Is it just me,.. or is the battery replacement for the 350z a little time consuming, and a bit tricky (especially if you have big hands) ?

I started in on it.. being a battery not trying to read any guides.. it's a battery right!

Ok.. has a cap.. nice.

There's the battery,.. hrmm.. looks like it's deep in there, under the windshield bevel/wiper housing.

Positive terminal has two terminals hooked to it.. very bulky. Interesting..

Negative terminal normal

Nice placement of the fusebox lol.

So I pull the cap off .. then I'm like, ok need more room -- I pull the plastic rivet/snaps carefully with a flathead (I know how delicate those are on all cars).. Get that second housing off. Ok, surely we have easy room now.

Hrmm.. it's still up under there. Well, let's get to work.

Grabbed a 14mm ratchet and went to work.. removed terminals,.. and the positive just was in the way with those clips going into it. So, removed them (my thumb said ouch ).. Got those off..

Still need room, Unclipped fuse box,..

Even with the flips off the positive terminal it has some serious wiring holding it in the way,.. so I temporarily zip tied it back.

I though I MIGHT get away with undoing the front bracket 14mm bolt.. swing that arm around.. because I know the back is covered by the windshield wiper blade bezel.

Undid the front bracket,.. swung it around the battery.. Nope it's not coming out without some twisting (and I'm no weakling, but picking up a battery and twisting it out from under that "ledge" if you will.. without banging up anything takes some control. (I'd imagine some smaller females may have some issues with this part of the job... maybe not.)

Got it out! Yay! Clink.. the back of the bracket unhooked.. ok, I'll figure that out in a bit.

Got the battery out, and I'm OCD about cleaning my Z -- so got the vacuum and vacuumed the leaves and debris in the battery Tray. Then got some Aerospace cleaner and wiped the tray,.. all pieces I removed top and bottom.. the wire covers.. the sheetmetal exposed, etc. (Yah, I know you won't see it .. but still.. makes me feel better.)

This is a 2008 350z, with 26k miles. Took a look at the battery,.. Yup it's the factory battery. Dated June 3rd, 2008. Over 6 years,.. I'm impressed!

I won't make this any longer with the getting it all back together -- But let's just say getting that back hook on the Top brace to hook in the hole and tensioning it enough for it not to slip out was a slight challenge.

And just at the end, I connected the negative cable, but forgot to clip the Fuse box back on.. Doh. No big deal,.. put the 14mm socket back on and unhook the negative move fuse box and put it neg. term. back on..., (well the ratchet had an extension on it) -- The socket slips off.. and falls UNDER the battery.

For most of you, that's not a problem. But I don't have one of those magnet extenders.. no duct tape.. and it was under the battery towards the back. Couldn't see it from the front.

Decision, leave socket, take battery out.. or think of creative ways to get it out. Let's just say I tried 2-3 ideas before fashioning a piece of wire into a hook, and seriously getting lucky by hooking that socket and not breathing as I pulled it forward then up and out!

I searched for a minute to see if anyone else talked about the battery being a little more involved than many cars, and didn't really see it.

So I guess I'm just a terrible battery "replacer" on the 350Z.. took me 30-40 minutes to replace it.

Maybe this one will last 5 years,..

** I'm starting to think maybe the "right" and "easy" way to do the battery is to remove the "trim" piece that the windshield wipers sit in. I did it all with that piece still on. I have a tendency to make things harder than they should be.**

Anyone else get more than they bargained for with their first Z33 battery swap?

 

Definitely thread worthy. Good job posting in the 370z forum.

 

ROFL.



Yeah, I'm a little tired.. My bad, Sorry you guys.

 

After 8 years I decided to replace my battery. I looked at it for awhile and realized it looked kind of difficult so I just took it to the dealer to have the battery replaced. Much easier than dealing with it myself.

 

Tldr

Moved....

 

lmao...its just a few plastic things in the way lol....smh

I could probably take the battery out faster than some of you could take off your strut bars haha....

It is kinda annoying i will say that, but its not a large job at all...

