If you would like to disconnect your car battery, there are a series of precautions that you must have. It is important that you follow the instructions to the letter because if you don't do it right, in addition to getting a good shock, you can damage the electrical components of your car.
As in many mechanical jobs, gloves that insulate against electricity and protective glasses will not hurt you. In the steps that we are going to indicate below, you will see that there should not be any problems if you do things in order, but it is not always easy to do without touching what is due.
Explanatory video
Steps to disconnect the battery
- Finds Battery. It is normally in the engine compartment, but there are cars that have it in the trunk, such as the Toyota Prius. If there is any casing, remove it. They are usually of the tab type, like the one in the video, so you may need a flathead screwdriver or similar to pry it apart.
- Remove negative pole first. Be careful because from this moment on you must be especially careful. The negative pole is removed first because it is more difficult to make a short circuit when handling it. You will usually need a wrench or a correct size socket wrench.
- Remove the positive pole. This step is optional, because by removing the negative the battery will no longer give current or discharge.
Precautions when disconnecting the battery
- Whenever you are going to disconnect the battery, place each wire that you disconnect in such a way can't move and touch any of the battery poles or other metal parts again.
- It is recommended that you use insulating gloves to avoid risks. if you use goggles best.
- Avoid touching the positive and negative poles at the same time or touching the positive and any other metal parts.
- Never put a metal wrench or similar tools on the battery. If at any time you touch both poles of the battery at the same time you will have problems.
Disconnect the battery with a switch
If you must look for a disconnect the battery with certain frequency, the best you can do is use a battery switch. It is a very cheap and easy device to install on the negative terminal of the battery.
Allows disconnect the battery with the turn of a key, as if it were a faucet. which allows to avoid abnormal electrical consumption of the battery when the car is not in use or as an extra security measure. This second use is just adding one more complication for someone who wants to steal the car. In your rush, you don't have to realize that the battery is disconnected.
Disconnect it without losing the memories
There are brands in which disconnecting the car battery is more delicate than in others. With cars of a certain age, the normal thing is that when you unplug it and plug it back in, Several lights come on on the dashboard. But they disappear as soon as you travel a few hundred meters. However, there are models in which this simple process can give a problem that is more difficult to eliminate. Even the most modern ones won't start up again and you have to take them to the workshop to have them set it up again.
To avoid this, you can use the memory maintainers, who supply power to the car while the battery is disconnected. However, this is only used for the short intervals where change battery. If your objective is another, such as leaving it disconnected so that it does not discharge after a long time without using the car, we recommend that you make sure that your car is not one of those that is misconfigured.
If you don't want to get your fingers caught, in addition to consulting this article to find out how to disconnect, make sure that your model is not one of those that can give you an upset. It will suffice that call your usual workshop or that you enter a forum specialized in your brand or car to see it.
What if I want to reconnect the battery?
If you want to reconnect the car battery, you have to repeat the same steps but in reverse. That is, do it in such a way that there is no time in which you manipulate the positive pole, with the negative already connected: open the compartment, place and screw the battery if you had removed it, place the positive terminal and press it hard and finally place the negative terminal. Don't forget to close the compartment again before closing the hood.
Yes, once you are done with the process of disconnect battery, you want to remove it from the car, you will have to remove the rest of the anchors. They are normally limited to a screw that fixes it to the bottom. If so, you'll need a long screwdriver or long socket wrench.
Picture 3 – MIKI Yoshihito