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I'm getting ready to replace the stock battery, I know some people tried the Braille and some the Lithium Shuriken, I think.
I see threads starting in 2011.
What happened, how long did they last?
Did you have any electrical problems while using them?
I'm looking for people using the car for daily driving, not for drag racing once in a blue moon.
I've used the Oddyssey in my other car and it lasted more than 5 years, but the electrical system is a lot simpler, requires less CCA and the ECU can't decide to run the blower fan with the car stopped and parked, like in this car (there's a feature of the car getting rid of potential condensation).
I don't daily my car .. parked all winter and then have a work vehicle but it gets driven a fair amount... actually the siting around is harder on the battery but I've had no problems... using the deca I believe 14 lb runs everything no noticeable changes
have had it 2 years... and for $100 I think that's pretty solid they have some lighter ones out now for around $300 that are similar cranking and capacity but 4-5 lbs lithium
Good luck Vladds. Interested to see how this pans out. I won't do this on my car because it's so heavy, but I admire the fact that you're considering it. I'm guessing your battery is the boxy square type, right? That's what the E has. I wonder how much weight you can save and still retain normal functionality.
I run an Odyessey PC680 in my Celica, and haven't had any issues for 10 years (aside from changing them out every 3 years for preventative maintenance), but then that doesn't have anywhere near the amount of electrics as a Merc.
It's an etx20L
Had someone tell me they manufacture the Braille batteries... had a Braille battery mount from my other car and sure enough fit perfectly
I had a braille for a little while on my 09 sedan. I wouldn't recommend for daily driving.I had to charge it a few times. Battery was new but would not last long after a day of use (AC, cold start etc ...).
I contacted braille and they send me a new one thinking this one was faulty. But never installed it back.
Out of curiosity, why are you looking to daily a lightweight battery? Unless your car is very extreme and used only on the track, I doubt you will feel anything dynamically. The costs don't seem to have any benefits for a daily driver. Not trying to be a jerk, only trying to see the reasoning (I have a modded car that can't be used to its potential on the street too. Haha)
Out of curiosity, why are you looking to daily a lightweight battery? Unless your car is very extreme and used only on the track, I doubt you will feel anything dynamically. The costs don't seem to have any benefits for a daily driver. Not trying to be a jerk, only trying to see the reasoning (I have a modded car that can't be used to its potential on the street too. Haha)
I was thinking the same thing. What is the objective in a road car?
I have experience with running the Odyssey 680 in a road car, where the road car calls for 40 Ah and it is roadable with no side effects in that car.
Price compatible too.
Basically there could be a battery for this car that in addition to being price compatible and roadable offers weight savings too, why not research and find it.
And as far as weight savings, it's a very slow and incremental process, where each step individually is irrelevant but the final result can be relevant.
But you're right to think that I'm not looking to transform my car into a track queen and this is why I'm considering the options carefully.
Bringing this back with more info.
So for my C63, I ended up buying a new OEM battery (lighter than the Deka one), but the thought if a lightweight battery could reduce the output of the car, by diverting more power towards charging has been bothering me for a long time, I am still running a lightweight odyssey in my Subaru.
So the other day I remembered that when I was a kid everyone that had a modded car was running ammeters as far as gauges.
So I started to look into this.
Ammeters are hooked up in serial and have two ranges, a positive and a negative.
All things being equal, in the positive range, the mechanical power is used to charge the battery, in the negative, the battery discharges.
Now what it shows may depend on where you serial install it, serial at the battery, or serial at the alternator.
But here's where I'm going with this:
Performance wise, I believe that a zero indication may be best.
Now once things are not equal anymore because you installed a lightweight but amp weak battery, this gauge will then show how your power now gets diverted into charging because the battery has not enough amp output.
Or, it will teach you how it's time to replace the battery, not because it's failed but because it's reduced charge holding ability, gets the alternator to consume mechanical power from your car.
No power gets lost. We still have amp meters but are now checked by ecu for charging check light.
I run a super light 3kg battery and also ran light weight before in other cars, they last very long 5+ years. I Did many dyno runs and no power lost.
The biggest power loss i ever had on my c63 was when i put 8 new cold race spark plugs in it. Did multiple dyno runs and lost 35whp. Changed back to oem and power was instantly back.
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
That's interesting. When you ran the colder plugs were you FBO headers, tune, etc? And on what kind of gas etc. Losing that much whp with no other changes is pretty shocking.
All was 100% same conditions. I did 4 runs to see my baseline. Changed only spark plugs to some special stupid expensive race plugs, did 4 runs again (i hoped to have found magic spark plugs for more power), Saw the power was off. And i was so shocked by how much. Immediately i changed the spark plugs back on the spot in the dyno room. And boem, power was straight back.
Colder plugs effectively make the engine see less timing (the tip/ground strap sits inbound toward the insulator, moving it away from the action in the chamber and firing 'later'). In my experience, to get power back up to where it was before with a hotter/normal range plug, you need to bump the timing up accordingly. That way, you benefit from the additional porcelain on the plug which is there to dissipate the heat from the cylinder, but you also keep power to where it should be.
I know that colder plugs can cause a slight loss of power, but 35whp......it had to have been something else wrong with the plugs or state of tune. I dunno, that's a huge amount to lose. I can only imagine that the gap wasn't large enough or....I dunno
A plug doesn't really foul due to oil build up passing through the intake manifold/PCV. It would take a lot more oil than the tiny amount which passes through and gets burned in the cylinder.
If you get time, it would interesting to see close ups of your plugs. But if you can't be bothered, I don't blame you. It's not the most exciting of things to do on this motor.
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
"Reading" plugs is only worthwhile if you do WOT dyno pulls and then shut the engine down and immediately pull them. Unless you have a catastrophic problem where your plugs are oiling or mixture is massively rich as in an injector stuck or something, and those problems would certainly manifest in more obvious ways anyway. Otherwise you're not really reading anything as they get scrubbed in normal use.
This is true.... ^ yeah no, i was just thinking because magic carpet said he thinks the plugs are oil fouled....if that was the case, then they'd always be fouled and not just at WOT.
Here the plugs. They came out spotless clean. Put them in brand new out of the box. Perfectly gapped. The dyno runs where only done to test different kind of plugs in this engine. No mapping done. Just to see how the car runs on other plugs. And the horse power losses where amazing. Stick to oem plugs. If you go tune and supercharge it fine. But on a stock engine or just a ecu tune, keep stock plugs!
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