gogozy

have any one had experiences with battery relocation? thinking of moving the battery to trunk to shed some weight at front end and get some space.., and hopefully more cold air... thanks.

TXmotorhead

Instead of moving the battery to the trunk and adding lots of weight for that length of cable, try this... get a smaller motorcycle battery. The units that are in use for a Harley for instance, will do the job under normal conditions. Shed lots of weight overall without all the hassels. Although, winters in your area could create a problem.

NYT

No one else has considered or done a battery relocation?

psykotik

battery relocations arent to shed weight.. they are to prevent car theft or make room for things such as turbos and such.. so unless your trying to prevent ur car from being stolen dont waste ur money or time

NYT

A batt relocation from front to rear would help balance out the uneven 60/40 weight distribution of the TSX. Also, if you ditched the spare and put the batt in there you'd save weight too.

I'm thinking more for performance.

PJS

The battery is not heavy enough to warrant all this hassle - it's only (approx.) 40 lbs.
You'd have as much effect if you were overweight and lost the same weight.
You'd have a more pronounced effect if you lost 20 lbs by changing the wheels to something lighter - admittedly more expensive to do though.
Remember, the battery is only 1.2% of the weight of the car, so instead of a 60/40 split, you'd end up with 58.8/41.2 split - hardly enough to make the car handle like a go-kart!

Chris_F

I'm considering relocating the battery, more for aesthetic reasons and that my stock battery is on its way out.

If done probably I don't see why you don't give it a go, it's cheap to do if you know how to do it yourself.

Engine bay looks great without a battery too "P

PJS

What about voltage drop with the longer run of cables to the boot?
Even if that's not an issue, battery plus fuel tank plus potential rear ending = more risk.
Sorry, but I believe if there was any reason whatsoever for a car's battery to reside in the rear, then manufacturers would've done it already.

Chris_F

you just run a 2 gauge wire and there's no problem, i have a couple of friends with that setup.

it's more for aesthetics than anything (they both have wire tucked engine bays)

NYT

Pics?

Tsx536

You can also get a lightweight racing battery. That will help you shed some weight. I doubt you're going to notice a difference unless you track the car though.

L1StarTSX

You can shave even more weight to increase performance by installing a smaller wiper fluid reservoir, try using an eye drop bottle.

NYT

Not really a smart idea there Tex... but either is killing your own president :troutslap

ItsHersTL

The battery in my Lincoln is located in the Trunk, next to the spare tire, but thats mainly because there is no room under the hood for a battery of any size. Someone mentioned getting rear-ended & it being next to the fuel tank, making it less safe. I know really what that does yeild, but.. I guess it potentially less safe..

clee109

also certain years of Miata's had the battery in the trunk

aaronng

And there is also a reason why NB and NB models have them in front now.

CCColtsicehockey

Just get a spoon battery man.

S14 n Tsx

I'm sorry but this cracks me up... 40lb isn't going to do much.

joerockt

psykotik

thank you... its a waste of money and time.. and no.. its not easy to do, because you have to find a route to run the battery lines.. and u run the risk of battery acid and shit all u in your trunk.. its ust not worth it

mav3556

I have a Spoon Battery in my car, i swear it only weighs about 5-9 lbs. It saves a lot of weight and I added a Spoon oil catch can.

SoCaliTrojan

If you ditched the spare, you'd mess with the 60/40 distribution and make it even more unbalanced, so the battery relocation would only attempt to return to the stock weight distribution.

If you really wanted to even out the weight distribution, put a bunch of barbells into your trunk...that would surely help in making the car 50/50....

Plus having the longer cables will add some weight all along the length of the car, plus you'll want to vent your battery and possibly add a kill switch.

Weight distribution isn't for performance, it's for handling. And a better choice for a handling upgrade would be to get a set of adjustable coilovers...that way you can change the bias between left/right or front/rear.

Aside from the weight distribution topic, the other reason one might want to relocate the battery is to make some space in the engine bay for something else, be it turbo/supercharger or something simpler. For the most part, one doesn't need to relocate the battery, even for aesthetics (making the engine bay look better and your trunk look worse with a battery by your sub, etc).

