My car is currently fitted with a Halfords 053 battery, fitted by a previous owner. The battery is dead and my charger says it needs replacing.
Looking around I found the battery should be vented, mine isn’t and from what I can see I wouldn’t be able to vent a replacement Halfords battery. MX5 parts have a battery which can be vented, do you normally get the vent pipes with the battery as I can’t see where you can buy these? All I have is a vent though the bottom of the boot for a pipe to attach to.
Is it dangerous to use an unvented Halfords battery? I have had the car for 3 years without any problems with the old battery.
I don’t know where my battery was bought from but I do know it is not vented and I have owned the car two and a half years. I have recently started to connect the battery to one of those all singing all dancing chargers that you leave conected to the mains while it is not in use, and it’s a pleasure to fire the engine up when it is fully charged up.
The most likely result of using an unvented battery is corrosion within the boot, as acidic fumes are vented directly into the boot space. Replacement batteries from Mazda don’t come with the vent pipe parts, so you will need to get these from Mazda. I recommend the original Mazda Panasonic battery, but others find the Westco just fine.
Another reason I think the batteries need to be vented externally is that with the boot shut and the roof up the battery is in fact venting into the passenger compartment. I think there may be a health & safety issue there!
edited to add… I also am starting to think that batteries that vent into the boot space may also be a cause for condensation in it.
Thankyou everyone. I orderded the WestCo battery from MX5 parts at 3.30pm yesterday and it arrived at 9.20am this morning.
I have a few metres of airline pipe for a fish tank. This fits over the battery vent connectors. Would this be suitable for venting or do you need a certain material for the pipes?
After reading through this post and checking the condition etc of my battery I have ordered a clamp etc from autolink to secure it, however there is currently no vent piping fitted! It is a westco battery and has the vent feeds on the battery, although on of them is snapped… Is it ok just to vent from one side?
