Airbag light, hazards, horn honking, no power and 911 call

[Woods247]

MeLe has been incredibly responsive and supportive during this. It seems XS has a 2% or less failure rate so perhaps I was simply unlucky. I’m going to test the battery then offer to ship it to XS so they can test it as well and confirm its status. I’m also going to check the ground as @kivnul suggested and make sure it’s clean.

What I know is, I always had to keep this battery on a Battery Tender from the very first week, which apparently is abnormal. As soon as I replaced it, all of my weird electrical issues went away.

I have built a career around critical thinking and problem solving and find solutions to many problems are obvious. I feel this is one of those times but I have been questioned behind the scenes. If I’m wrong, I’ll own it and follow up here. Y’all gonna buy whatever so it probably doesn’t matter what I say lol. The good news is, these guys stand behind their products so if there’s an issue, they’ll fix it.

 

[JDG]

MeLe has been incredibly responsive and supportive during this. It seems XS has a 2% or less failure rate so perhaps I was simply unlucky. I’m going to test the battery then offer to ship it to XS so they can test it as well and confirm its status. I’m also going to check the ground as @kivnul suggested and make sure it’s clean.

What I know is, I always had to keep this battery on a Battery Tender from the very first week, which apparently is abnormal. As soon as I replaced it, all of my weird electrical issues went away.

I have built a career around critical thinking and problem solving and find solutions to many problems are obvious. I feel this is one of those times but I have been questioned behind the scenes. If I’m wrong, I’ll own it and follow up here. Y’all gonna buy whatever so it probably doesn’t matter what I say lol. The good news is, these guys stand behind their products so if there’s an issue, they’ll fix it.

Good to hear they are taking care of you. I found this thread yesterday and figure I would at least chime in with an opposite experience with an identical setup so that people at least understand that this was probably a one-off scenario with the XS Power battery.

I run the Mele Battery Box with the same XS Power 680 battery. I have had it installed for a year and a few days in which I have done 6 or so rallycross events (and 1 track sprint event which was hardly comparable to what OP does with his car). I have not had any of the issues that @Woods247 described and I DO NOT pull my airbag fuses/relays during events. I have never seen a CEL/Airbag light. The battery has also never failed to start the car in the winter time. The only times that I got the battery down to a point where it wouldn't start the car is when I was having an issue with E85 starting last summer which was determined to be a tuning issue. This was with 60 seconds or so of cranking. The battery has been fine despite beating it up like this and it has not been on a tender since installing in the car. I would just use a jumper box to get the car started and run it for 30 or so minutes. The alternator would do it's job and the battery would be fine next time I would go to start the car.

I waited a year or so before deciding to pull the trigger on this setup and have been pleasantly surprised with how well the battery performs despite it's small size.

My only complaint with the Mele unit is the poor design for mounting the ECU. I did not feel it was sturdy enough but I was able to design and manufacture a bracket that uses a spare threaded bolt hole in the lower battery tray bracket to secure the ECU from the bottom as well. It is now rock solid. If anybody is interested, I created a DXF file of the bracket in case someone wants to have one laser/waterjet cut (or make it themself from some scrap as I did). I sent this to Mele as a suggestion for improvement but I don't think they made the change.

 

[Woods247]

Just to be clear in regards to the timeline of occurrences, the issues began prior to me eliminating airbags or anything else. The first time it happened the interior was stock. I actually double checked when we began troubleshooting because I was certain I damaged a crash sensor when test fitting the bar. I have photo documentation proving it happened weeks prior to doing any of that. I was hopeful it was my fault and an easy diagnosis but it wasn’t lol.

 

[Woods247]

...and like @JDG was saying, MeLe tests the XS Pro and other batteries intensely in all kinds of competition and have yet to experience a failure. They actually suggested I shouldn’t “need” to keep it on a tender even if the AP remains plugged in. I just need to send the battery in for testing. Hopefully time permits next week.