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How To Relocate Battery To Boot.


Bigkeels

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  • Member For: 15y 1m 24d
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  • Location: Victoria

Ok I'm going to relocate my battery to the boot and I just wanted to get a few pointers on what to do up the front of the car with the fuse box/starter cables.

Basically from what I understand is;

-Remove battery from the front of the car, cut the battery terminal of the earth cable, soldier and crimp a spade lug onto it and mount it directly to the body. Sand back some paint to ensure you have a good earth.

-In the boot, mount the box on the left hand side in front of the factory amp. I have a pre made earth cable which is 200mm long which will be mounted directly to the body/floor with some paint sanded back.

-The positive cable from the battery in the boot comes from the battery, under the carpet in the boot and across to the drivers side.

Now this is where I'm a little confused, I've read on the forums that there is a gromit behind the rear seats somewhere?? that goes into a channel which runs all the way up to the front wheel well.

Or is it better to run it down behind the seat and under the black kick panels up to the front of the car into the drivers foot well panel and out that way.

5618168906_1fd3a78cb2_z.jpg

Once the cable is up there, I see there is a hole in the guard just in front and to the left of the fuse box.

5618168914_7e29fb951d_z.jpg

Is that accessible with the inner wheel well cover off? Or do you use the one behind the strut tower just infront of the firewall?

Now the positive cable is up the front, do I go straight to the starter and pull the existing cable off? Or goto the fuse box terminal?

5618168916_914560f09b_z.jpg

The existing cable goes from the fuse box terminal to the battery terminal where it is joined with another cable running down to the starter.

If I was to cut the starter cable away from the battery terminal and terminate it with my new positive cable and mount it to the fuse box terminal would that work?

Bit of a long winded question but I don't want to stuff it up lol, I can put up a tutorial with pictures and instructions when I do the job for future reference.

Any pointers will be appreciated,

Cheers,

Keelan

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  • Member For: 15y 11m 16d
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  • Location: New Zealand, Palmerston North

the little grommit you speak of is undernaeth the rear seat on the left hand side of the car pretty close to the fuel pump was a bit of a bitch to pop out and I think I need to enlarge the hole abit..

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So that would run the cable down the passenger side of the car?

Hows yours connected up in the engine bay?

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  • 3 weeks later...
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  • Member For: 13y 2m 11d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Auckland, New Zealand

I have relocated mine to the boot and had a auto sparkie do the wiring and he ran the heavy duty cable from the battery to the starter motor and used the starter motor cable to supply the rest of the car. Saves running the cable too far and seems to work well :)

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  • Dropping a turd
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I think it runs from the starter motor under the car ( maybe in a channel) and then up into the boot on the passenger side.

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I did mine a week or so ago, the way I did it was, run the new positve cable from the boot inside the car down the drivers side under the kick panels and came out just infront of the fuse box, from there I mounted a insulated terminal stud and bolted my new positive and the positives from the fuse box and starter motor to it.

Works perfect couldn't even tell the batteries in the boot, starts fine and theres no whine.

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Ok I thought I would write a "how to" on relocating your battery to the boot, I did a lot of searching before I did mine, but there wasn't really that much information available and I still wasn't 100% sure on the best place to run the cable and how to connect it all up.

I have now done it all and its works perfect! No stereo whine, no trouble starting the car and it came up really neat. Most of the time this mod is needed when you are going to use a 4'' intake and air box. :buttrock:

_________________________________________________

What you need.

  • Battery box (I used "small" sized box)
  • 7m of 2B&S cable
  • 7m of split conduit (optional)
  • 250mm pre-made earth lead (optional)
  • Positive battery terminal (standard)
  • 2 x "fasty" straps (optional)
  • Bolts, nuts and washers for mounting box
  • 10mm insulated terminal stud
  • Spade lugs for terminations
  • Heatshrink
  • Cable ties
  • Drill
  • Stanley knife
  • Socket set
  • Screw
  • 6 pack of beers

_________________________________________________

Ok so know you have all the parts you need, park the car where its easy to access with the door wide open.

