Hi all,

I'm in the market for a smaller battery for my scooby to provide a bit more breathing space beteen the FMIC pipework and the bonnet. A local battery centre has said the following would be appropriate:

VBZ3 It has more cold cranking power than the std battery, is 175 in height (std 230) 242mm in length (std 230) and 175mm in width (std 225).

Anyone know if this would be ok?

Many thanks,

Ns04

 

So a search but there was a thread about a spec c battery with the bigger terminals, but as long as your not running some stupid sound system or kicking the *** out of the power consumption, one of these little batteries will do you

Tony

 

Have a chat with 53WRX. He runs Braile racing batteries and knows what he is talking about. Does like to spend money tho

 

I run an Odyssey PC680 which although expensive it's VERY small and ~1/4 of the weight of the OEM battery.. Provided you either use the car regularly OR get a small charger (ring/halfords 2-4amp smart charger with plug in adaptor is ideal) to top it up every now and then over the colder periods (0-1c) it does the job very well..

On the classic you can actually mount them on the ns chassis rail, therefore moving the weight away from the front (although it only weights 3kgs).

Just a though..

 

jasonius, how long does the Odyssey hold enough charge to turn the engine over in really cold conditions i.e. the worst case scenario?

Is it only a day or two? Or a time period which is a bit more user friendly?

 

TBH the only time mine struggled was a few weeks ago when we had a cold spell with load of rain (so wipers/heaters/heated screen/lights etc) and the car hadn't been used for 2-3 days, with only short trips (<10mins in the abover conditions) for about a week before.

I just jumped it from the oem battery in the garage and took the car for a good run (20min or so). I needed to go to Sainsbury's and then to Halford for a charger, so I put spare battery in the boot along with jump leads thinking that I'd need them to restart.

However, the amazing thing was that the Odyssey fired the starter up no problem (they do seem to recover from 'flat' amazingly quickly). I actually took the charger back to Halfords a few days later unused. I have since bought a ring 4amp smart charger (actually designed for a motorbike) but it does allow you to hard wire a cable to the battery, which makes topping up a doddle. But as said I haven't had to use it yet.

So in answer to your question, I'd say, provided the cars been on a decent run a week should be no problem. A lot depends on whats being drawn by your alarm etc. Withiut these parasitic losses the battery will hold charge for ages.

This will be it's first full winter, so I'll update accordingly, hopefully with good news..

PS the cold weather aside, the car stood for 2 weeks without a problem, whilst we were on our summer hols last May..