Removing Car Battery Terminals

Scott Elbertson: Hi! I am Scott. I am with the Automotive Service Garage in Alexandria, Virginia. We are showing you how to maintenance your car's battery. Now, I am going to show you how to remove and replace your battery. First thing we need to do is to put on our gloves and our eye protection. Now, that we are ready to go, we are going to go inside and make sure that the ignition switch on the car is turned off and the car is firmly imparked with the parking brake applied. Next, we want to look at the battery and see if there is any interference around it. When we're removing and replacing the cables we want to make sure that we don't disturb any other items in the car. One of the things that is very important is to orient the cables. We need to make sure that the positive cable is marked or done so with a red twist tie, and I have used a piece of tape, so that I know that the replacement battery should have the positive post on this side and the negative post on that side.

Now, these are the tools that we are going to need to remove this battery. A 10 mm wrench to remove the terminals and pliers to gently nudge them off. Always remember that the negative cable is the first cable to be removed and the last cable reinstalled when replacing your battery. Now, let's remove the negative cable; again with your pliers, a gentle nudge to normally get the cable to come off. Now, that you have got the negative off, you want to inspect it preliminarily; looking at the integrity of it you want to make sure that the bolt is in good shape. There is no corrosion underneath the terminal and that the wires are secured in the terminal itself. When you removed the cable from the battery, you want to make sure that you can place it away from the battery. You don't want it fall back on and make contact while you are replacing the battery.

Now, I am going to replace or remove the positive cable. Now, we have got both cables removed. Your battery is ready to come out. The only thing holding in emplace now is the battery hold-down. In the next cli, I will show you how to remove the battery and put the new battery back in.