does anybody remember which wire I have to remove. The negative or the positive without get shock. And when I am done, which wire do I put down first. The negative or the positive.

Thanks in advanced

 

Removal= negative/positive

Install= positive/negative

Btw,you wont get shocked by car battery juice.

 

Just out of curiousity, did anyone tell you something in regards to this battery removal?

You wont get shocked unless you play with sparkplug wires while car is on. Normally you do connect the positive (+) cable first then the negative if I remember correctly. That whole positive first may be just when you're jumping someone but so you rest assured you should check the FSM

 

IMO its totally irrelevant what you do - there is no technical justification for choosing either method ....................... and the same goes for jumpstarting.

 

i have done this. I decided to pull them from the distro instead of from the head. Ow. Not on a maxima though, so actually the head-side was inaccessible so i had no choice.

 

I like to connect the ground last. That way if it sparks, it sparks through the ground rather than the positive with all the wires attached.

 

i always heard to ground the car last and unground it first since you are leaning over the body of the car (which is -) and if you tough positive terminal you can get some juice. maybe old wive's tale.

 

The ground strap should be the first one disconected/last one conected. If the ground is conected when you are working on the positive one and your wrench touches any part of the car it will cause an arc that would do a welder proud! You can not cause an arc like that on the ground side. It is possible to get a small spark at the ground terminal if there is an electrical load connected such as lights, heater motor, etc.
Westie
92 se auto

 

Alright so all of us VS Wayne and LvR, who's right?

 

Depends if you are able to handle/use a spanner properly or not.

Judging from other threads I have seen around here it may be a good idea for some people to not even open the bonnet, let alone change the battery.

WRT to the thread starter - Electrically (ito what the vehicle's electronics may experience) there really is no technical reason to do it either way.

 

is 'spanner' the UK English equivalent of "wrench". I knew 'bonnet' already.

 

yes. I was going post it, then figured people would figure it out.

~Alex

 

LVR is right in a sense,it doesn't really matter,i personally just do it like that because there is little to no sparking when you hook the negative cable up last,just my preference.

 

The main thing is that you do not have any arcing around the battery this is due to gases around the battery that may ignite (unlikely, but why take a chance). That is why when attaching jumper cables you should connect positive to the battery first and then negative to a ground away from the battery. For removal, remove the ground (negative) first and then the positive. For removal of battery cables at battery it does not matter you can get arcing regardless which one you remove first.

 

the reason to hook up the negative last is that if you hook it up first and accidentally while hooking up the positive touch the wrench to the cars body or frame/motor which can have some interesting consequences

 

I learned it the hard way yesterday. While cleaning my poles, I accidently touched the motor with my wrench. The result.....my car began acting all weird. After that, I could not start my car although my battery was doing its job prior to my mistake. So I decided to jump start my car in order to drive it and have the alternator recharge my battery. Later, I turned off the ignition and .... nothing it would not start again.

This is the weird part. When I would turn the key to the ACC position, I would see all the lights inside go off and on and would hear noises almost like the computer did not know what it was suppose to do (the symptoms are hard to explain). Anyhow, I jump started it again, let it ran for a little while and turned the car off. I Tried to start my car again and the same thing occured again.

So, for now my battery is on the charger at home. I think I am just gonna go and buy a new one.

In conclusion, be careful when playing around with your battery !

Anyone has ever experienced this? Is it only my battery that is damaged or something else?

 

Ive done this a few times on my 240 (just a quick 2min wrenching session "naw I don't need to disconnect the battery it'll be fine") the main fuse probably blew. Check the fuseable links underhood and see if any of them blew. They are basically big fuses.

~Alex

 

Thanks Alex,

I'll check it out and update.

 

I once blew that green 30A fusible link and car wouldn't start. I tihnk it was just all my electrical problems that caused that cuz I hadnt touched the battery at all.

 

I put my battery on the charger for 12 hours. Everything is back to normal!

 

How many maxima.org members does it take to change a car battery?

 

20?

 

0
i just change the car instead

 

takes two in my case. my gf (org member) holds the hood up while I put the batt in and connect it lol, its funny cuz its true

 

pink broomstick ftw. so for me.. one.

 

old wives are notorious for being too cautious with cars

 

it doesnot matter which one is first, but be careful of shorting

 

On a negative ground car (and yes, there is such thing as a positive ground car), you should remove the negative cable first. The reason is this: When you are removing the negative cable, if you slip with the wrench, and hit something metal, it will only be a problem if you hit the positive terminal. Once the negative cable is removed, when you are working on the positive cable the same thing applies, you only have a problem if you drop the wrench across the two terminals.

If you remove the positive cable first, and you slip and hit ANY piece of metal in the car with the wrench, you will short the battery. While this usually won't cause any serious harm, there is ALWAYS the potential for a battery to explode, so shorting it out, and causing sparks near it is never a good idea.

 

I've always remove negative first, and replace negative last. There's just less than can go wrong ultimately. I've fried an entire fusible link before - it's not pretty.

 

Re: '92 Maxima GXE 108K "Christine"
I believe they fried my alternator at the place that installed a new battery. It was fine, 14+ volts when I checked to see if I had a bad battery or if it was the alternator. So I bought a battery and had it installed. Now it's 12.1volts TOPS at idle, one guy even said it goes negative under a load. The first battery they put in was a good 3-4" shoved inward on the tray and the top bracket was missing when I picked it up. It shocked the hell out of me, but thinking it was just a bunch of static, I went on my way. Then 3 days of very short distance driving later, it starts to rain and get dark, door locks went wacko, dash lights too, with the stereo turned off it was feeding static through the speakers. No more starts w/o a jump. Their solution...another battery. So I let them make an effort to correct the problem, drove it home, but on the way tested alternator twice at two different places - results are stated above. It's fried. Installer said "it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen - it wouldn't start w/o a jump, twice, and would run, but he eventually left it running awhile, tried and restarted it twice easily so it was ready to go" BS. Their good faith resolution still leaves me with a fried alternator. I find it unacceptable, and think they were careless and pinched pulled, or crossed something and ruined it. Their reply "it was the new battery that made a marginal alternator go out, (not their problem) and/or it was a coincidence (not their problem). I do not believe in coincidences. It is quite entirely probable, being fair minded that they screwed it up in a major way being careless. IT was fine the day I took it in, and fried by the time I picked it up after their "remedy", and probably after the original installation...any thoughts???

 

ps I lived in Skokie 1961-63