And as an aside, I've seen an old mercedes with the battery in the trunk. You have to lift the trunk liner to get to it though...

Chris_F

I looked into that... but I've heard bad things about their reliability and I'm pretty sure the CCA is lower than the standard battery. Kinda turned me off.

finding a route to run the battery lines takes a bit of mucking around but it's nothing you can't do in an afternoon. and if you were relocating the battery you'd only do it with a dry cell (i.e. no liquid to spill)

it's possible to save roughly 5-8kg or so just by changing the battery to a lighter one. One single weight saving really doesn't mean much it's the combined affect when you slowly upgrade everything to lighter weight components.

Take my car as an example.

lightweight rims saving 2-3kg per corner of rotational mass
lightweight flywheel/clutch upgrade saving 9kg
titanium exhaust saving 18kg
after market header saving 1-2kg
after market intake (gruppeM) saving 1-2kg

then say i went for a lightweight batter saving a minimum of 5kg

already that's 45+kg (100 pounds)

that's a significant saving in my eyes

aaronng

Your rims being rotational mass is not equivalent in weight savings as the other sprung weight. According to various sites, a 1kg reduction rotational mass in the rims is the equivalent of 7-10kg sprung weight. So you're saving more.

NYT

Either is your pulley kit.

NYT

I consider handling performance.

I think it's funny how this is such a touchy subject with some people. I mean if I could make the car lighter and more balanced simply by running some wires I think it would be well worth the investment

If the cons out weight the pros I won't bother, but I thought someone may have done or considered this project already.

Re: a lightweight (Spoon) battery, I'm not really interested in the costs that probably go along with this. Also, when I replace my batt it will be with a stronger one (for cold Cdn winters).

JTso

iTrader: (2)

How do you figure that?

NYT

Personally spending hundreds for a couple horse isn't worth it, especially with the trade-offs of under driving the accessories. It's not really why I bought a 4dr TSX.

Rocket_man

My BMW had the battery in the trunk and I'm pretty sure they did this to help achieve that 50/50 balance that helped make the car handle so well. If a car designers goal is to achieve better balance, moving a 40 pound mass from in front of the front wheels to behind the rear wheels is about as no-brain-er as it gets. It doesn't add much to the cost of the car for the amount of weight it shifts. BMW has even manufactured front quarter panels from composite materials to help get weight out of the front end. You can bet that was a lot more expensive than moving the battery.

But putting the battery in the trunk required a vent to make sure excess hydrogen was vented outside the car and they also put terminals under the hood for the occasional use of jumper cables. Plus getting to that battery to swap it out was a pain.

In general I agree this one mod probably won't net you much since the car is not meant to be that anal about balance, but the idea is sound. In the case of the TSX it just won't make much difference.

joerockt

That wasnt your point. You said the pulley kit dosent increase performance, so explain. Who cares how much it costs...

L1StarTSX

Obviously you haven't learned what sarcasm is North of the border. Then again, you called me "Tex" and threw in killing your own president?? I guess you dont have much to work with in the wit department there Canuck

NYT

I never said a pulley kit doesn't increase performance. The comment was that lightening/balancing 40lbs wouldn't do much and I said either would a pulley kit. If you consider a couple horse "much" then to each his own.

Lightening/rebalancing the car ~1% isn't considered to do much, but adding ~1% HP is

If cost wasn't an issue I don't think most of us here would even be driving a TSX.

NYT

Comment withdrawn. I've been there, done that with the lightening jokes before down to cutting your finger nails. Just didn't want this thread to go down that ricer road... and I was dying to use that trout slap smilie

This isn't even my thread. I just bumped it to see if anyone had actually done this so I could decide if the process was worth it - which apparently isn't to most. I wonder if the sheep would have a different opinion if one of the mods posted a DIY on this..

Reach

At the risk of extending something that is on the verge of a flame war here, I feel I have to be the next idiot to respond.

Keep digging, you'll hit China!