Step 1

Running the cable: I ran my cable inside the cabin, I figured it will be protected from anything under the car and I didn't want to take the chance of it getting hot or squashed by anything under the car.

Pull the base of the rear seat out by pushing the front of the base back towards the boot on each side, it should unclip and pull out.

5618168906_1fd3a78cb2.jpg

From there I ran the cable down the drivers side of the car. Undo both the kick panels front and back and removal all the plastic panels down the side of the seat. Remove the panel that goes up the middle pillar where the seat belt is and also the bottom half of it. I didn't have a torx bit big enough to undo the seat belt bolt at the bottom, but you can just feed the belt through the panels to give yourself enough room to work. Remove the front kick panel under the fuse box to the right of the accelerator, this one is held on by the seat belt bolt. Once you have all the panels off or out of the way you can now run the cable in the channel, cable tieing it to the wires already in there.

Jack the side of the car up and remove the front wheel and inner guard. From here you can see a gromit where the main loom goes into the cabin. If you stick your head in the foot well you will see some browny coloured rubber, that's where the wires come in. Cut a small X in the gromit and run the cable through there, once its in the wheel well, cable tie it to the wires running over the well and poke it out and into the engine bay right beside the battery.

5618168914_7e29fb951d.jpg

Once its in the bay, you can put the inner guard and tyre back on and lower the car back down.

Run the cable back through the channel and into the boot, this is where I crossed mine across to the passenger side.

Step 2

Mounting the box: It is much easier to mount the box on the passenger side of the boot, just sit the box where you want it and mark and drill your holes. The chassis rail is directly under the box, so I put 2 bolts between the rail and spare wheel well and bent up an L shaped bracket for the other side because the rail was directly underneath where I would of put my bolts through.

The key to the installation is to keep you earth leads and short as possible, I cut a tiny groove in the side of my box to allow my earth cable to run almost vertical. Mount the earth cable directly to the floor of the boot, sand back a spot to bare metal and bolt the lead on. (You can just use some of the cable you bought and put a battery terminal and a lug on it if you want)

I cut two little slits either side of the bottom of the box and ran a fasty through it so I could strap the battery down also. The straps that come with the box are sh*thouse. Also put one around the outside to hold the lid on.

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Step 3

Termination: Ok, now you have your box in place unbolt the batter from up front and cut off the earth terminal, crimp a lug on the cable and mount it directly to the body, remember to sand of the paint back to metal and bolt it on, I just did it on the lip of the hole my new positive cable came through.

The existing positive cable goes to the fuse box and to the starter motor, cut the battery terminal off and crimp a lug onto both the cables, use heat shrink too. Do the same for the new positive cable as well. Now mount you insulated terminal lug somewhere and bolt all the positive cables to it, I used the standard positive terminal cover to cover the stud. Use some vaseline or battery terminal oxidisation inhibitor on the stud to stop moisture getting in.

5683357948_98618172b6.jpg

Now head back down to the boot and put the battery in the box and strap her down, cut your positive cable to size and put the battery terminal on it. Hook up the battery and see if it starts. Test your lights and radio to see if there is any whine. I also cut some foam and stuffed it down the side of the box in case the strap breaks inside.

So now you have your battery in the boot, its not very hard to do and comes up very neat. All up it cost me about $130 and 3 hours going pretty slow because I'd never taken any of the interior trim apart .

Hope it helps, if you have any questions or anything to add feel free. :ughug:

Cheers,

Keelan :beerchug:

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  • Dropping a turd
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  • Member For: 16y 5m 2d
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If you run the cable down the passenger side, under the car from the starter motor, the whole job will take about 30mins and no pulling the car apart. If I had my battery insde the car I would rather have an AGM battery like fullriver, pulse or odyssey.

Edited by arronm
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  • 1 month later...
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  • Member For: 13y 2m 11d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Yes, any earth straight to the body will do.

Also if you plan to take it down the 1/4 mile you may have to bolt the battery down.

Edited by riptide
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