OK, the battery in my car is the smaller of the two batteries that may come with our cars. Depending on equipment it seems the batteries weigh between <b>49 LBS and 59 Lbs</b>. As you will see, I decided on the Odyssey PC680T for my use. The main reason behind the purchase of this model was that it came with optional automotive terminal posts. I did not want to fiddle with the connections if I could avoid it.

The battery weighed in at <b>14.5 Lbs</b> with the brass automotive terminals. My OEM battery as I said before weighed in at <b>49 Lbs</b>. A net savings of <b>34.5 Lbs</b>. However, I did not want the new and smaller battery to be "just installed" in the bigger OEM's battery location without it being well secured.

So this where I got **** about the whole thing. I decided to design and fabricate a safe mounting system for the Odyssey; something I felt would be able to resist breakage in case of a hard impact (accident). In the end I regained <b>1.59 Lbs</b> because of my mounting system so now my new final weight savings is only <b>32.91 Lbs</b>! So here we go with the pictogram...



Side by side the OEM battery and the PC680T.

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Side by side, another angle.

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Now let us take a look at how the OEM battery is supported and secured in place.

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The rear part of the battery slides into a recessed part of the plastic shelf. I put a carpenter's pencil in the location where the edges of the battery fit in.

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Here you can see the bevelled edges of the OEM battery (sorry for the out of focus pic).

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In the front the battery is secured by the same bevelled edges but a plastic retaining clip with a screw is tighten to keep the battery in place (again sorry for this second out of focus pic).

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Since the PC680T is much smaller I decided on using an aluminium plate to make a base as to sit the smaller battery on it. It is 9 inches wide by 6 inches deep and is 3/16TH thick.

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To duplicate the way the rear part of the OEM battery uses its bevelled edges to fit into the rear shelf, I decide to weld two "blocks" of aluminium onto the base and grind them until they fit into the same slot as the OEM battery. They also had to be bevelled.

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This picture from another angle shows both the rear bevelled blocks and the front one.

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The next step in the design was to have a way to secure the battery itself from moving on the base from side to side of back and forth. So six right angled aluminium pieces were welded in place.

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I decide to add a small rubber pad in the "cradle" to soften the pounding the battery might encounter.

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Now to test fit the battery in its new cradle.

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Of course I wanted to secure the whole assembly even further. So far we have taken care of the base being secure (with the bevelled blocks), the battery can't go back and forth or from side to side (because it sits in a cradle) but it could go up and down! So I designed this "security strap" that fits around the back side around the top and back down the front side. All this secured to the base by bolts.

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To secure the security strap to the base I used some Heli Coil inserts. I did not want to have nuts underneath the base that could damage the metallic part of the chassis or the plastic shelf.

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Two 6mm hex bolts with two regular washers and two lock washers were used to secure the security strap to the base.

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Here is what it looks like with the security strap installed.

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Prior to the installation of the new assembly in the car, I cleaned the front portion of where it was going to rest on, the chassis near the fire wall. I then laid some aluminium tape to prevent the chemical reaction between aluminium and steel.

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I then went ahead and painted the aluminium tape red.

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Of course the job would not be complete without painting the new assembly.

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Here are a few other pictures of the completely terminated project installed in the car.

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Installation picture 2.

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Installation picture 3.

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wow! great write up.. great job! still speachless. *thumbs up*

 

<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/s4b6/msgs/330601.phtml">https://forums.audiworld.com/s4b6/msgs/330601.phtml</a</li></ul>

 

Some B6 S4 guys have had theirs on for a few months with no problems. One as tested it in Minnesota in cold weather without starting problems.

You can go to the Odyssey link to check out all their battery specs. You can also see on the last few pictures of the install, that the some of the specs are written on the top of the battery.<ul><li><a href="http://www.eastcoastbatteries.com/page3.html">http://www.eastcoastbatteries.com/page3.html</a</li></ul>

 

I ordered a 925T, do you still have the dimensions on the original battery?