Went To Swap Out My Battery Tray Today

"Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)" (bman76-4) 07/02/2017 at 18:01 • Filed to: None

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Started pulling it out and learned that GM got a little creative with their cost saving measures.

The battery tray is also the coolant overflow. Nobody has one in stock so O’Reilly’s is transferring one from Oklahoma.

But at least now the tech guys at AutoX won’t have to worry about get to marvel at my zip-tie battery hold-down engineering.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 07/02/2017 at 18:07

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That’s actually pretty genius. Would be nice if it was transparent though.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 07/02/2017 at 18:12

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It’s under the battery, so you couldn’t see it anyway. Also, it’s the overflow so it’s not that important anyway :)

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 07/02/2017 at 18:17

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It would still be good to know if you were overflowing.

Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 07/02/2017 at 18:43

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Considering the amount and kinds of electrical current and fluids moving around under the hood of the average car it’s actually a little shocking (intended, sorry) that cars aren’t all randomly catching fire.

I know the weak bit in the C4 Corvette is the optispark distributor which hates water. You get to find out when your water pump starts going bad as it leaks directly onto the optispark cleverly located directly below.

Half battery tray; half catch can. Clever, but it makes me uneasy for some reason.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief 07/02/2017 at 19:04

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Eh, the terminals are towards the top of the battery and the overflow comes in below the battery.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 07/02/2017 at 19:05

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Yeah, there’s just no place it could go and be visible.

Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 07/02/2017 at 19:08

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And the connection to the overflow catch can is at battery terminal height... Regardless it’s obviously safe enough. It makes me uneasy like how some people feel about heights. Obviously you’re not just going to suddenly fall for no reason simply because you’re high up but still...

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 07/02/2017 at 20:59

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This seems inefficient, considering the bottle needs to be much stronger to hold a heavy battery, plus the battery will stress the bottle and since it’s made of plastic (that suffers hot/cold cycles), it’ll break and start leaking that much sooner.

The only bonus I could see is that it reduces the number of parts that need to be installed.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/02/2017 at 21:03

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It’s actually the other way around. The battery tray mounts to the radiator support and the bottle hangs from it. The weight of the battery goes straight to the core support.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief 07/02/2017 at 21:06

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That channel in the base is were the coolant overflow pipe runs, under the battery. The overflow exit from the radiator is 90 degrees from the battery, so even in the event of a hose failure water wouldn’t go towards the battery.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 07/02/2017 at 21:11

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I guess that works... I thought the tab on the right was indicating that mount points were over on that side.

shop-teacher > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 07/02/2017 at 21:12

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Funky!

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/02/2017 at 21:25

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Nope, that’s actually a mount that the wiring harness clips to. Which I’m sure you’re a fan of, lol ;)

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > shop-teacher 07/02/2017 at 21:27

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Yeah, I started pulling it out and was like WTF is going on here? If it wasn’t for that battery cleat being broken off it’d be fine.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 07/02/2017 at 21:35

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Eh, typical GM. You’ve probably seen my rants about the optispark, the water pump above it, the fact that the port when the inner bearing goes that releases water drips right on top of it, etc. I’ve also experienced massive failures of wiring harnesses and power distribution points on GM vehicles, so nothing involving them surprises me anymore.