Last June I complained about how new cars are way worse to work on than old ones (you can re-live that by clicking here) and, last night, that was proven true once again
Old cars and trucks - need to change a battery??? It is under the hood. Undo the cables - pull the old battery out - put the new one in. Done! Maximum time: 10 minutes.
Last night I had to change the battery in our Acadia. First off, it took me 10 minutes to find the battery. It is not under the hood. In fact, it is not anywhere near the engine. It is in the floor behind the passenger's seat. To get to it you need to move the floor mats, move the middle row seat back, the front seat ahead, take off the plastic guards that cover the middle seat sliding tracks and then undo a torx bolt to get the cover off....... and you have barely started yet!!!!
Then you have to take the cables off and then reach down and undo both the vent hose and the battery hold down bolt. Then, because the box that the battery sits in is only a 1/4 of an inch wider than the battery itself, you have to undo the negative battery cable from the wall of the box and take it out completely.
Now, if you are lucky, your battery will have a handle on it. I am not normally that lucky and, of course, my battery did not have a handle, so I had to wrestle it out by trying to jam my fingers into the plastic case of the battery itself.
The new one had a handle so that helped, but, sadly I had neglected to put the front seat forward so it was in the way. It is a power seat (of course) so I had to hook battery cables up to the Acadia cables to get the seat out of the way. Finally, I dropped the new battery in, did up all the cables, put the vent tube back in, replaced the cover, the slider rail plastic and put the floor mats back.
An hour and 10 minutes later I was done! AN HOUR AND 10 MINUTES!!!!! And that does not even count putting all the tools away again.
I am certain there must be a logical reason for jamming the battery (which you are going to have to change at some point) in a box the exact size as the battery itself and putting it in one of the most unaccessible places in the vehicle that is 95872489678943 miles away from the engine itself..... but I don't know what it is. If the goal is to make people mad - they are doing a good job!
Oddly, my 1973 Dodge Dart Swinger has the battery right up front under the hood with 9687948679 feet of space around it.
Progress is a great thing! :)
2 comments:
how would you boost the thing if the battery died? seems like a terrible idea to put it there for so many reasons.
They have remote + and - terminals under the hood on the firewall, so that you can boost it there. At least they thought that far ahead. You are right, though, there are tons of other reasons why a battery under the floor in the passenger's compartment seems like not the best idea.
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