About to replace a car battery for the first time.
If you don't hear from me in a couple hours... ⚡️⚡️☠️
(apparently 12V is basically harmless, but I don't actually understand electricity so 🤷♂️)
Discussion
5v maxi eh?
Just make sure you (or exposed metal) don't connect the two poles together. Even if you do, it's not lethal, just painful.
Glad I googled all this stuff. I was watching how-to videos and was like, wtf, these dudes are just touching the poles w/bare hands.
My CS degree didn't require any EE classes so, yeah, got one semester of E&M in AP Physics and nothing since. Not kidding when I said I don't understand electricity!
tesla?
Pfft, f no! I'm CHEAP, friend!!!! 🤣
But sorta close... used Chevy Volt I got for $14k about 6yrs ago. The 12V battery does almost nothing in the car (just initializes the onboard electronics, then the mega battery pack takes over), but annoyingly, the car is completely inert when the 12V is dead.
You will be fine, just make sure the wrench 🔧 doesn't touch any body panels or the negative post when you tighten the positive terminal. Ask me how I know 😆
Schrodinger's Dev.
😂
as mechanic said:
since the car body is ground, open the circuit on negative terminal first when disconnecting then close the circuit last on negative terminal when reconnecting -- so that you don't accidentally close that circuit with your wrench when working on the positive terminal.
12V is harmless to you. It is not harmless to whatever metallic thing you accidentally short it across... and the resulting shower of sparks and molten metal is certainly not harmless to you...
Def still alive, just annoyed I'm not done yet after two trips to Home Depot (long socket set, additional hex nuts).
Ha, ha...every improvement project i do requires multiple Home Depot trips. Glad it's not just me.
Hello? Can I get some help here?
First hurdle: the 12V battery is in the back (Chevy Volt; main power pack on the chassis plus normal 12V battery just to start the electronics) but the hatch's manual release is a hidden 5/16" square cutout that you have to turn.
Had to cut a custom tool just to lift the hatch!
2nd hurdle: Need a deep socket set to remove the trunk's bottom cover. Home Depot trip #1.
Successful battery swap! No death!
Bonus: finally installed the aftermarket power tap so I can use the Volt as a gas-powered emergency generator!
Leave the car on, plug emergency appliances into the AC inverter, they drain the main batteries via the 12V connection point, then the car occasionally switches on the gas engine to push more energy into the main batteries.
You can power a fridge with it for DAYS on one 9gal tank of gas! The car will only switch on the gas engine for about 6min every hour!.
https://v.nostr.build/lLo6j.mp4
Hurdle #3: the aftermarket power tap wasn't designed for this negative post. Needed a separate nut to secure the wire.
Home Depot trip #2. Felt pretty confident it was a #12-24 coarse thread.
Narrator: The nut didn't fit.
Started gearing up for Home Depot trip #3 (😡), but then realized that the nuts that secure the trunk's bottom cover were probably the same thread. Score! That molded plastic bottom doesn't need all four nuts anyway!
