kkim

While doing some work in the trunk I found battery acid had spilled around the Sears Die Hard battery. Seems the vent tube was never hooked up by the PO.

How do I connect the vent tube to the battery (different shaped vent hole).

And in the second picture, is that the vent tube for the battery? I found it tucked away under a panel in front so I have no idea if this is the proper tube for battery venting.

Thanks

Crimson Nape Racing

yes, that looks like the vent tube. to make sure, verify it goes to a fitting under the left front bumper. you can take off the plastic end, and the tube should stretch around the oval fitting. mine never did fit right, so i got an Optima battery.

dutchcrunch

the hose in 2nd picture is the vent for your battery. please look at your battery and make sure you have only one vent. i bought a replacement battery for my car and it had two one on each end, i plugged one and used the other.

Jastx

Yup, that's the vent tube. I just went through the same exercise when I discovered a tube in the trunk not connected to anything. I had no acid spill, however. My car has a replacement Interstate battery but it looks just like yours with an oval shaped vent on top in the center.

If you pull the trunk liner away from the driver's side you'll find the vent tube connects to a 90 degree plastic piece that sticks into a grommet on the inner fender. The other end of the tube is supposed to connect to the vent on the battery.

On my car the tube didn't reach and even if it did the vent on the battery was way too big to fit the plastic tube over. Examining the tube "system" closer, I discovered that after the plastic piece stuck through the grommet on the driver's fender it connected to....nothing. It just vented into the top part of the fender well. Great!, I thought. Not only are acidic vapors venting into my fender, if by chance the freakin' battery burps acid it will run up the tube then down on whatever is underneath it in the fender well. So off to Home Depot for some new tubing that I intended to route all the way to the ground.

I also learned that Interstate (and probably Sears for your Die-Hard that looks just like the Interstate) makes a vent tube kit to connect the larger battery vent to a smaller piece of tubing. I was able to get one of these kits (for free!) at a local Interstate dealer. Had to call several to find one, however.

To make a long story short, I got lucky and was able to fish a wire down through the hole where the grommet fit (removed the grommet for this exercise) and out the bottom of the vent in front of the wheel without removing the fender liner. Using the fished wire, I pulled some of the Home Depot tubing back up through the vent and the grommet hole, connecting it to the end of the 90 degree plastic tube that sticks through the grommet, connected some more of the Home Depot tube to the other end of the 90 degree thing, then connected it to the "tube side" of the Interstate vent tube connector kit. So, now my battery vent exits external to the car and if the battery throws up through the vent it will simply land on the road, not inside my car's fender.

Better idea I intend to implement soon -- go to Costco and for $100 pick up an Optima gel battery. Then you have no worries about acid.

kkim

Thanks , guys for all the info.

John... I'll call my local Sears tomorrow and see if they have a kit to go from the oval vent to the round tube. I'll then try rerouting the hose to one of the "nipples" on the bottom of the trunk. Thanks for the info on the useless stock configuration.

Jastx

Kelly,

When I was asking about the battery tube on this board, someone did suggest running it through one of the bottom nipples, but it didn't seem like it would fit well with the spare in there. So, I maintained the stock arrangement but added the extension to the outside.

Again, the right solution is the Optima. We spent tens of thousands to buy these fantastic cars and, especially in your case, thousands more on mods like PSS9. A hundred bucks to put this issue to bed is cheap.

TonyN

Jastx,
Nice informative post.
It's also a good idea to put baking soda on that 90 degree connector because the battery fumes are corrosive and you can see paint damage after a few years.

Don't you need a mounting plate for the Optima ? Where did you get the mounting plate and how much did it cost ? Any problems in anchoring the mounting plate to the floor ? Last time I checked, I found out that the mounting plate was expensive and did not fit all that well.

Jastx

Tony,

Sorry for the misunderstanding -- I don't have the Optima yet myself. However, I did see a post recently from a Rennlister who installed one. Here it is: https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ghlight=optima It appears it was a nice, direct swap.