Car Battery (NA1 - manual) Group 24 or Group 35

[nis350]

I have to replace the car battery today and noticed that the old battery was a group 24 rather than the group 35. The positive terminal location is opposite for them. The group 24 has it toward the rear of the car while the group 35 is toward the front.

I am curious if the positive battery cable in the NSX is too short for the group 35 battery?

I went with the group 24 with higher CCA (700 vs 640 (group 35) for about $20 more.

 

[Old Guy]

The correct battery would have been 24F which is the battery used in the auto and has the same terminal arrangement as the 35 battery. The positive cable on my car reaches the terminals mounted on the 'front' just fine.

 

[nis350]

Thanks for the clarification.

What is the letter after the 24 mean?

The old battery was 24S and the new Interstate is 24. They are both identical in dimension and CCA. The positive terminal is on the rear based on the NSX battery location.

I imagine the positive cable might be a bit tight/short with the front positive battery terminal while the negative is plenty long.

Interstate battery reference guide lists the 35 for the manual and 24 for the auto as you stated. Perhaps the auto required more CCA?

Again, I went with the 24 because it is identical to my old one (with the positive terminal on the rear of the battery).

The correct battery would have been 24F which is the battery used in the auto and has the same terminal arrangement as the 35 battery. The positive cable on my car reaches the terminals mounted on the 'front' just fine.

 

[RPM217]

According to Larry B, the correct battery would be the Interstate MTP-35, although I just went with the Duralast Gold 24F-DLG, which was an exact fit as well. 5 year guarantee @$159.99 at Autozone. The last Interstate did last me 8 years (on a CTEK year round, except on summer weekends when using)

 

[Old Guy]

The following link provides a 'Coles Notes' guide to the BCI charts for batteries.

https://www.batteryweb.com/bci.cfm

You will see that the only difference between the 24 and 24F battery is the orientation of the posts - being opposite to one another. I use a 24F because that is what the previous owner had in my car (he used to drive in the winter) and I just said 'give me the same thing' when the battery died shortly after I bought the car.

The letter which follows the number (which sort of designates size; but, not always) is a bit of a mix. Most commonly an R following the number means the + post is on the right side and no letter means on the left side except for the 22, 24 and 27 where F means the + post is on the right side. The R designation seems somewhat logical. The F - go figure!

If the 24 works for you, then that's good. I put my car into storage every winter and disconnect the battery when I do. Having to reach in a little further back to disconnect and reconnect the neg clamp on the back side of the 24 battery would be extra hassle. I expect winter storage is not an issue in LA.

 

[tucsonsx]

The F in batteries like the 24F stands for Ford and the R in batteries like the 51R stands for reverse. Now there is some truly obscure automotive trivia; knowledge I gained by wasting an entire career in the car business.

 

[Old Guy]

The F in batteries like the 24F stands for Ford and the R in batteries like the 51R stands for reverse. Now there is some truly obscure automotive trivia; knowledge I gained by wasting an entire career in the car business.

Too bad they never had a Trivial Pursuit - Automotive Edition. You could have cleaned up.

If the R stands for reverse, reverse of what? Reverse of not R? Starts to sound like a Boolean Logic truth table.

 

[tucsonsx]

As an example a group 51R is the same specification as a group 51 but with the terminal polarity reversed. In the old days did Ford have enough horsepower with the battery manufacturers to have this reversed polarity situation designated with an F suffix or was GM so dominant that that the F suffix indicated a battery for the few who chose to buy something else? Insanity has resulted from trying to apply logical validity to automotive marketing terms and I'm so confused.

 

[nis350]

same here... except it had an group 24 many moons ago. so I just kept the tradition with another 24 :redface:

You're correct that the battery terminals is harder to reach. The smog guy was complaining about reaching it to get the engine rpm during the smog roller test. Now I found that the terminals in the fuse box in the rear engine compartment can be used for smog test and the battery tender.

Thanks everyone for the info.

I use a 24F because that is what the previous owner had in my car (he used to drive in the winter) and I just said 'give me the same thing' when the battery died shortly after I bought the car.

If the 24 works for you, then that's good. I put my car into storage every winter and disconnect the battery when I do. Having to reach in a little further back to disconnect and reconnect the neg clamp on the back side of the 24 battery would be extra hassle. I expect winter storage is not an issue in LA.