New Battery Question

[ryan_r33]

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.

[Chris Rogers]

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]

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]

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]

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 !!

[ryan_r33]

ok thanks again for your time and help i appreciate it.