lgt2000

delete

natedawg

Staab Battery Co Mazda Miata SLA/AGM Battery

Really not much benefit removing weight from the area where the battery is. It's usually 100-200 pounds lighter than every other corner of a miata.

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

... And after leaving my lights on approximately 200 times at work (damn you, mazda, why a key buzzer and no light buzzer) the Yuasa is dead. I'm thinking of getting one of the battery tenders with a cutoff switch.

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

I'm going overkill this time.

Thinking of this kit as well

https://www.advanced-autosports.com/...er-kill-switch

curly

iTrader: (25)

Jump into the 21st century with one of these:

Battery Isolators | CARTEK Motorsport Electronics

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

That's awesome. I'm not sure if it's 4x the price awesome, though. Will have to think about that one.

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

Just pulled the trigger on a battery tender lithium and charger on amazon for $145.... about 2lbs. Hopefully it won’t be an epic mistake

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

Its shocking how tiny this thing is. I have bigger batteries in my son's power wheels.



I started the car from dead cold (~30 degrees here BTW) and it cranked just a little slow but fired right up. I let it warm up a minute, and then shut it off, and proceeded to turn it back of and restart it FOUR more times, and it fired up quickly each time. I put it back on the tender, and according to status lights, it was still between 80-100% full. Might have a winner here.

Here is a pic with the monster it replaced. Quite hilarious when put in perspective. I added some Odessy terminals from the old Yuasa I had.

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

Like all things with the car, I needlessly obsess... Now to figure out cutoff switch solutions!

The previously posted solid state option is simply too expensive

My current internal debate is whether I should put a switch like this either behind the passenger seat on the bulkhead or right next to the battery. Simple, effective.

.

Then you have the remote relay kits like this - Just install this solenoid near the battery and use a toggle switch to control it from where ever you want.. The downside? still too expensive, draws power when it's on, another mechanical piece in your electrical system to fail.. This is an incredibly stupid kit because it drains 2.5 amps while on and it will kill your battery if you leave it on. This is the case for many of these kits.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/prf-30205

Seems like the best (cost/benefit) solution for a REMOTE battery kill is one of these latching solenoids that only require power when being switched. Apparently they are popular in the RV world. Basically you take one of these bad boys, wire it between your battery and chassis ground, and use a momentary on-off-on switch like used for a power window motor to switch it on and off.. NO power draw in either the on or off position. Once again, the DIY solutions trump overpriced kits...


Now I just need to figure out if the convenience of having a dash mounted battery kill switch is worth it.

hector

Don't know if this is still relevant to your interests but I put the battery in the front since it weighs less than three pounds. Got rid of a pound and a half in cable and the starter turns over like a raped ape now. The picture is not the best since it is blocking the battery but you can just make out the case of the alien motion unit and the cut off switch.

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

That's cool.. how is it coping with the heat? If this battery works out for me I may consider moving it up front.

Thanks

hector

Haven't had this version with what seems like a printed case in there for long but I had the previous version in there during summer in SoFla and no issues associated with heat.

First time it cranked with the battery up front I thought the spark plugs were out of the engine. 20 year old cables running the length of the car, duh!

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

They aren’t kidding when they say these batteries need to warm up.

I left the car outside last night and it was in the 30s. Went to leave for church this morning and the car just wasn’t spinning over strongly. I made 4 or 5 attempts with no success and thought for sure I had killed the little battery. I turned on the headlights for a couple minutes and then it fired right up the on the next attempt.

definitely a learning curve with these things

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

Because having this thing wrapped in a towel as my battery "mount" wouldn't cut it, I fabbed up a little aluminum bracket to mount the battery and switch. It was my first time really building with rivets. I learned pretty quick if you don't clean the slag off the holes you won't get a good tight joint. Also I found that the battery case really isn't square, its tapered.


Untitled by , on Flickr

Fits nicely under the package shelf

Untitled by , on Flickr

or in the factory location..


Untitled by , on Flickr

I think it ill go on the package shelf after a lick of primer and paint.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Paging Dr. @Leafy. Dr Leafy, we have a response to a three year old post.

Given that you also live in Satan's frigid *******, how'd this work out for you in the winter? Or was this car not even a daily driver? (Can't remember.)





See, that's what concerns me. +30° being described as "cold enough to make it crank slowly."

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

To be fair, 30F is cold enough to make a stock Miata battery crank slowly.

Read further, he said he turned on his lights for a few minutes then it cranked hard.

Advance Auto has stronger ones if you're worried. They're heavier though. I think some of them weigh as much as 3.5lbs.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

The hobby king cranked harder than the stock miata battery in the winter. But I blew mine up trying to crank over the new motor the first time after I left it off the charger over a year and a half. And then I couldn't get a new one from hobby king and needed 35 pounds of ballast so I switched to a monster heavy battery. I'd run a new hobby king of I could and needed a light battery.

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

It cranked too slowly to light it off. Unlike a lead acid though, the more I cranked, the harder it would turn over. Use of the battery warms it internally.

This definitely would not be a good choice for a daily driver in northern climates, but for a car that's rarely driven in the winter here in GA, we will see.