Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick323
My parents 2004 Pontiac Bonneville battery is located under the passenger's side rear seat from the factory. Last I looked (a couple months ago) there was no rust/corrosion anywhere. I never looked for a vent but it's not in an air tight compartment, lift the seat up and there it is.
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There is a vent system on those with two hoses hooking up to the rectangle shaped vent holes at either end on the top of the battery,then the two hoses merge into one and they exit the vehicle through a grommet on the floor near the battery....supposed to anyway. Some Buicks have the same setup.
@mans: It really does not have to be expensive. All depends on your personal electrical usage.
Get a voltmeter,hook it up to your car and monitor it/learn what the voltage looks like on your "normal" drive.
On my car I learned the interesting fact that it did not charge at all until the coolant temp was up! Day or night (electrical load)did not matter.
At one point I had three voltmeters hooked up because I did not believe what I'm seeing.
Later with the alt. disconnected I added a 14A/h sealed lead acid and the system voltage sagged into the 11.x volts toward the end of my commute and I did not like that. So I added a regular 55-ish A/h car battery in the trunk. That made it a lot better but since I carry a homemade jump box ( I'm a mechanic) in my trunk that is made out of a 63A/h truck battery I keep it clipped onto the other battery mounted in the trunk. Now I can finish my 58 mile drive at night with the headlights on and the voltage does not sag below 12V which means I am not torturing any of the batteries. (total of 194A/h with the car's original batt.)
The key is to monitor the voltage so you know your needs and not to let them over discharge causing permanent damage to the batteries!
You could go to Interstate and by a blim battery for $30-40 (have not checked their prices lately) They are either refurbished or just had some cosmetic damage so they can't sell it as a new battery at full price.
If your needs require more you can always add more later.
Many ways to do it! This is how it works for me!
Barna