not meaning to barge in on this thread. my batt is also in the trunk i had the dying issue to so i ran my altinator + lead in to the trunk to the positive of the batter before the circuit breaker like we do on stock cars. no more dead battery. i think with the battery so far away all the electronics just take the much closer altanator power in stead of the battery. just my .02

 

Since I relaced the battery I have had 0 issues thankfully but I also installed a battery tender for the winter. With the Optima I had to make sure it charged at 14V though not 12V

 

Well just a few months later and the next Optima took a crap.

This time my wife and I were driving down the road on about an hour cruise around town and we kept smelling sewer gas. I kept thinking that something died in the car b/c we did not drive the car for 2 weeks.

I got home and we were getting our junk out of the trunk and it smelled REALLY bad. The battery box was nearly 200F, I let it cool off for a minute and opened it to find battery acid on EVERYTHING.

I'm done with these Optima's, I am going to pick up an Odyssey and do it right. The ER40 should be a nearly perfect fit but I will have to make some new cables.

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/er40.htm

 

wow! Guess the Optimas dont like to be lying down..



on a side note, what happened to your flashing rainbow signature?

 

i thought the whole point of the optima and even what they advertise is that the battery can be laid down on its side and not leak...what a scam~

 

I thought so too. I have a odyssey battery and relocated it to the trunk. I just went to the junkyard and grabbed the battery cable and terminal out of a old bmw 3 series. It cost me a total of $15 + the battery to relocate mine.

 

Yes you can lay them down, the battery got hot and the relief valve. The only thing that can cause this is overcharging but that is nearly impossible as the battery was running on the alternator only.

I ended up ordering a Braille rather than the Odyssey. It was smaller, cheaper, better CCA, and fit my box better.

http://www.braillebattery.com/index.php/batteries/b3121

 

So I did some more research after a member mentioned that there was a cheaper alternative.

Turns out that Deka (East Penn) makes the Braille batteries and offer the EXACT same AGM sealed battery in the ETX30L which is about $90 cheaper.

 

Thanks op. Pretty good info here.

 

[QUOTE=dsddcd,Jul 15 2009, 11:57 AM]Please do, I would love to see as many itterations as possible.