Pulley Kit adds 7-10whp across the band and maybe 8-10tq, look at Zasker's graphs. Thats a real world example. That's also closer to a 6% performance improvement across the entire rev band, whereas many other mods only perform at the top end of our rev band. It may not be worth it to you, but its well worth it to me.

So, if you define performance as something better than a 6% improvement all around, the only thing that is going to make you happy is the Comptech Supercharger. Enjoy that if you're pinching those pennies, cause as you said: Maybe unlike you, that's not true for many others here. I looked at the Lexus IS 250 awd / 350, RX-8, TL, G35, and several other cars when making my purchasing decision. I could have spent about $8-10k more than the TSX cost without any sweat off my back, but the TSX simply spoke to me as the greatest car of the bunch. It has that balance of features, peformance, and price that many other cars are lacking, that and I think it looks damn good too.

So, if the 'balance' you're seeking isn't attainable here, maybe you've bought the wrong car.

NYT

^ There's also people on here that have dyno'ed and showed virtually no gains with a pulley kit. If you prefer the extra power to the motor at the expense of the accessories so be it

I looked seriously at the TL, IS300, G35 also and found the TSX be the best balance of what I wanted too (save for RWD). However when modding, especially with DIYs, cost is usually a main factor - this isn't new news. If you really want to quote me use this:
A pulley kit has it's cons too. And if it did add 10hp/tq across the band you wonder why Hondata is so much more popular

Reach

Hell I dunno man, I had so much money left over not buying a overpriced TL / IS / G35 that I just did all the mods. So far the only work i've paid for is an alignment after lowering, not bad!

And the only person who dyno'd it with "virtually no gains" was JTso, who already has a highly modified TSX. I'm sure you've realized by now he's been a kind of pioneer in our space, and his results don't exactly compare to a stock setup / the rest of us when he adds a part to his already tuned machine.

indeed.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

Correction... The pulleys did provide gains. It's the test pipe that didn't provide any gain at all comparing to the high flow cat.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...&postcount=306

NYT

Phew, I can finally undue 1 button on my flame suit. Unfortunately the $$ I saved on the TSX (which was a bonus) is going to diapers right now, but I'll be back to my bad habit of modding again come spring time.

I didn't really mean to be anti-pulley kit, the comparison was a little too abstract I guess. I'm into NA mods; I didn't buy an Acura to turbo the reliability out of it. I've done a lot more lurking here than posting and I have total respect for what guys like JTso have done.

I used to track and auto-x my RSX-S fairly extensively. I've past Vipers and been schooled by '85 Civic's... I know driver is everything. Although 40lbs of battery doesn't seem like much, it's amplified at the limit. Just adding 2psi to the rear tires provided a very noticeable benefit in handling. I have no plans (ok, very little) to track the TSX, but if I could improve the perfomance of the TSX say 1% for virtually nothing I'd probably take it up as a to-do project one afternoon. Right now it sounds like a lot of work, so I think I'll let this concept (and this thread) rest

Tsxn00b

I'm looking for info on this too. My reasoning is to fit the particular cold air intake I want. I need to do a wire tuck and move the battery at least. I need to measure if I'll have enough room with the fuse box. All I wanna know is if some can provide a walk through or at least guide me to one somewhere in the interverse.

redpoint

Relocating seems like a poor option because it takes up trunk space and a longer, thicker cable has to be run. Why not reduce the size/weight of battery needed while increasing battery longevity?

I'm experimenting with LiFePo4 and a supercapacitor.

I was inspired by this video

The battery I bought from Hobbyking was about $40 plus shipping, and the supercapacitor I bought from Ebay is now $70.

It just might be possible to do without the supercapacitor if this LiFePo4 batter were purchased for $80. At 30C discharge rating, that gives 252 cranking amps, but the battery is rated to deliver 40c (336 amps) in short bursts. My guess is the TSX takes about 250 amps when cranking.

The 2 downsides I see is that the battery is rated for only 2C charge (16.8 amps), and can only be trickle charged when below freezing.

It's an exciting possibility that the 40lb battery could be replaced with a 2lb solution that takes up less space and is more reliable and about the same cost of a new battery.