I would rather add to this thread, but, for some reason, forums hate it when you revive an old thread, so here goes.

Yesterday, I went to Batteries+Plus and bought a Duracell 51R battery for the Fit.



This battery is the same width and height as the OEM 151R, but it is approx 9.35-in. long. I cut the sides off the OEM plastic battery sleeve/holder/whatever. The whole business fit, but I didn't like how the positive lead wiring was jammed up against the air box. So, I went back to the store and exchanged the 51R for a 151R.



Your Takeaway: The Duracell 51R will "drop in" with little modification. But it turned out to be something I didn't want to do.

 

What's wrong with the Honda battery? This summer, I went to Honda, picked one up, walked out to my car in parking lot, took 5 minutes to remove old and install new, and brought my old one back in to get my core fee back. $96 and took about 15 minutes total.

https://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com...JjaCBSZXN1bHRz

Is something wrong with the OEM? My original lasted 8 years.

 

Nothing wrong with the OEM battery. My post post was for those who were considering a larger battery and wanted to know about fitment. Some Fitfrealkers have found the OEM to be under-powered. Many other Fitfreakers report no problems with the OEM.


EDIT: There is nothing wrong with the OEM battery. There's nothing right with it, either. It's is just a battery. It's not made by Honda.

 

Those brands are garbage and are not well know in the car battery world. Go with OE Honda which is made by Interstate.

 

You mean like this?

 

My fit's battery was opaque white. Could see the juice sloshing around in it. Can't remember the make, but I don't think I'd ever seen the brand before. Think it had Japanese script on it.. Replaced with Napa. Works just fine.

Thanks for making this thread, MC. I juggled the idea of upsizing, but decided to pass. Thanks for posting up an honest dissenting opinion. I already feel bad about my secondary pcv line covering one of the tabs on my airbox.

 

@Pyts Indeed. I have shot myself in the foot a couple of times when I followed something that I read on the Internet. I don't live in Canada. Perhaps those guys need a bigger battery. The MagnaPower that I am replacing has lasted for four years. I don't expect a battery to go much further than that. I like the look of the Interstate — it looks well-constructed — and I like that I can open the cells and add water. I have no idea if Interstate makes OEM batteries for Honda, but I've had at least one OEM Honda battery fail on me, so there's a data point.

Those "opaque" batteries were common with many manufacturers. They allowed you to monitor your levels without opening the battery. What gets me is that SoCal used to be Ground Zero for car and motorcycle stuff while now it seems like things are hard to find (outside of Pep Boys, O'Reilly, Advanced Auto — which is all the same stuff on the shelves). Then, I wake up in the middle of the night and remember that everything is online, and I'm not supposed to drive around looking for anything, I'm supposed to google it.