CT03911

An update on where I'm at with batteries. Because of the size/power difference I discovered at Advance Auto when shopping for a replacement I went to the dealer. The dealer tells me they put the smaller Moll into the GT3 to save weight and they charge around $200.00. Based on that conversation I went back to Advance Auto to look at Optimas. While at Advance I made a number of dicoveries that were new to me between reading the battery literature that comes with each battery and calling Optima.
Optimas need venting. All batteries do. There are little round disks on top of the Optima that vent. See a pic above in prior post. Optimas vent significantly less than others due to their design. They have a spiral patented metal interior vs plates. A typical battery sloshes the fluid around inside when you shake it, an Optima almost seems solid. It is not, it is not a gell, it is a lead acid battery but a different construction. Optima feels if it is not mounted inside a pax compartment the very minimal venting would not be a problem anywhere. The venting would normally occur during a deep discharge (playing your modded stereo for hours, not me) or excessive charge (you have a bad charger).
Batteries that work: They sell Yellow and Red tops. The yellow is for starting and deep cycle use. Best thought of as maybe marine, rv or huge stereo, but will be the best for long storage too (key issue here for me). Yellows are more $, about $200.00 and only have a one year warranty, 24 months prorated. The red is around $169.00 and has a 3 year full and 84 month prorate warranty. It is for bigtime starting power but will lose juice quicker over time without use and not be as happy if you really run it down. They are quite different batteries and both supply more than the original Porsche Moll. Optima gives away a "European Din Adapter". They do not call it anything else, no numbers etc. This adapter will only fit two models according to the intstructions and the company. A yellow D35 or a Red 35. Call Optima for the adapters. I have been waiting a week, as a heads up.
Polarity and terminals: Don't know if "reverse polarity" is exactly what term we use here. These two batteries have a " reverse configuration" that works on our car. Not all of the Optimas do but you can also get a plain jane american battery configured either way.
Yellow D35 and Red 35 were my only two choices. I bought the Yellow D35. Less warranty and more money than a Red but the same as the dealer wanted for a Moll and a significantly better battery. It will fit the Euro adapter. It is the same relative size as the Moll (as is the Red 35) and seemed to weigh the same. There will be no sloshing of the acid liquid if you push your car around. The venting is a non issue. The yellow will survive the winters my car will have. I will leave it on a trickle charge and leave my key out of the ignition but.....just in case I will now have a real battery that is made for deep discharge without either giving up easily or being damaged by that discharge. I did not need the additional starting juice the Red has. The Moll started fine when I didn't kill it and the Yellow D35 has even more.
I just hope that my Europenan adapter comes today and it actually does work as promised by Optima and in their written instructions.

GT3 Chuck

for those concerned about "venting"..although, technically the batteries have vents Optima batteries do not vent acid like a diehard or require a vent tube...the red top that has been in my Shelby for 10 years is mounted on it's side, with no vent tubes or spills...I have read that they can even be mounted upside down...good info 3911

NJ-GT

The European adapters can get installed both in less than 30 seconds with your bare hands.

I experienced leaks with a Die Hard (I wanted to test a 50 lbs brick at the front to reduce understeer, it did not work).

Chuck's custom mount is required by some track organizations, so in case of a rollover the battery does not fall and spill acid over the victims. I would be worry much more about many other things in case of a rollover.

Don't over tighten the stock mount when installing the Optima, you could damage the adapters. I got two pair of adapters just in case, when I got my Optima.

I haven't connected my car to the trickle charger since I got the Optima. My car would drain the Moll in 3 weeks. The optima passed a 5 weeks test when I moved from NJ.

The stock GT3 Moll weighs 35 lbs. The Optima red top 35 lbs as well, but it has more capacity and more cranking power. The stock GT3 Moll is the lightest available for our cars, it is also used in the GT3 Cup. All the other 996/986 Porsches including the GT2 use the 50 lbs version of the Moll.

CT03911

Okay, my European Adapters came, after a week, and they are not correct. They sent me two, but two different adapters. Both are so cheezy I'm not going to use them anyways long term, even if I had a full set of two that matched. Reading the packing label they do make two different ones.
A 242-0004 for groupd 25, 35 and 75/25
A 242-0026 for group 34 and 34/78

I bought the D35 for all the reasons stated in the previous post AND because the directions AND customer service told me they only made adapters for a few batteries. I called Optima for a fourth time and now they happily say yes we do make different adapters. Huh??? But two days ago she said........

Where does this leave me? I have a D35. It is one of three Optima makes with the positive terminal on the right.....a reverse configuration. The right is defined as you put the battery on the floor with the label facing you and if the terminal on your RIGHT is RED it is reversed. Note the terminals are to the front of the battery, towards the label.

Do we need this setup in our cars? Maybe. In our cars the red is on the left and in the back, towards the firewall. So if you get a "reverse" group 35, 34R or D35 and put it in "backwards" it will work good with the cable set up in the car. Order the wimpy adapters that fit the model you buy (see above) and you are good to go.

