Replacing a Battery

Replacing an automotive battery is probably one of the easiest and most common maintenance tasks that a car owner can perform. That being said, just because it is one of the most common and easiest tasks, does not make it any less dangerous. When performing any type of automotive maintenance, you need to make sure to utilize some basic safety precautions, but most particularly when you are working with electricity.

Materials and Tools:

• Adjustable wrench
• Wire brush
• Proper automotive battery
• Rubber gloves
• Clean rags
• Water (clean)

Steps:

1. Remove. To begin, you need to remove the old non-working battery from your car. You do this by opening the car hood, and locating the battery. When looking at the battery, you should see two terminals, or posts on colored red and the other black. The red post is typically the positive (+) and the black one is usually the negative (-). Make sure that you have your keys out of the ignition, and then remove the cables from the battery terminals. Begin by disconnecting the black one first, and then proceed to remove the red one. After you have disconnected the cables, you should be able to remove the battery from your car, if not then look to see if there are any clamps holding the battery in place. If there are, then go ahead and remove them. Once all the obstructions are taken care of, go ahead and remove the battery
2. Clean. When you have the battery removed, take a look at the battery tray. If the tray appears to be dirty, then use some of the clean water and the wire brush to clean it. Before beginning your cleaning, you should put on some rubber gloves. The reason for this is that there may have been some battery acid leaked onto the tray, and you do not want to get any of that onto your hands. After cleaning the tray with the water and wire brush, use some rags to dry it off. You do not want to put a new battery into the tray if it is still wet.
3. Replace. Once the tray has been cleaned and dried you are ready to replace your old battery with your new one. Do this by dong the reverse of the previous steps.
4. Dispose. Finally, you have replaced your car battery, it is now time to dispose of your old one. Simply take this to an automotive supply store. These places quite often have the proper methods for disposing of used batteries, and do it either for free, or a minimal charge.