 

It's a bit cramped but nothing bad. A pair of segments of duct tape would work as a "battery puller".

 

Are you serious?
With the trim panel off,its a easy job.
15min tops.

 

Haha yeah it's cramped in there, and I would do it but I'm sure it's a pain.

 

Yes I am serious.

But, therein lies the problem, and my stupidity - I didn't bother taking off the trim panel.. which made it infinitely more difficult. My fault. But , hey I got it in there in about 30-40 minutes,.. That includes vacuuming time... cleaning all the area exposed,.. and hunting down a dropped socket.

I never claimed that it was a long job to MOST people.. just that it took me longer than usual for any other car I've owned is all.

But, again, with that final trim piece off it wouldn't have really been an issue.. Still a solid 15mins unless you were going for some speed record,.. 15mins taking your time.

If you are an idiot like me and don't take the last trim piece off,.. you are working with the battery half covered. Not advised.

 

Yup. It's not a large job -- But I've changed brake pads faster than this battery removal and install lol. But I just removed the first outer layer of trim.. and not the back trim that covers 1/3rd of the battery.. you can see how that makes the job more time consuming (unnecessarily).

Popping clips and removing 3-4 14mm bolts is definitely not a big deal.

 

I suppose that it’s a safe statement to say that many projects inside the engine bay of a 350z require removing any shrouding that interferes with access.

--Spike

 

Fair point.

 

^^ Truthfully… Before owning the Z, I never had a car that had all this shrouding and cover pieces in the engine bay. It does look nice so I wonder if it’s just esthetics or if it serves any practical purpose.

The cover pieces do add time to repairs and maintenance projects. But heck, I remember that one of the big-engined Camaro Z’s required dropping the engine to replace spark plugs.

--Spike

 

Just changed my last month ( battery died from lack of driving... ). I didn't find it all that bad, took about 15 minutes or so. Didn't remove any shrouding either.

 

Well.. I'd rather have it than not. And.. not for the "looks" really. For the limited protection from the elements.. debris, water, whatever -- Nice to have your battery covered completely.. your clutch cylinder covered and so on.

I think it's aesthetics (looks) -- but also serves a purpose of keeping unwanted weather/debris from the areas as well (esp. battery). But mostly looks. The car manufacturers typically try to cut corners wherever possible on mass production as it all adds up. Every shroud may seem like a $20 part to us... but do that 100,000 time over X years.. or more.

But the trend with the newer cars (2003'ish and newer) is the plastic coverings and trim on the engine.

 

Nice -- In all honesty if I hadn't been cleaning every spot I found with debris when removing pieces, vacuuming it out.. dropping sockets UNDER a mounted new battery and so on.. I'd have had it done in 20mins or so.

But I compare that to a typical battery install in many cars that is about 3-5 minutes.

You didn't remove any shrouding? Not even the first circular shroud (the one that goes around the cover that says "battery" ? IIRC, That piece had to come out for the physical dimensions of the battery to make it out of the available "hole".

This is one of those.. live and learn, do it faster next time.. but given life of batteries It's going to be a long while (hopefully) before this battery dies on me. Never know though, every once in a while you get a battery with a bad cell or two that starts to lose ability to hold enough charge,.. Hasn't ever happened to me.. but I know plenty of people in family and otherwise that have had it happen with 6 month old high quality brand batteries.

I should have done a step by step DIY on it.. just to be an asshat.

 

Maybe because I worked at Napa for over 5 years and changed countless batteries, but I thought it was fairly easy on the Z.

Go change a battery on a Range Rover and then come back to me. One of the most difficult cars I have ever done.

 

when i had my Trans Am, it took firestone 5 hours to change them out... they had to do some from the top, others from the bottom. before i took it to them i looked at it and thought "oh hell no"

 

Don't beat yourself up over it OP. You'd be surprised how many people don't search the forum.

Because of this thread people will hopefully search & learn your mistake, so it's not so hard for them. Now you know next time there's something you want to do, you'll search the forum 1st.