Today's Horribly Cold Project

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egnald

egnald

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Joined
Jun 9, 2017
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Location
Columbus, Nebraska, USA
Hi everyone, I just had to share....

It's nearly 3:00 pm and I'm finally done with my today's project(s). The cold weather we had yesterday took it's toll on my wife's and one daughter's car batteries. So, this morning I went out and bought two new car batteries and I am finally done installing them. The only thing left is to take the old batteries back in to get my core charge returned. My feet got really cold!

My wife's car only took about an hour -- not too bad, its a 2010 Toyota Sienna and the battery and connections are easy to get to. The most difficult part was fishing the battery hold down posts down and through a hole under the battery tray to tighten the new battery in.

My daughter's car was another story. It is a 2020 Honda Fit and the battery cables have massive amounts of cables, wires, connectors, and junk attached to them -- the cable assemblies are almost as big as the battery itself - even the negative side. The stock battery is a 151R and it is a tiny little thing with only about 300 CCA. So, as many Honda Fit owners have done, I replaced it with a larger, 51R battery that has almost twice the CCA. Of course, getting the old battery out was challenging enough because of the cables and the cable ties, battery covers, and other junk. Then, I had to take the battery tray down to my shop and saw away some of the wall on one side to accommodate the larger battery. Installing the new battery wasn't too bad after making the necessary modifications but the whole process did take considerably longer than I expected.

Oh, I forgot to mention that it started out at -12F (that's -24C) this morning, but it did warm up to today's high just a while ago... 3F (-16C). At least it was a little warmer than yesterday when it only made it up to 1F degree.

Dave
 
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Changing Car batteries isn't the same as it was 30 years ago when the only problem was fishing those hold down posts! And it usually happens on the coldest days.

I used to carry one of those small but powerful cranking charger batteries with me. Then I went about 15 months without using it and it died! When new - those things are powerful!

Glad you got it done!
 
I feel for you Dave. The truck I have now and the last one that I had, both had batteries die on the absolute coldest days of the year two years in a row. Neither was too terrible to change aside from the cold. My wife has a dodge journey and I replaced the battery in it last summer and you have to take the driver's side front wheel off to get at the battery. I had to google where it was because you cannot see it from the top of the engine bay.
 
Dave, I can understand your position. Centuries ago, my father put Vaseline on the posts, put the terminal on and tightened the nut and then another coating of Vaseline.
Opinion: Anyone who designs a motor vehicle, be it car or pickup truck, should work in a shop for a minimum of two years before they sit down to design something. A designer doesn't care as he doesn't have to work on it; the mechanic is getting paid by the hour or shop time, and the dealer is getting paid either by the customer or paid under warranty.
 
woodwzrd said:
I feel for you Dave. The truck I have now and the last one that I had, both had batteries die on the absolute coldest days of the year two years in a row. Neither was too terrible to change aside from the cold. My wife has a dodge journey and I replaced the battery in it last summer and you have to take the driver's side front wheel off to get at the battery. I had to google where it was because you cannot see it from the top of the engine bay.
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OMG That's Horrible! - Dave
 
I hear ya Dave. Went to walmart about a yr ago and decided to get the battery changed on my wifes 2020 tahoe. They were too busy to change it at the time, so luckily one of the mechanics loaned me some tools to change it in the parking lot. I had to remove a crossbar, unbolt all the bolts from the coolant tank to get it out of the way and unbolt a wiring canister from the top of the battery to get out. Lol
A few months after that, the batteries in my 2019 gmc 3500 went bad. When I looked under the hood to change those, I said No Way. Took walmart mechanic an hour and a half to change the two batteries. Lol
 
Doesn't work in a pinch, but if it happens again, you can buy a larger tray for that car (the 35n battery should fit)
#31521-T5A-000

31521-T5A-000 for the 51R Battery (or 35n) (apparently stock on Japanese manufactured Fits/Jazz after 2015). Standard stock (in US) 31521-T9P-000 for the smaller 151R
 
My battery went dead recently in 2010 Camaro. I opened the hood up and forgot the battery is in the trunk of all places. With battery dead, the fob was of no use to open the trunk. No trunk key hole. Scratched my head a little and remembered the back seat folds forward a little and you can crawl through a small hole and pull the trunk release. What a pain.
 
When I lived in Toyota City, a neighbor was an engineer at Toyota Motor Company (many in our neighborhood were) but this one's responsibility was overseeing the "battery compartment" design for several vehicle models. He said that even the same model car had different battery compartment designs depending on that model's package. He said it was difficult because they were at the bottom of the design space priorities and had to design around the left over space!

This is usually the same battery compartment priorities given to other Car manufacturers. Design engineers often fight for priorities to be able to implement their own specific designs within the overall construction.
 
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egnald said:
My wife's car only took about an hour -- not too bad, its a 2010 Toyota Sienna and the battery and connections are easy to get to. The most difficult part was fishing the battery hold down posts down and through a hole under the battery tray to tighten the new battery in.
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I just went through this myself, the last deep cold spell we had. I think it was 2 degrees in my case, not quite as cold but it still saps you of all your energy!

About the hold down posts...I don't know what it is about those, but every car I have ever owned, those are THE WORST part of changing a battery! Every car is different, and NONE seem to be designed well! The nuts are always in teh most inconvenient places, with never enough room to turn a wrench or even a socket, unless you get some monstrously long extension to make sure the socket wrench is well above any obstacles (and I always seem to loose the extension over the 5 years or so that the new battery lasts, so I'm always having to buy a new one!)

You would think someone would have figured out a way to hold car batteries in place with some kind of convenient solution, as batteries never do well in extremes of temperature, and generally speaking, the coldest days are always when they die...
 
Humongous said:
The price is what gets me. $250 for the battery in my wife's Forrester, and then only a $5.00 core. I remember when a battery was around $40.00.
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I spent $165 for a battery that was $75 five years ago... The core is $12 still, but that was on top of the battery (and I brought my old one in at the same time, so the core fee was negated instantly.)
 
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