How To Change Your Car Battery

Most car batteries usually have a life span ranging from 3-5 years. When your battery starts approaching this timeline, it’s important you start gathering the cash to buy a new one. Find out the best car batteries to buy for your car here. However, depending on how your driving lifestyle, it’s possible your battery doesn’t survive in good condition till 5 years, and this requires that you change it. When you start seeing these signs in your car, you know it’s time to change your battery:

1. Sluggish starting of the engine
2. Bad smell coming out of your car battery. This is often sulfuric acid, one of the electrolyte components of car batteries.
3. Corrosion across the terminals of your car batteries.
4. Dim lights and other electrical issues.
5. Sudden ‘click’ sound.

Also Read:

• How To Refill Any Car Battery
• How Long Should A Car Battery Last?
• Car Battery Price In Nigeria: Best Brands For Your Car
• How To Choose The Right Battery For Your Car
• Best Car Batteries You Can Trust In Nigeria

Now, let’s get to business. How do you change your car battery? Follow these no-brainer steps to get started.

Steps To Change Car Battery

Changing a car battery involves two major steps which are:

1. Removing the old battery
2. Installing the new battery.

In this article, we will cover both steps

Removing The Old Battery

Step one: Get a good workspace

You see, changing a car battery is akin to doing electrical work, so you need to find a safe space free of sparks and distractions. A level ground such as a driveway or a garage is a suitable option to change your battery. In addition, when changing your battery, ensure to turn off the engine and remove the key from the ignition.

Step two: Get your safety gears on

Batteries contain a fluid called electrolyte. This electrolyte is a mixture of water and sulfuric acid. If you don’t remember anything about acids, please remember that acids are corrosive. This implies they can burn your skin. Safety gears like gloves, goggles, nose masks are essentials you need to put on when changing your car battery.

Step three: Locate the car battery

Unless your car is a special breed, most car batteries can only be accessed when you pop open the hood of your car. Once you open the hood, you can either locate your car battery in one corner of the engine bay, either near the windshield or the front bumper on either side of the car. In other cases, the battery is hidden under a plastic cover.

However, if you can’t locate your car battery, you will have to refer to the car owner’s manual. Or perhaps, the battery is somewhere in the truck of the car instead of being under the hood.

Step four: Disconnect the negative cable first

You might wonder; why the negative cable first, why not the positive? Well, it’s to prevent potential sparks from happening. Using a wrench (what Nigerians call a spanner), of either 7-mm, 8-mm, 10-mm, or 13-mm depending on your Vehicle loosen the negative cable clamp and remove it from the terminal. The negative cable terminal is usually black and has a minus (-) on it. Once you have loosened the cable, firmly secure it in a cable tie to the engine bay.

Step five: Disconnect the positive cable next

The positive cable is usually red in most car batteries and might have a plus (+) sign. Like you did for the negative cable, disconnect it using a wrench and secure it in a car tie to the engine bay PS: when changing car batteries, pay attention not to let the positive and negative cable come in contact with each other or any metal. This could result in electric sparks.

Step six: Lift the battery out of the vehicle

Besides the positive and negative terminals cables, there might be other fasteners keeping your battery firm and secure. Search them out and unfasten them. Once you have done this, you can safely lift out the battery out of the engine bay. Should the battery be too heavy for you only to lift, ask a colleague or buddy to help you out

Now, it’s time to put in the new battery. Here we go….

Step one: Buy the correct replacement battery

It wouldn’t be a good thing if the new battery you are hoping to install isn’t the correct one for your car. Details like size, dimensions, year, make, model are important things to note when shopping for the right replacement battery for your car.

Step two: Check out for corrosion

Before installing the battery, check out the terminals and other areas surrounding your battery for corrosion. If you find corrosion build-up, use an emery cloth or 100-grit sandpaper to clean

Step three: Secure the new battery to the brackets

Next thing is to fit the battery inside the battery tray. Ensure that the battery orientation is similar to that of the old battery you just removed. Don’t put negative terminal for positive terminal and vice versa.

Once you have firmly secured the battery in the tray, apply a thin layer of lithium grease to the terminals to prevent corrosion.

Step four: Reconnect the positive cable first

Using a wrench, connect and tighten the positive cable back to the terminal having removed it from the cable tie.

PS: When you’re reconnecting the battery, always secure the positive terminal before the negative terminal so as not to inadvertently complete the electrical circuit before everything is connected.

Step five: Reconnect the negative cable

Like you did for the positive cable, using a wrench, connect and tighten the negative cable back to the terminal having removed it from the cable tie.

Step six: Pack all your work tools.

Once you have tightened the cables and the fasteners available to secure your car battery, you are good to go. Pack every work tool you use such as a wrench, your safety toolkit, and close the hood.

Now, you can go rev up your car engine and move!