Replacing battery

antodeco

Hi all,
Need to replace a dead battery in the car. Is it simply a case of detaching the negative clamp and then positive of the dead, and reattaching the positive and then negative of the good battery?
Thanks

pudzey101

This will Help!

http://www.wikihow.com/Change-a-Car-Battery

antodeco

Cool. Thanks for that. Is it safe to touch the positive of the battery? I wont get a shock from it?

pudzey101

antodeco wrote: »

Cool. Thanks for that. Is it safe to touch the positive of the battery? I wont get a shock from it?

If you must work on it, disconnect the negative (ground) cable first, so that the positive terminal no longer has potential to the vehicle ground. It is not dangerous to touch the positive terminal with your bare skin, because 12V is not a hazardous voltage. But it is made of lead, which is not good to touch if you can avoid it.

naughtysmurf

Basically that would seem ok, is the battery totally dead??....what I have seen been done though, especially on newish cars with lots of electric gizmos is have a separate battery / 12VDC supply available and connect it to the leads on the dodgy battery before you disconnect it and remove it so you keep a voltage on the electrical system during the battery change

Sometimes weird stuff can happen if you just disconnect a battery and connect a new one, some electrical stuff may need to be reset afterwards.

Avns1s

There will be a clamp holding the battery in place too so you will need to slacken / remove this to remove the old battery and replace it after you fit the new one and then fit the terminal clamps, positive first and then negative.

You wont get any shocks. Don't worry. Just watch out that you don't short between the two terminals or between the posative and any part of the cars bodywork and you'll be fine.

coylemj

pudzey101 wrote: »

But it is made of lead, which is not good to touch if you can avoid it.

Lead is not a corrosive substance, you can safely touch it no bother. How can you fit a new battery to a car if you can't safely touch the lead terminals?

Bruthal

antodeco wrote: »

Hi all,
Need to replace a dead battery in the car. Is it simply a case of detaching the negative clamp and then positive of the dead, and reattaching the positive and then negative of the good battery?
Thanks

The reason the negative clamp should be disconnected first is, once it is disconnected, there is no possibility of now creating a short from the positive clamp to any metal part of the car with any tool you may be using to remove the positive clamp.

And a short cant be created from the negative clamp to any metal part of the car while removing that first.

Bruthal

antodeco wrote: »

Cool. Thanks for that. Is it safe to touch the positive of the battery? I wont get a shock from it?

It is safe, there is no likely way to receive an electrical shock directly from a 12v battery.

antodeco

Thanks for the replies. The battery is totally dead. I don't need to worry about any of the Electrics as it doesn't really have any! When I'm reconnecting the negative at the very end, there should be no problems touching the clamp, even with the positive connected?

The Bishop Basher

pudzey101 wrote: »

If you must work on it, disconnect the negative (ground) cable first, so that the positive terminal no longer has potential to the vehicle ground. It is not dangerous to touch the positive terminal with your bare skin, because 12V is not a hazardous voltage. But it is made of lead, which is not good to touch if you can avoid it.

Volts don't kill. Amps do. Worth keeping in mind.

As above just be sure not to short the battery by letting the 2 terminals touch in any way. It would be difficult to do but for example make sure you don't knock it off a metal part of the car, or lay a wrench accross the top. Not only will you have lots of sparks but you'll kill the battery.

The other thing to be aware of is that not all batteries have the + or - terminals on the same side. Check it's the same way round when buying it, I have seen people assume it's the same way round on all batteries and connect it without checking. Que lots of smoke from the electrics, not good.

Bruthal

Swanner wrote: »

Volts don't kill. Amps do. Worth keeping in mind.

No need to keep that in mind really. That one is nearly always mentioned and is just heard and repeated. But the current flow through any item or person directly depends on the voltage level, and its resistance/impedence. 12v will not cause any current flow through a person that can be perceived by hand contact.