question about batteries

i really need to upgrade the battery in my civic. i have the big 3 upgrade all done. the problem with civics and most hondas is the size of the battery. they are so small and you cant get anything much bigger to fit on that battery tray. just not enough room! so im looking to get a more efficient battery then my interstate i currently have. ive been doing alot of research and have talked to several people and friends about this and ive heard of alot of good brands and types of batteries such as optima yellow tops, odyssey, xs power and so on..

im just looking to get some more help on this and perhaps some more recomendations. and for those of you who dont know the size of a civic battery such as mine... its 9 3/8 inches in length 5 1/16 inches in width and 3 3/4 inches in height lol! pretty small!

this is an old pic and the wiring now is a little different but this gives you an idea. also that blue thing is a voltage stabilizer. i dont have it anymore... got stolen

3, 3/4" in height? looks taller than that. Is there anywhere under the hood you could add another small batt?
Other than that I would say your best bet is to make room for a trunk batt and get a nice group 31 batt in there. It depends alot on your budget what batts you go with. Most of the better car audio group 31 batts will run you around $300. If your budget is real tight you can find used optima blues or yellows cheap, that work just fine.

yea, ive been pondering putting a battery in the trunk. only thing stopping me from that is my dad is an electrical engineer and he says my alt will go out in about a few weeks

///nick wrote:yea, ive been pondering putting a battery in the trunk. only thing stopping me from that is my dad is an electrical engineer and he says my alt will go out in about a few weeks

You have an 80a alt? I think you would need to upgrade eventually. Splcb7 seems to like his excessive amperage alt on his Honda, but he did custom fit it.
I'm sure your dad knows more than me, but I did run 1600-6000 watts with 5 optimas for a couple months on a stock 130a alt without issues, alt is still great.

yea i want to get a ho alt but ive heard lots of people having wierd electrical behavior with the extra amperage. pluss for the mechman alt i want its kind of pricey

///nick wrote:yea i want to get a ho alt but ive heard lots of people having wierd electrical behavior with the extra amperage. pluss for the mechman alt i want its kind of pricey

well if john, meathead, comes on this thread he will tell you do not go with mechman lol you can try DC power and Singer alternators. by far singer will be out those two in price.

http://www.singeralternators.com/ theres the website, shoot him an email and see what he can do for ya

Mechman has worked very well for many people. I would not rule them out because of one bad experience. They could not fit Meathead's application but I have not seen too many bad reviews on them. I think Ryan (White Tahoe) just got a mechman. You can ask him for feedback. Mechman and DC power are the most popular brands and there is most likely a reason for that.

RRR37 wrote:Mechman has worked very well for many people. I would not rule them out because of one bad experience. They could not fit Meathead's application but I have not seen too many bad reviews on them. I think Ryan (White Tahoe) just got a mechman. You can ask him for feedback. Mechman and DC power are the most popular brands and there is most likely a reason for that.

oh i wasnt turnign him away from that at all lol i was just making a joke hahaha his application is by far the hardest to full fill cause subaru completly changed the alt housing in the car, from what john said, and nobody has came up with a solid HO alt that will run perfect without any hiccups..

Yeah, it sucks that he had to go through so much trouble trying to get it to work. I don't know all the details of his experience but I know he was super pissed about it. He might have to send in a stock alt and have it rebuilt just because it is not in production. I'm sure one of the companies can at least make that happen.
I have an old DC power alt right now, but depending on how it performs when I do all my upgrades, I might be going for the Mechman 340a model. I will provide feedback if I do.

hmm well i tested my alt this morning and it seems to be doing fine i was at 12.5 volts with the car off then turned on it was at 14.7 volts. i think just getting a new battery should solve the problem. i want a new dry cell battery and im leaning more twords odyssey but i hear alot of people saying that kinetic and xs are better as far as fast charging and dis charging. i also relized my battery size measurments are totally off lol w=5'' l=9'' h=8'' so im going to try looking to see if any of thease companies make a battery close to my size.

also just a heads up... it totally scared the ish out of me the first time it happened but i had my bass on full just idling in a parkinglot doing bass sweeps and 30-50hrz tones and with in about 10min my cars idle dropped and my car was shaking like it was about to die lol. never happens when im driving though so thats good

there is smalled batts made for ur car like khc800 or xs power cant remember thr model number? have u done the big 3 upgrade yet?

And my issues go deeper with mechman then just 5 bad alts, its how they treated me as a customer, also the paper weight d3100 I have sitting cause they did not file the ups claim in time.. after all the calla and so forth..

I am.saying I personally would never buy from them even though Team DC gets a discount through them.. Iam personally.not a person to bad mouth a company..

///nick wrote:yea, ive been pondering putting a battery in the trunk. only thing stopping me from that is my dad is an electrical engineer and he says my alt will go out in about a few weeks

I have been running with my battery in the rear of my van for the past 5 years on the OEM alternator with no problems whatsoever.

Lol ive been running 4 big batts off my stock alt for 2 years now mind you I keep them maintained but lol so stock alt wont go out in a few weeks tell your dad I said he is wrong...

well. from what ive read and research ive done, adding another battery or even upgrading the original battery will only act as a band aid and wont stop youre alternator from burning up. i think some peoples stock alternators have lated them so long simply because they dont crank the bass as much as some other people do.

when everything was in I beat in mine hard daily everytime I.was..in it.

meathead wrote:when everything was in I beat in mine hard daily everytime I.was..in it.

how many amps is youre stock alt putting out? mine is either like 70-80.. mine is super wimpy

i believe its 90.

I believe XS's battery that fits is the 5100, if it's the same size as mine ('91 CRX).

When I had my stock alt I had my 5100 and put a 1200 in he back. Adding that second battery made quite a difference, even with how small it is. My alt did go out, but it was like 20 years old, so the demand I put on it was just a catalyst to the inevitable. (I believe it was in this order.. haha)

As for MM alts, I personally have nothing bad to say about them. CS was amazing, got my alt within a week, no problems at all. Though I have seen some of them act funky or they get an order mixed up but they always seem to set everything straight.

Have you looked at DC HP line? I would prefer one of those myself. If you buy me one I'll give you my Mechman 150