“Genuine Performance”…
My 2003 S2000 got treated to a brand new Honda battery today. A couple of days ago when I tried to start-up the S2000, the old battery seemed a bit weak. And it makes sense because the prior owner had replaced it before I took ownership and that was 5 years ago!
So today, I made a few phone calls. My heart was on a new Optima dry cell battery (like the one in bowtie6) but damn! These batteries have become very, very expensive these days. Just for shits-and-giggles, I called the local Honda dealer and was very surprised with their answer: they had a genuine new Honda battery for less than what I would have to spend at a generic auto parts store. And, it comes with a generous 100 month replacement guarantee. Hmmm… Can’t go wrong with that.
Note leakage on the top seam… Not good!
The dead battery was an aftermarket generic replacement from the home-town of the original owner. Fair enough… Upon closer inspection the battery was certainly past its expiration date because the battery had leaked some of that oh-so-wonderful-acid that wreaks havoc on battery trays…
Plastic battery tray saved the day!
Fortunately the good folks from Suzuka designed a plastic tray fitted over the battery box holding the battery. Funny because this is one of the most common “issues” on Triumph TR6’s – the battery leaks right on the battery box and 9 of 10 TR6’s show acid damage in this area.
Old battery gone. Here is the battery box saved by the plastic tray…
New Honda battery installed and ready to go…
Not wanting to leave well enough alone… You know me! The battery is held in place by two metal rods that hook to the bottom of the battery box. The rods are not originally painted and this looks unfinished. So, I cleaned each rod with a little Scotch-brite and sprayed them with low-gloss rattle can paint. I think they turned out right nice…
Rods painted in low-gloss black…
And finally, today’s mileage…
Not bad for a 2003 model S2000!
Only 15,000 miles still! Showroom status! I like that you went OEM for your battery replacement. There’s something that my OCD likes about having the word “Honda” on my batteries, even if they aren’t any superior to the generic parts-store kind. Glad you also took the opportunity to do a little engine bay cleanup with that support rod. Looks great! How much are the Optimas running these days? It’s been a while since I looked at those. Btw, it’s snowing on your page. I like the effect. Haha
Indeed Tyson – the S2K is showroom quality! LOL!
Regarding the Optima: I priced the yellow-top sized for the S2000 and it was around $230. Prices on these batteries has gone through the roof – so I opted for the “Honda” branded version. Hard to beat the $125 from the Honda store.
The snow… Yeah, I downloaded a plugin and configured the thing to show some snow for the holidays. 🙂
You keep it on a trickle charger Joe?
Michael, a trickle charger is something I need to get. The scary part about all this is the leakage on the old battery. Moral of the story: regardless of trickle charger or not, it is a good idea to keep a watch on the battery.