taking the battery out of my Saturn Sky Redline

Q

quebert

Member
I <3 my car, sure it`s from a now dead company, and yes it`s basically Corvette`s little redheaded step brother. But, it`s fun to drive and I can literally drive for months at a time without seeing another on the road. But... Today I needed to take the battery out to go get it tested. It will not come straight out, like every other car I`ve ever seen. 2 bolts, and boom lift and you`re done. You have to remove the passenger front side panel and about 12 bolts in whole, then remove some cage thingy. If the lower bar on the cage was literally 5mm higher you wouldn`t even need to remove it to get the batter out, but no! And, there`s one bolt that`s deep in the door well which is a royal pain to get to unless you have a 6" socket extension. Which I didn`t. The process isn`t difficult, but I`ve never seen a car where you have to do so much work to take a damn battery out. It`s one of the worst designs I`ve seen. I have zero idea how this made it past the design phase and got a thumbs up for production. I was close to having the bolt in the door out, when the cheap socket on the cheap screw driver wrench thing I have fell off and into the abyss of the panel. I finally managed to fish it out, and 45 minutes later the battery`s ready to come out. If anyone`s bored enough, go on Youtube and watch a video on how to remove the battery, it`s overly complicated for no reason.

And no news flash here, but the $15 (before 20%) 51pc wrench+socket set I bought today from Harbor Freight sucks. The ratcheting wrench feels like it has 3 or 4 teeth. It`s still pretty impressive I was able to get it for $11 though lol. I pray the sockets will still have enough bite to be able to tighten all the bolts back. The lovely girl who rang me up said "well, there`s a life time replacement on them" when I said "wow this must suck!" after she told me it was $15. I was expecting it to be $35`ish. Which all reminded me I need to go buy a decent set of wrenches and sockets.
 
If you thing that`s bad, I know on the VW Toureg`s the battery is under the front drivers seat and takes a couple special tools. Shouldn`t need to be that darn difficult for just a battery! Ironically on our SLK230 the battery is easy to get to under the hood, you would expect something from Benz to be stupid complicated. It`s more crammed on my GTI surprisingly enough.
 
It`s sister, the solstice is the same way. I think that and how the convertible top works, are there worst features. The top is what kept us from buying one.
 
quebert said:
I <3 my car, sure it`s from a now dead company, and yes it`s basically Corvette`s little redheaded step brother. But, it`s fun to drive and I can literally drive for months at a time without seeing another on the road. But... Today I needed to take the battery out to go get it tested. It will not come straight out, like every other car I`ve ever seen. 2 bolts, and boom lift and you`re done. You have to remove the passenger front side panel and about 12 bolts in whole, then remove some cage thingy. If the lower bar on the cage was literally 5mm higher you wouldn`t even need to remove it to get the batter out, but no! And, there`s one bolt that`s deep in the door well which is a royal pain to get to unless you have a 6" socket extension. Which I didn`t. The process isn`t difficult, but I`ve never seen a car where you have to do so much work to take a damn battery out. It`s one of the worst designs I`ve seen. I have zero idea how this made it past the design phase and got a thumbs up for production. I was close to having the bolt in the door out, when the cheap socket on the cheap screw driver wrench thing I have fell off and into the abyss of the panel. I finally managed to fish it out, and 45 minutes later the battery`s ready to come out. If anyone`s bored enough, go on Youtube and watch a video on how to remove the battery, it`s overly complicated for no reason.

And no news flash here, but the $15 (before 20%) 51pc wrench+socket set I bought today from Harbor Freight sucks. The ratcheting wrench feels like it has 3 or 4 teeth. It`s still pretty impressive I was able to get it for $11 though lol. I pray the sockets will still have enough bite to be able to tighten all the bolts back. The lovely girl who rang me up said "well, there`s a life time replacement on them" when I said "wow this must suck!" after she told me it was $15. I was expecting it to be $35`ish. Which all reminded me I need to go buy a decent set of wrenches and sockets.
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Decent quality tools would be Gearwrench, buy once, cry once. GM also had the bright idea of installing, to my knowledge, the ECM`s for the C6`s behind the passenger front wheel, and the fender is made of a resin/glass mixture. Sure, I`d love to have someone hit me or a guy with a trailer hitch stab my car and render it completely inoperable. There is plenty of room in the cabin for delicate electronics.
 
quebert- I`m just gald you were able to retrieve that socket. You might at least try taping your sockets/extensions together so that doesn`t keep happening. Sure does sound like a huge hassle though, having to go through all that.

