Under the hood battery???? Help!!

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

I have an 09 honda civic. and i need a bigger battery for under the hood. the battery that is in it is the smallest thing I've ever seen. any advice?

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[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

How large is the battery compartment up front? You may consider just adding a secondary battery in the trunk.

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

Measure the length, width, and height of the battery, and go to xspower.com and find a battery with similar dimensions

 

[Flipx99 5,000+ posts]

Have you checked optima's website? I have had excellent luck with the red tops and yellow tops. Just because Honda used a tiny battery doesn't mean you can't wedge a larger group in that spot. Just be sure you are able to properly secure it.

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

thanks. ill measure it when i get a chance. so I'm assuming i should get a better battery than just a regular car battery? I'm only running 1500w... so do i need to spend the extra 150 + to get the red top or a better batt?

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

thanks. ill measure it when i get a chance. so I'm assuming i should get a better battery than just a regular car battery? I'm only running 1500w... so do i need to spend the extra 150 + to get the red top or a better batt?

It will benefit you in the long run. 1500w is a lot to demand from a stock electrical system especially with an undersized battery.

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

k. I'm doing the big 3 with 2/0 welding cable too. so that should help.

 

[Flipx99 5,000+ posts]

thanks. ill measure it when i get a chance. so I'm assuming i should get a better battery than just a regular car battery? I'm only running 1500w... so do i need to spend the extra 150 + to get the red top or a better batt?

What are the CCA of the stock battery? That would heavily influence my decision. A stock battery from say, a GMC Yukon, make work just fine whereas yours may not. I have an '10 Sentra running about the same. I will probably replace with a red top just for reliability purposes.

 

[Fi_ 10+ year member]

0 Gauge big III will help quite a bit I found when I did it and 1500w is a lot of wattage for a stock electrical setup. Do you live anywhere where it gets excessively cold or hot? I also found that during negative degree weather some companies like Kinetic and XS don't like to start bigger motors, I also found during heavy heat Kinetics's can bloat and bulge without the heat shield and even then it happens in some cases they're just not great under the hood batteries. Yellowtops are basically meant to for starting vehicles and operating in any condition but they break easy from what I've seen and don't hold true to their warranties and often cost way too much.

Honestly just keep your factory battery as a starter and add a Shuriken BK-100 in the back it will provide a ton of CCA and CA as well as aH and reserve and also not a bad brand and are much cheaper than the others listed. IF you need a good starter though and don't want to put a battery in the back I recommend Odyssey or Stinger unfortunately both are VERY expensive.

XS I'm not so sure, they can and can't be decent starters it just depends where you live, conditions, abuse and what you really need for your vehicle/system. A lot of people look past that stuff when purchasing batteries, I just went through that trying to choose my starter batt since I live in maine where it goes from -20 to 100 in a year and I almost ended up buying a D35 Yellowtop instead I saved up for the PC1500 from Odyssey and I'm so glad I did.. But if you live somewhere like Florida where it stays warm usually and isn't too too hot until July then almost any battery should work fine I'd just get a heat shield for the Kinetic if you go that route, I've heard a lot of horror stories about them bloating.

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

same. i live in southern minnesota so we get the negatives the then in the mid 90's to 100's in the summer. but a ton of humidity. not familiar with what c/a means. and its 2/o welding wire so it won't heat up. otherwise i have 4 awg kollosus flex running through the rest of the car.

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

* cca my computer auto corrected.... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

Cold cranking amps

 

[Mr.meyhem 10+ year member]

okay. well i have an apsm 1300 and a cadence 250.2 both have internal fans on the bottom and have run just fine when its gotten down to 10

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

I've never heard of xspower having problems. That's what I plan on running.

 

[Fi_ 10+ year member]

same. i live in southern minnesota so we get the negatives the then in the mid 90's to 100's in the summer. but a ton of humidity. not familiar with what c/a means. and its 2/o welding wire so it won't heat up. otherwise i have 4 awg kollosus flex running through the rest of the car.

CA means Cranking amps and CCA means Cold cranking amps basically CA is when your car is warm and CCA is when it's cold starting, CCA means more than CA imo. and XS doesn't generally have problems but their site doesn't state that it can run in negative degree weather and most people couldn't tell me how reliable they were. I'm not expert on batteries though and I never used XS before.