.

Battery is in the boot and put a brand new battery in, problem solved for a day or two but now I need to have it on jump leads to another car AND a booster pack! its about 3 days old!

Don't think my cables are up to much.

I will check my earth point in the boot, will having 2 earths in the boot make that much of a difference?

[jumpbike]

Its all about surface area of contact, I used to have one and it was fine but I added the other just for peace of mind knowing I have no direct link to the battery apart from that. Plus there's a chance that over time the cleaned off surface will start to rust. If you get a good solid clamp from a fat M8/M10 terminal to the boot floor and the same from the engine to the chassis then it should be good

[sparky_s13]

My terminal has a 10mm bolt so guess that's M6?

Might beef my earth strap and terminal up and see how it goes

[jumpbike]

yea be M6 is its 10mm head, just make sure you're using big fat connectors and not the little blue or yellow ones. cable need to be like a fat rope

[sparky_s13]

Its got pretty decent connectors and stuff now but im gonna get a 4 or 2 gauge kit Friday and keep this earth and have another bigger one.

[ChunkyTits]

I picked up an 054 battery yesterday - it has the same tiny jap poles on it though with the sleeves to make them larger.

That's the same as the battery i've already got fitted, but the poles are still too small even with the sleeves on, the terminals won't tighten up enough and you can easily pull them off by hand.

Is there another small battery that has the proper fat poles on that don't need sleeves?