Battery Relocation..

[Dogbreath]

A proper short has close to zero resistance going through the chassis and the battery goes into full discharge. Your starter wont draw anymore than 100amps.

I reckon a bit more than that under cold weather starting. Peak current will be much higher (several 100's of Amps), only limited by the internal impedance of the battery and resistance of the cables and starter winding.

The B18 in my Civic took ~150Amps according to my clamp meter, though getting an accurate figure is difficult as it varies considerably as each cylinder goes over compression. I guess an Impreza will have a fairly low CR which would drop the current demand.

 

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I have an awful memory of a friend of mine with a Mini who left the battery cover off and had a metal petrol can in the boot. You can imagine where the story ended up - to be fair to him he managed to put the fire out (by stupidly opening the boot and throwing the petrol can out) with the only real damage being some slightly melted 6x9s.

I dread to think what would have happened had that can been full.

You sure it was a mini and that story is correct?

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18072816&highlight=flamer