Scott Elbertson: Hi, I am Scott from the Automotive Service Garage in Alexandria, Virginia and I am showing you how to maintenance your car's battery. Now, that we are getting ready to put our new battery back in we want to again, make sure that your battery cables are clean and reusable. This is our battery tray. This is where your battery sits. We want to make sure that it's free of acid, excessive amount of dirt and then it's firmly in placed so that once a battery hold down is put in that it will too be firmly in place and holding the battery in its proper position.

Alright, we have the battery in place we want to make sure that the positive post and a negative post are reoriented correctly as they were with the old battery. First thing we are going to do is put the hold-down back on. Very important to remember to make sure that everything aligns back up the way that it came out. A lot of times batteries have different configurations, slightly shorter, slightly longer, slightly taller, those kinds of things. It's important thing to have the battery held in place. Batteries have plates inside of them and if they are allowed to vibrate or rattle around or rub against something, sometimes those plates will break contact and thus your battery fails. I have put the battery in place so I have the hold-down on, it is not tight. Now, I am going to make sure that my battery is correctly in its spot, not rubbing against anything, not touching any other electrical items, not potentially going to rub a hole in anything else.

I am satisfied with that so I am going to tighten up my hold-down. It's snug and in place, that's all it needs to be. You don't need to overtighten any of these things. You will end up distorting the battery in the end if you try to pull it down too hard. Now, before I put the battery cables on I am going to install some battery terminal protectors. These work really well for keeping corrosion off of your battery cables. They have a chemical in them that prevents corrosion. The red one of course, will go on your positive cable the black one on your negative cable.

Next, I am going to install my cable. Remember, your negative cable is always the last cable to be installed. Here is my positive cable that I marked with a red twist tie and a piece of tape telling me where it was and which cable it is. Make sure that when you put the cable on that the cable goes all the way down and that the top of the battery post slightly protrudes from the cable indicating that this strap is just four down or cable end is just four down as this is going to go. Now, I am going to tighten the cable. Again, it is not necessary to overtighten this. A good snug fit works perfectly. Overtightening it at times can cause the cable end to be distorted and therefore not make a very good contact. I have got my positive cable in place. I have looked at the battery, everything is good. I have got it oriented correctly. I want to make sure that I haven't undone anything. I want to make sure my airbox is back in place, my fuse box is back in place and any other harnesses or anything that I have moved for the removal and installation of this battery are correctly back in place again.

Now, I will replace my negative cable. Again, I am going to tighten this, snug it up making sure that the terminal is oriented as it was upon removal and that the top of the battery post slightly protrudes from the cable end indicating that it is in a proper location. Now, we have installed the battery, we have replaced both cables, we have checked there to make sure that everything is installed correctly. In the next clip, I will show you how to test your repair.