I am now a charter member of the Stupid Battery Placement Replacement Club. Read all of the posts on how to do it. Heck of a lot easier with vertical doors, because you get good access to all the tricky bits. Even so, Spent about 1 and 1/4 hours on it. Two contractors were building my new deck while I was replacing it. They were amazed by the placement "you've got to kidding, they put the battery there?" The view of my battery.
The batteries in an M48 are under the turret basket. On the floor of the hull. And there are four BIG batteries that have to go out through the turret hatch
Don't know why it's such a big deal. Only have to change battery every five years. Plus it's no big deal taking wheel off and loosening fender liner to get to battery. As stated above there a many cars with batteries in difficult locations. They just utilized all the space.
:agree: This is the method I use and it takes me less then an hour to do it the only hassle being loosening the battery clamps ,I also have my PS reservior relocated ,so I picked up a small ratcheting wrench and now I can get to it a lot quicker especially when I have to remove a battery terminal to do work on the car.
Guess I shouldn't complain, 7 years from the battery. Having the power steering over the battery didn't make it easier. To get at the clamps on the battery, I had to remove the reservoir. Probably will not get 7 years from the next one, because I don't drive the car much. Optima Red Top was on sale at Pep Boys. $125 which I thought was reasonable.
I just replaced the battery on the 08 GXP on Monday. I took the body panel off, and went in that way. It was pretty easy.
Remember, GM could have made it real easy by putting the battery on top at the front of the engine compartment. It would have done wonders for the weight and balance.
Actually many car manufacturers put the battery in odd location. With the Lincoln LS, they need the battery as far to the rear as possible to get their exact 50/50 weight distribution. So it's in the trunk, under the donut close to the bumper. The '09 CTS was in the rear quarter panel and the Fiero was just in front of the rear wheel behind the driver. And IMSMC the 2013 300C was on the fire wall at the bottom. If I remember correctly, removal had to be done from underneath.
There batteries made just for the underseat applications, with small rectangular vent nipples on either side. The LeSabre has a rubber tubing Y arrangement like a stethoscope that runs to outside the car. If there's an underseat battery size the same as the Solstice's there's probably a bunch of those batteries in some of our cars right now, as you'd never notice if you weren't looking for that.
The battery is down low and behind the front axle on the passenger side, a great place for it in a sports car designed to maximize performance potential.
It took me about 2 hours to replace mine but that included waxing the inside of the removed passenger front quarter panel, then doing the same on the driver's side after cleaning out all of the tree leaves and seeds that I found had collected there too.
On the positive side, one would have to spend at least $250,000 to buy another car that is as impractical as the Solstice!
Hard to believe, but an Alfa Romeo 4C is even less practical than a Solstice, and only runs around $60-$70k, depending on options and Coupe vs. Spider. At least we have luxury items such as a glove box, or gas struts for the rear hatch (Coupe). We can even add windshield washer or brake fluid without special tools.
That's the Battery I just put in my Solstice, removed the previous owners wall mart battery that seemed to be leaking causing a corrosion issue to start on the inside of the front fender, and the top of the battery tray.
Interesting that this is one thing that seems to be easier to change on a Mallet conversion, as the power steering reservoir is not located above the battery now. I also am using this opportunity to replace the slightly cracked inner fenders, and remove the ECM so it can be sent out to fix the cruise control issue inherent with the early conversions.
While I did find the battery a bit of a pain to change, I have owned cars that it was worse. I had a 70's Ford that you almost had to remove the front fender to get the battery out. You could see it, get all the hardware loose, but just could not get it out of the position it was in without loosening either the front fender or the radiator core support. Removing the front fender of a Solstice is not a difficult job Provided you can open the door all the way to get to the 1 bolt mounted at the rear of the fender.
After replacing the battery so many times (float charger killed it, I killed it, I killed it) I invested $60 into installing on of these:
Another note, I met another Kappa owner on Woodward last season, he explained that on a stock Kappa car without the P/S pump relocation, you can remove the battery by pulling it up and out without removing the fender. I have the P/S pump relocation so I have not looked into it at all.
Is that a battery cut out switch or what is "one of these"? I would appreciate more information. Pick up the Solstice GXP Saturday and plundering the back story on this forum and the internet in general.
\
Thanks,
R Snipes
4501 Safari on a lot of car and train places
Yes, cut off switch. I got a post adapter to go into the stock post clamp, then a cable that clamps on the battery ground with a lug on the end that goes to the switch.
My 63 VW Bug also had the battery under the rear seat and my wife's 2015 GMC Acadia has the battery under the floorboard in front of the rear seat.
Right now I'm looking to change my battery, first one lasted 4-1/2 years and current one is about same age since I'm planning on doing a brake job and replace the cracked fender liners while I have the front wheels off. It's an ideal time to do it with everything off and I'm not interested in seeing how long my battery will last.
It seems battery locations now is like gas cap locations back in the early 60's when I pumped gas at my uncle's station. It was very embarrassing to ask female drivers where the gas cap was hidden
Oh, and like Bill in BC, my 2009 Coupe still has the original battery. I plan on taking the remove-the-front-tire route when it comes time for replacement.
I agree, I only removed the wheel well as I replacing the cracked ones on the car. I believe there are only 6 or 7 bolts holding on the fender, and I actually did not need the extra access removing the wheel or wheel well provided.
Both my BMW Z4M and old Lamborghini have batteries that live in the trunk (one suspects due to lack of engine bay space for them, rather than weight/balance considerations) and both require dismantling some stuff to get at them, but nothing as complicated as the Solstice!
Based on my reading, if you have an 08 car with the "wrong" software version you can lose the remote connectivity but for other years I have not seen any issues with the battery change.
What does happen is the ECM starts over again learning its setup for altitude, humidity etc. After a few cycles it is back to normal.
I keep planning to send in my check and order my membership jacket, but my 2007 GXP insists that the original battery still has another 10 years left in it. ??
When I replaced my battery a couple weeks back, the first start took a few seconds longer than normal (while the ECM was waking up). After it started, all of the lights on the dash flashed for maybe a minute, then went back to normal. All good after that.
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