Anyone Running A Lithium Battery

[Duncan]

I'm looking into to changing over to a Lithium battery; it will be a pain to move the battery from stock location so the next best thing is to reduce weight on the front right corner.

Is anyone using a Lithium battery? Which brand/model, any problems or observations?

[djr81]

Cant offer a brand but just be careful about whatever they measure amps in. CCA and other amps arent all equal.

Are there any brands that dont cost an arm and a leg.

[zoomzoom]

Ever seen supercapacitor car batteries? Extremely high "CCA" due to low ESR (equivalent series resistance) in the capacitors. Also very light, and has no liquid to spill, virtually unaffected by temperature (within specs of the capacitors) and virtually unlimited charge/discharge cycles (you'd never reach them in the lifetime of a car). Only downside is much lower amp/hour figure compared to chemical batteries.

[XRATED]

Braille

Good but exy.

[Duncan]

thanks for the responses. I'll check out Braille too, I had looked at SSB. Yes they are not cheap, about 1/3 the weight and 3x the price of AGM batteries

interesting question about A/hr ratings, I don't know what I actually need given it is race use. I expect the alternator to do all the work, I never lean on the battery except for starting. I currently use a 16ahr battery which claims 520PHCA / 170CCA at the moment and it is fine (Odyssey PC680). Might end up back there depending on what I learn

[sav man]

I ran a Lithium for a few years, I just converted back to a sealed battery as I needed one ASAP and was being povo.

They hate the cold. On cold Targa mornings they appear to go dead flat, but come back to life once they have some load on them. I ended up going to the car of a cold morning and turning the lights on for a few mins so I could start the car.

You will want to keep the car on a trickle charger too, as once they go below a voltage level they never come back to life.

I took the life out of mine when my alternator failed and I drained the battery a few times in a day.

I ran the 550ca from here http://www.tuningworx.com/#!wwwlithiumaxcomau/sitepage_12

[Bazil_1]

I've been running a ballistics evo2 16 cell for the last 2 and a bit years. Claimed 500cca and around 1.3kg.

As Ben mentioned they hate the cold. Won't stay the car below 2 deg without the help of a jumper pack.

Am going to replace this before tt next year but the crap aus $ makes them v expensive. Have found a local supplier for antigravity batteries who make one in a similar spec. May try this.

Have also tosser up the idea of running a second one as backup with a switch between the two, just in case one failed mid event.

[Duncan]

Excellent, thanks guys that is exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for.

I won't be touching one with a barge-pole....will stick with the Odyssey

[Duncan]

BTW interesting point about the cold, it was kind of left of every manufacturers' websites.

The LEAF obviously uses Lithium batteries for the main pack, they come with what I assume was coolant...but maybe it is actually warmant for cold climates. They certainly work fine in places like Norway where it is 2nd top selling car behind tesla s (which also runs lithium)

[Bazil_1]

They do heat up quite quickly when current is drawn. Problem is in this size/capacity by the time they are heated up they are pretty much flat. On a big scale like the leaf and Tesla it probably isn't an issue.

[BOZ22N]

I have no experience with lithium batteries in a car but I do use a dual battery system in my 4WD that has a AGM battery as the second battery and the standard lead battery as the engine one. I was told by a battery bloke that each type of battery requires a different charge rate and that factory alternators are not set up to directly charge lithium battery's so you should use a smart DC/DC charger between the alternator and battery to help extend the life of the battery. I am not sure if any of this is true but I purchased a ctek DC/DC charger and it seams to work well.

[bcozican]

I have an SSB in my racecar - sunny old Perth isnt that cold usually but have cranked it over with sucess on some low single digit cold mornings

All other times never had a problem, obviously coupled with isolator etc but sitting for months at time and cranks over first time no probs been going 18 mths strong and not charged it once since initial full charge

Edited December 18, 2015 by bcozican

[Duncan]

thanks mate, the SSB were what I was looking at too. I decided to stick with the current setup for reliability.

and good point about different batteries Ryan, that is my understanding too...its why the expensive chargers have different modes for different batteries....I am not sure of the detail but there is something about both batteries being limited to the voltage of the lower battery when you charge, which is not sufficient for an AGM battery. I guess a single battery system with a lithium battery will be OK as long as the alternator's regulator charges high enough for what the particular battery wants.

[MBS206]

Just run two fat cables to the rear. Put a battery box in. Leave everything else in normal place.

Bug heavy item is now in the bar of the car and you haven't stuffed with the other looms.

Actually one epic cable to the rear would suffice.

[rcs_888]

I know this is an old thread but i actually purchased a lithium battery for my R34 and i will never own another one. I was luckily only on the dyno doing a couple of test runs and we had an alternator failure that inturn sent a 16v spike through the system and sent the lithium battery into meltdown... now sitting in a car that is getting sprayed in lithium wasnt fun at all!!

It has basically spiked one of the cells and it in turn ruptured now if i was at the track i think it could have been a whole lot worse. We ended up junping out, killing it and cutting the battery loose and turfing it out the workshop. So for me i have just gone for a small AGM optima yes its abit heavier but i have no stress that anything is going to go wrong..

Just my 2c