How do you change a battery?

[Kestas]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
It is maddening to observe the stupidity when you know how easily it could have been avoided. Don't these guys ever use the stuff that they design???? This is a curse of being engineer. You always *think* that you could have done their job better

Cars are not designed by engineers anymore. They're ultimately designed by accountants.

I wish they would have more useful maintenance tips in the owners manual instead of six pages of how to buckle up and 17 pages of how to use your entertainment system.

 

[OneEyeJack]

You could hook your battery charger to your cigarette lighter so that you don't loose any setup information while making the change. In my case with a 96 850 Volvo if you don't do that you have to re-enter the radio code.

 

[javacontour]

Yep,

For the reasons mentioned. Don't want to weld your wrench to the car should you make inadvertent contact with grounded metal when wrenching on the positive side.

Originally Posted By: NorrisB
Originally Posted By: beast3300
I don't know if it does matter but I remove the negative first and reinstall it last.


so it should be like
old battery
1. Remove negative first
2. remove positive

inserting new battery
1. insert positive first
2. insert negative

 

[berniedd]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
You could hook your battery charger to your cigarette lighter so that you don't loose any setup information while making the change. In my case with a 96 850 Volvo if you don't do that you have to re-enter the radio code.


Good call, but be warned that in some car models like my older Honda CRV, the battery is disconnected from the cigarette lighter socket when ignition key is in the Locked position, and so your method won't work.

 

[berniedd]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
A long time ago I loaned my tools to a guy who lived a few apartments over so he could change his battery. When I peeked through the window, I could see lots of sparks flying from under the hood.


I have actually seen what happened when a mechanic was removing a battery and his wrench touched both terminal posts. In an instant there was a loud bang, and the battery top flew off the battery itself and sprayed acid everywhere. Good thing I was 12 feet away and the acid didn't touch me.