Battery Terminal Issue - Seeking Advice

[Devine]

Hi All,

Recently my car battery died so I had to buy a new one. The one I bought however had the terminals at the opposite side of the battery, which meant I had to stretch the wires a little further so they could reach it properly. I turned on the car though and everything worked fine.

It wasn't until I went to close the bonnet that I encountered the potential issue. Since the battery terminals are now in a different position, the bonnet holder rod now comes into contact with the positive terminal when in its closed position. See photos below.

I feel uncomfortable with this idea, even though the bonnet holder has a sort of rubber coating on it. Can I get some opinions as to if this is safe to drive with??

[ECU-MAN]

This is horribly bad,




ask yourself is the cost of a correct battery worth the loss of your car ?


I would not drive a car like this around. Get the battery replaced or just purchase a new correct one and accept your (small) loss.

[LetsDuDiss]

you can't turn the battery 180 degrees?

Get a rubber shroud and cover the positive terminal or go to jaycar, buy a big heat shrink tube and put it on your rod. Should be okay. For safety concerns, consider putting 2 layers of heat shrink, ie. 2 tubes

[dc2r-0636]

My century battery was the same. Terminals on the wrong side. Got me f.ukd what's wrong with these ****s.

[NeedVtec]

Take rod off, buy bonnet struts

[flipfire]

Nek minnit rod is welded to the bonnet. I'd return the battery and get one that fits properly.

Wrap the rod in electrical tape for now.

[carrier]

There are three immediately cost effective solutions that can come to mind.

First one is that I can think of is to rotate the battery so the terminals on the battery reversed. But by looking at the photo, it doesn't appear the cables will reach so you have two ways to get around this.
1: See if there's any slack that can be gained by re-routing the cables, maybe one of the retaining brackets that hold the loom in place can be re-positioned or;
2: To extend the cable or even replace it, this depends entirely on where the rest of the loom leads, i.e. to starter, fusebox, alternator etc. You'll need a crimping tool for this.

The second option iis to simple move the position of the rod to another resting place and creating a retainer bracket, depends how the rod swivels from its mounting int.

Lastly, if you don't use the bonnet holder rod regularly - remove it for the meantime.

Please understand and take all precautions when working with electricity. Disconnect the terminals and remove the battery from the car.

[Devine]

Thanks for the replies.

My first thought was to get rid of the bonnet holder but a quick analysis showed that was going to be way too difficult.

I will take it back to the store and hope I can get an exchange for a battery with the terminals on the other side.

[Grayfox]

Rorate the battery and then go to jaycar in another car and get your self these.
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=HC4032
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=PT4564

And some 4AG cable and make your own ground cable

If you want to go for a premium terminal go for one of these
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=HC4049

It can Have a 2AG, 4AG and 2 8AG Cables go to it.

I made a grounding cable for my FK2

Mine is similar to this one,

[Baby Face]

most likely the battery u have is missing the last few digits, like LS
which indicate that the terminals are reversed. or maybe you got the one that has the reversed terminals.

take a note of this when u return ur battery

[Grayfox]

I would guess he got a battery that is too tall for the car, you would need much CCA to start the car, 430CCA or less but this does depend on the car.

If we knew what car you have and how tall the current battery is we can tell you if it really is the correct one.