TheMeanGreen said:
...buy once, cry once..
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That`s what I was thinking, but, per usual...it`s easy for me to spend somebody else`s money :o Heh heh, spend enough on seldom-used tools and you could`ve come out ahead just paying a Pro to do it...a lesson I`ve learned the hard way.
 
Accumulator said:
quebert- I`m just gald you were able to retrieve that socket. You might at least try taping your sockets/extensions together so that doesn`t keep happening. Sure does sound like a huge hassle though, having to go through all that.



That`s what I was thinking, but, per usual...it`s easy for me to spend somebody else`s money :o Heh heh, spend enough on seldom-used tools and you could`ve come out ahead just paying a Pro to do it...a lesson I`ve learned the hard way.
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Taping sockets or extensions together? Locking extensions exist for a reason. hehe


I have saved my self so much money, by working on my car (very mechanically inclined), that I have been able to not only buy OEM grade parts and buy pretty decent tools, and still be ahead.
 
Most automotive brands have a long history of dimwitted engineering. In 1975 or 1976 GM built a car in which you absolutely could not get to one of the rearmost sparkplugs without lifting/pulling the engine. They got so much flak that they were forced to include free tune-ups (just the plugs) during the warranty period. They deservedly lost their butts. Think they learned? In the C4 `vettes from `92 through `96 they located the optispark (distributor), which was deathly allergic to water, directly under the water pump. If the pump began to leak the opti said bye-bye and headed south. And, of course, they`re a bear to get to. These cretins apparently never work on their own stuff.
 
Accumulator said:
I figured it was a low-cost way for quebert to avoid the problem. If he`s using a $15 tool set I figured that locking extensions aren`t in the budget.
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Gorilla tape has saved my behind several times doing spark plugs. Those sockets with the rubber insert are nice, but even lubed up they stick too well and won`t come off easy so your socket just stays in the tube. Just did plugs in the Taco and SLK and it worked perfect!
 
Nizmo- Yeah, even though many of mine in in that "stick *too* well" category, I`ve taped `em when I just couldn`t risk something coming undone. Not that I DIY my wrenching the way so many here do.

Heh heh..no, I don`t have locking extensions :o Sure not knocking them, in fact, I`d recommend them and !oh how those tool catalogs still call my name!, but I`m simply over my, uhm..Acquisitional Phase of life. More inclined to wonder what the Surviving Spouse will do with all this [stuff] should one of us not be immortal after all.
 
WOW! It`s amazing how some things is engineered or better phrased not engineered LOL. Just take to change a light in the headlights on some car modells. My friend had a Mazda 6 and don`t remember the year exactly but mid 2000. To change the half light and looked in the manual it just said take it to a mechanic shop. Okay so bad it could not be and we and his father is well experienced to do some own work on cars. My friend has even worked in an independent mechanic shop for a couple of years. But to don`t get us to much of extra work we searched up how you would be doing it. A lot of this with many tips and trix you can find on Youtube. Man you had to take off the front bumper and loosen the front fenders and also take off the top beam where the cooler is attached to. For a mechanic it`s rated to be 3-4 hours IIRC to just get the headlights out from the car and switch the bulbs and put it together again. They where nice to mention to switch both sides while you had it taken apart. And my Kia cee`d SW both parking lights had broken. I did loosen the front fenders and a plastic cover that seals in the front parts. And was able to get the whole headlight out with a little violence LOL.

Also the Ford Focus I maintain was needed to be haveing the battery changed. And there where a couple of things that you should be loosen or takeing off to get it out and back on the car. There is just so little of more space to have this very easier to be doing. About 5mm of horizontall more space and it would have been just to angle it when pulling it out and in. Asked where I buy the autoparts if there was a lower battery with the same specs and the poles on the same place. Nope it already has the lowest sized battery in it. Audi where smart enough to place it under the back seat when they didn`t have the room for the battery. Think that this don`t get tested before they manufactures it. Or if being a little cynical they do it so it`s not going to be easy to work on by your self but have the need to leaving it to the mechanic shops.

A lot of horror stories on how a simple repair or service. Gets to be time consuming and is very hard to do it your self.

The thing you experienced on your Saturn is just crazy!

/ Tony
 
SWETM- Yeah, funny you mentioned headlights...the ones on our "newer" (2000-2001) Audis require equipment (and training) that I don`t have.

One of the things I love about the Crown Vic and the Tahoe is that they`re *simple*. Even if I don`t do much DIYing, I can study the FSM`s and understand *everything and everything* about `em. Zero Mystery-Tech.

I don`t mind paying my Techs (Hi Dale, hi Eric, hi other-Eric, hi Paul!) since they do right by me, but I still like knowing what`s what.
 
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