I never knew half this stuff from reading other posts. I am not happy with the euopean adapters but now that I own the battery, which is a great battery and will solve all the battery issues I've had, I will have to sink a bunch more into the only proper battery hold down I've seen.

I just got off the phone with GMG 714-432-1582. They sell a proper tray and they sell a Red Top and Yellow Top. They don't care about reverse configuration because they say they sell different cables when you buy a battery and hold down tray so their battery can be hooked up. They do sell a different battery than I bought after struggling to find out which one fit properly It would seem to me to be easier to buy the correct fitting battery but what do I know.

I ordered the tray because it's measurements would seem to fit my battery. If you go on ther web site you will see they have their batteries set up with the terminals in different locations than your OEM battery. It works for them. Solves a lot of issues. Would have seemed expensive to me a week ago but I'm there now anyways.

All I know now is I'll use the weak Optima parts (more are on the way) until the GMG setup gets here. I hope it fits. If it does I will have invested about $500.00 in upgrading my battery and had a lot of fun.

DanH

Any idea what capacity the large and small Moll's come in? Wondering if mine has the right one as its huge and very heavy,

CT03911

The Moll in my 2004 car that the dealer said was correct for a GT3 is marked "Moll 570/65 70ah 340A"

CT03911

Rennline has some interesting battery options I would probably look at harder knowing what I know now.
http://www.rennline.com/products.asp?dept=237

Holger B

Good timing on this topic for me as my battery has been on its last legs these past few months and totally crapped out yesterday. It's the original battery, the car is 3 1/2 years old with 18k miles and still under warranty and I'm the original owner.

After following this thread, I decided to see if I could get a new battery under warranty since replacing anything on these cars with aftermarket parts is never as simple as it should be (and I could always go the aftermarket route at any time thereafter anyhow). I called the dealer and they told me they haven't been getting reimbursed for this, PCNA has changed their policy, etc, and that I should call PCNA to see if they'll cover it. I look in the owner's manual and the warranty exclusion for batteries is "damage from storage, lack of normal vehicle use, or non-Porsche approved electrical installation." None of those apply to me, I drive the car on a regular basis. Also, PCNA can't arbitrarily change the terms on my warranty.

I called 1-800-PORSCHE. I explain the situation to a woman there (Jenny). She's says she'll check into it and get back to me. She called me back after speaking with her supervisor. She says they won't cover it because even though I drive it weekly, the mileage isn't considered regular driving (I live in the city and drive it mostly around here). I ask what mileage is "regular driving". She says "about 500-600/month". I'm just under that amount and say "about" doesn't sound very precise to me and every other warranty exclusion is spelled out very clearly in the owner's manual, but there's nothing stated about mileage for regular driving there. She says I can write them a letter to them blah blah blah. I tell her I've already wasted too much time on this and for them to quibble about such a small dollar amount when I spent 6-figures on this car, had minimal warranty claims so far and it's still under warranty and should be covered has really left a bad taste in my mouth.

Looks like I'm the next Optima customer...

bgiere

check out Odyssey batteries or Braille batteries...they are smaller,lighter and do not require venting...I have left an Odyssey battery in my car over 3 winters and never even had to put a charge on it.

morefun

FWIW You can mount the Optima upside down if want, It is totally sealed. They take a charge much faster than a wet cell battery and you can run them down below 10.9 volts over and over. I use them on my sailboat, pounding upwind on a heel etc.. My current yellow tops (deep cycle) are seven years old.....

Jetmech

I bought a nuclear battery from North Korea ACME, Inc.

GT3 Chuck

hope you don't want kids...

CT03911

Holger, look at that Odyssey setup Rennlist has. The link is in my post above, they look pretty impressive and one stop shopping for a battery and bracket. They sell a dry cell it looked like too, at least one of them.
As far as the Optima's, they really don't mount well with the European adapters. I think they are a really weak design, but I guess some guys are using them, not on a track I hope. I ordered the GMG battery bracket seperate because I had already decided upon and bought an Optima thinking then all I needed was a European Adapter. GMG sells an Optima I had never heard of but what is nice is you can buy the whole package from them, battery and bracket. I just think either of these aftermarket batteries will need a different bracket pushing the total price up. It would be a nice clean and very purposeful upgrade however.
Optima's are vented guys. The company says so, call them. I did. They are lead acid but very "spill proof" due to a patented spiral plate design. They all have little round vents on top. As to mounting them out of verticle don't know specifically but I'd hate to see if anything would come out of the vents

Holger B

Thanks for all the info. I'm leaning towards the Odyssey, but not sure which one to get and if I need a special bracket.

NJ-GT

Odyssey PC925 does not have enough capacity for the GT3.

The Odyssey PC680 (smaller one) would be ok on my 924S for weeks.

The newer Porsches (986/996/987/997) really drain their batteries down. This is not the case with the 993/964 or older Porsches.

That's why I chose to have two batteries, the Optima Red Top 35 series for 99% of the time, and the Braille ultra small and ultra light 11 lbs for a serious Time Trials or Autocross. This Braille battery and the muffler bypass pipes remove 70 lbs from the car.