Fixing A Car’s Battery and Replacing If Necessary

There are a number of things that you do not need to have a professional mechanic do to fix. In fact, often times you can save a lot of money by fixing things yourself. Today we will be going over a simple one, fixing a car battery. Tools that you’ll need would include an adjustable wrench jumper cables and possibly replacement screws, bolts and washers, but likely not.

The many things that are easily fixable yourself include a lot more than you would think. One that is obvious would be replacing a battery. Before replacing your battery, it is recommended that you try to jump the battery. To do this, turn off both cars and put the brakes on. Next, pop the hoods and find the battery terminals. Black is for (-) and red is for (+). First, attach the red positive clamp to the dead car’s red battery terminal. Next, attach the other end of the red cable to the functioning car. Then, attach the black negative cable to the working car’s black terminal, then on the dead vehicle place the black cable to an unpainted piece of metal on the dead vehicle to ground it. Next, turn on the car that works and run the gas. Then after a few minutes try to start the dead car.

If that doesn’t work, then you will want to take out the dead battery and take it to an auto shop. Before you start, remember you do not want to touch metal to both terminals at once while you are touching it! That would be very bad. You will want to use a wrench, and starting with the black terminal, take off the nut. If it won’t come off, you may need a battery wrench, but it should eventually give. Be careful with it, but you will want to take the wire on the terminal off. Next, do the same with the red terminal. Next, find the battery clamp. Take note of how it is positioned, as every car is different. But you will want to take the clamp off by using a wrench. Next, take the battery to an auto store like O’Reilly’s, who can tell you if your battery even works. Regardless of the outcome, you will want to clean off the clamps. Using a wire brush and a combo of baking soda and water, clean off the corrosion from the clamps, and if the battery works, then the terminals on the battery. If you don’t have a wire brush, a toothbrush might work. If the battery works have them charge it (all of this should be free), and reinstall it after cleaning everything off. It is very important to remove corrosion. If it doesn’t, buy a replacement battery and go through the same steps we just covered for removal to then place the battery back on. After the battery is placed back on the tray with the clamp on, move it around and test the terminals to make sure everything is fastened and tightened.