Fitting lightweight battery

[Z4MCSL]

So I've seen a few battery threads on here but interested to know how straight forward it is to just fit a lighter battery in the same slot as the original and what sort of weight saving i could achieve


From other threads its sounded like 7-9kg, which for me i think is quite substantial really for 100 quid!?

 

[David172]

If you are keeping it in the same place you will need to buy/make a bracket to hold it in place.

You can get them as light as 1kg but which ever one you go for, check it will hold enough charge and have enough cold cranking amps.

 

[Z4MCSL]

If you are keeping it in the same place you will need to buy/make a bracket to hold it in place.

You can get them as light as 1kg but which ever one you go for, check it will hold enough charge and have enough cold cranking amps.

Thanks David, how do I check that and what does that mean i thought they were just powered by magic battery juice

 

[David172]

Im not very technical when it comes to electrics but simply put, cold cranking amps is how much 'power' it is able to release when powering up the starter motor. Needs to be high enough CCA basically.

Amp hours is how much/how long the battery can hold charge.

Google will give a better answer probably

 

[gambit]

I have just purchased a Fullriver HC20 and works well.

http://www.fullriver.com/products/admin/upfile/HC20.pdf

 

[gambit]

Works well at 230CCA

 

[charltjr]

I thought about it back when I had my 182, but IMO you'd have to have the car completely sorted elsewhere, have moved on to a serious weight saving plan and be chasing every tenth of a second to make it worthwhile. I do get it, why lug around a heavy battery you don't need, but £100 is still a decent amount of cash to spend on it unless you're getting down to the really fine detail.

 

[Z4MCSL]

Do you think?

I feel like if you can save 7-10kg that's quite a lot considering frontbseats are what...15-20kg each so with my buckets in I'm maybe saving 10kg per seat.

So if I can save 10kg from a battery change?

I'm not going for mega light but I'd almost rather change my battery than take 10kg worth of carpet and sound deadening out?

Although I'm sure I'll end up doing both

Also i do appreciate i am still the week point in the car but its still fun trying to lighten it up

 

[JamesBryan]

Do you think?

I feel like if you can save 7-10kg that's quite a lot considering frontbseats are what...15-20kg each so with my buckets in I'm maybe saving 10kg per seat.

So if I can save 10kg from a battery change?

I'm not going for mega light but I'd almost rather change my battery than take 10kg worth of carpet and sound deadening out?

Although I'm sure I'll end up doing both

Also i do appreciate i am still the week point in the car but its still fun trying to lighten it up

Front 182 seats in mine were 22kg each I think

 

[David172]

Second to stripping the interior out, a lightweight battery is the cheapest weight saving mod £ per kg I think.

£100 battery will save you around 10kg...

 

[MLB]

Depends how you use the car I suppose, I'm about to take the lightweight battery and bracket out of mine and put a standard battery back in.

I still have things like radio and alarm in my car (which I like to keep) and I don't drive my car every day so its getting a bit bothersome to put it on a charger every week.

For me the convenience outweighs (literally) the performance gain. Especially since I feel that I myself am the restricting factor in performance anyway.

Not difficult at all to swap batteries though, fix bracket, lightweight battery in, put correct fittings on wiring, connect wires, job done.

 

[scullyg40]

I've got a 1 kg battery in mine, that includes the bracket I made for it. It is a decent amount of weight saving, but like said before, weight saving is only worth it of your going all in, which basically makes it useless as a road car.
If it's a full on road car, I'd personally keep it as comfortable as possible, and just put a turbo on it if you want it to faster.

 

[charltjr]

It does depend where you’re at with the car. IMO I won’t notice 10kg of weight off the body of an 800-900kg car, it’s only going to be genuinely useful when racing. Where I might really notice it is when reducing unsprung weight, which primarily means wheels and tyres.

It’s almost a fetish to get the new shiny lightweight bits for track cars and I totally get it, the amount I spunked on parts for my 182 was insane and I enjoyed every minute. Personally I now wish I’d done the basics and spent the rest on tuition and actual track days, which oddly enough was the advice a lot of more experienced people gave me at the time

If you fancy doing the mods, can afford to do it without cutting back elsewhere and don’t need or don’t want the tuition then I’d say fill your boots and enjoy every minute of it. If it’s one or the other, personally now I’ve been there and done it, I’d spend the money on tuition.

At the end of the day it‘s just a hobby, do whatever makes you enjoy it

 

[Pepa]

Yep, 10kg weight off of a 900kg car may be not worth it, if it´s the only weight saving one will do. But put together lot of small cuts, and you can end up with interesting number, which will be very noticeable. I´m big fan of weight saving, for me it´s the kind of mod which I can do myself and which makes noticeable difference In short, I myself use Powerlite ps 20 battery (2,35 kg) for allmost a year in my "road legal" clio with absolutely no issues, and compared to previous 17kg exxide battery, it seems to me as a worthy mod..

 

[Z4MCSL]

Thanks this is interesting, do you need to keep it on a trickle/drive the car a lot or does it happily hold its charge when the car is not driven?

 

[MLB]

My odyssey 25 needed charging every 8 to 10 days if the car wasnt used in that time.

 

[JB21]

I'm currently using a golf kart battery in my MR2, just 6kg and only £40, its been great so far. I do however unhook it after each use of the car but its not an issue being a track car. I reckon it wouldn't take long, a week or two before it went flat when not in use.

 

[Kev@KAM]

Its removing weight in the right place on the car. I think its worth doing if you do a few other complementary modifications too.
Saying that - I'm still leaving powersteering and aircon in mine as I want a comfortable car to drive - not a racecar.
lightweight race Seats are going though as the standard seats dont give thigh support when cornering hard.
Theres probably a little bit of weight in the bonnet and lights which can go relatively easily with some carbon and fibreglass.

You will see a better performance gain from an LSD for the same cost as all of the above.

 

[VenomUK]

I'm still leaving powersteering and aircon in mine as I want a comfortable car to drive - not a racecar.

Most racers have AC now as part of regs, nothing wrong keeping the AC in a track/race car

 

[Kev@KAM]

Its probably to do with minimum weights for many. If the base car is light enough keep comfort as a comfortable driver will lap consistently. Modern control systems can probably turn off the aircon for acceleration so theres no risk of sapping a bit of power in parasitic losses

 

[Coops Mk1]

bit that makes me lol is people buy a lightweight battery, save 10kg then 'relocate' it and slap in 5kg of wiring to move the thing, flol