12 Volt Lead Acid Battery Replacement

[MalcolmReynolds]

Well my Leaf decided to die... Well not the Leaf, but the 12v battery. Kinda ironic I had both the key fob and the 12v battery croak at the exact same time... Go figure.

So after looking long and hard for lithium options I decided I wasn't going to mess with finding a lithium battery with enough capacity to ensure that there is enough reserve. The prices are still just too high on these batteries.

So I shopped around and found Wallyworld had the cheapest and readily available 51R battery in stock so I ran down and picked one up yesterday along with some new CR2025 batteries for the fob.

So I pulled the battery out and put the new one in and took it for a spin. All my crazy dash lights and warnings appear to have cleared on the car. So I think it is happy. Got it home and put it on the the EVSE to have it top up. Then I put it on a battery maintainer charger for the 12v and it was already saying the battery charge was at 90%.

My car doesn't get driven very much, once a week at most, sometimes only once ever 2 weeks. Otherwise it is in the garage. With the light duty I put my Leaf through it appears that it isn't enough to keep the 12v topped up and happy. And I figured out the hard way you don't want to leave the car plugged into the EVSE because it will draw down the 12v battery...

So now I want to put a 12v DC quick disconnect for the 12v battery wire for the battery maintainer. All I am finding with the ring type connectors is only 2 ft long. And I am trying to figure out the best place to be able to run that DC connecter so that I can pull the car into the garage and simply access the cable without having to keep popping the hood to connect the battery maintainer.

I thought maybe the wire could be run down to the grill/air opening, but there is a air dam there that funnels the air into the radiator. It is pretty tight to get down there and not sure if that would be the best place to try and get the 12v wire ran and be exposed to the elements.

The second place I thought maybe it would work would be to somehow fish it into the charging port hatch, but I haven't seen an obvious way to get the wire into there. I am pretty nervous about getting too close to those charging ports under there with power tools or trying to make a penetration in there when I don't know what I am getting into in there.

So I am looking for suggestions on ways to run that 12v DC charger wire so that I can have a simple way to keep the 12v battery topped up since my car sits for so long. Since I just bought the new battery I would like to keep it healthy as long as possible. Any suggestions or ideas? I did some searches here on the forum but not having a lot of luck finding anything. Thanks!

[LeftieBiker]

So now I want to put a 12v DC quick disconnect for the 12v battery wire for the battery maintainer. All I am finding with the ring type connectors is only 2 ft long. And I am trying to figure out the best place to be able to run that DC connecter so that I can pull the car into the garage and simply access the cable without having to keep popping the hood to connect the battery maintainer.

I had to splice a length of black appliance cord onto the maintainer lead to make it long enough. But before I completed the splice, I drilled a small hole (just large enough for the lead) in the charging port compartment back wall, which is just plastic, and ran the cord in there. I plan to use either a rubber plug (more likely) or some black caulk to close the hole before I turn the car in. This lets me plug in the maintainer whenever the charge port hatch is open.

[arnis]

Lead flaking is a problem of overcharged battery. Undercharged batteries accumulate sulfite on the plates.

I think that lots of vibration (like from bad roads) can also cause flaking.

No. Flaking is not mechanical. It's chemical.
It can also be reduced by lowering acidity. Higher acidity does give more capacity, but is more corrosive and flaking happens faster.
At freezing climates more acid is better because of freezing point. And at low temperature corrosion happens slower.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/arti ... rnal_short

[MalcolmReynolds]

So now I want to put a 12v DC quick disconnect for the 12v battery wire for the battery maintainer. All I am finding with the ring type connectors is only 2 ft long. And I am trying to figure out the best place to be able to run that DC connecter so that I can pull the car into the garage and simply access the cable without having to keep popping the hood to connect the battery maintainer.

I had to splice a length of black appliance cord onto the maintainer lead to make it long enough. But before I completed the splice, I drilled a small hole (just large enough for the lead) in the charging port compartment back wall, which is just plastic, and ran the cord in there. I plan to use either a rubber plug (more likely) or some black caulk to close the hole before I turn the car in. This lets me plug in the maintainer whenever the charge port hatch is open.

Would you happen to have a pic of how you setup your charging port? I was poking around looking at the back side of that port and of course all the wires and metal bracket made me nervous so I would love to see how you did your wiring for it.

[Nubo]

So now I want to put a 12v DC quick disconnect for the 12v battery wire for the battery maintainer. All I am finding with the ring type connectors is only 2 ft long. And I am trying to figure out the best place to be able to run that DC connecter so that I can pull the car into the garage and simply access the cable without having to keep popping the hood to connect the battery maintainer.

I had to splice a length of black appliance cord onto the maintainer lead to make it long enough. But before I completed the splice, I drilled a small hole (just large enough for the lead) in the charging port compartment back wall, which is just plastic, and ran the cord in there. I plan to use either a rubber plug (more likely) or some black caulk to close the hole before I turn the car in. This lets me plug in the maintainer whenever the charge port hatch is open.

Make sure you have an inline fuse on the positive lead, as close to the battery terminal as possible, to protect against any shorts. You don't want a live wire trying to dump 500 amps to ground.

[LeftieBiker]

Make sure you have an inline fuse on the positive lead, as close to the battery terminal as possible, to protect against any shorts. You don't want a live wire trying to dump 500 amps to ground.

Good idea, although I've never had a problem with no fuse, because of the thick appliance wire insulation and shrink-tubed splices. I'll add one to my next Leaf if I have to install a maintainer lead. This one will be coming off in the next month or two.

[arnis]

Wire must be thick enough for the fuse to blow. Easiest selection would be 150% of charger max charging current. So 1-3A charger choose 5A fuse.

[Joetheleafowner]

Has anybody tried using 2 lithium motorcycle batteries? Double amp hrs

[VitaminJ]

I have just used one motorcycle battery. 6Ah LiFe. Works fine 1 year so far.

[arnis]

I have just used one motorcycle battery. 6Ah LiFe. Works fine 1 year so far.

Have you left the vehicle for 4-5 days?