Miata Mailing List: November 1992, Message #14
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   From: (none)
Subject:  Re: that BATTERY
   Date: (none)

In message <9211101742.AA11070@voyager.austin.ibm.com>  On 	Tue, 10 Nov 1992 12:42:17 -0500 you said:

>
> I'm in the market for a replacement battery.  The original (now about 2 1/2
> years old) went flat when I forgot my parking lights on yesterday.  After a
> jump start and some driving it *did* hold enough charge overnight to start up
> easily this morning, but I'm not counting on it holding out much longer.
This has happened to me several times in the past, and I've always jump started
it, driven it home, and then usually hooked up the charger at 2 amps for 12 hrs.
>
> The friendly Mazda dealer wants (gasp) $126.25 for a new Panasonic B6AC-18-520
> "gel-type electrolyte" battery.  One parts store guy tells me that his catalog
WOW!  Last time I checked (2.5 yrs ago) you had to buy a different mounting
arrangement and do away with the gel-type miniature battery in there now and put
in a conventional liquid electrolyte messy one.
> has no battery group number and no OE crank rating for it; in other words he
> can't identify a replacement.  His book did have an interesting footnote,
> however: "9 9/16" x 4 3/4" x 7 3/8"; battery vents to outside of car."  My
> hasty measurement was 9 5/16" x 4 7/8" x 6 3/8" (to top of case, not vents),
> and I did verify that it has two tubes from the vents feeding a tube to the
> outside (bottom of boot) through a "Y."  (Hmm, if the electrolyte is a gel
> instead of a sulfuric solution, does it really need those vents?)
Mine went dead last week, and all efforts to revive it by charging or jumping
and driving have failed.  I did not know that it was a gel-electrolyte
battery, so I pried the vent caps off, thinking I could maybe add water or that
battery rejuvenator junk and not have to get a bigger battery.  As best as I could
tell, there are NO openings (not even pinholes) into the battery from the
outside, so I can't see possibly what the tubes are for.  The vents appear to be
strictly cosmetic.  Anybody else have any observations on this?
At least I can buy the proper battery from Mazda . . .

Steve Grossman
Software Engineer
Storage Technology Corp.
Louisville, CO  80027-5209