A4 Battery Cover Access Mod

[Fix_Until_Broke]

I got sick and tired of scraping the backs of my fingers on the fender edge every time I took off my battery cover to jump start something - you know that you never need to jump start something when it's 80F and sunny, no, it's always 6 degrees and windy so you have to take your gloves off to get the battery cover off and you drag your knuckles across the edge of the fender - arrrggghhh.

So when I replaced my battery (OEM one lasted 6 years!) I "modified the fender" a little to reduce this problem.

I took an adjustable wrench and bent the fender edge down for a couple inches along where you need to slide your fingers in. Then I took a rubber hammer and beat it down the rest of the way to make a smooth transition. The paint flakes off as shown in the picture, but I re-painted it with some similar color spray paint and you can barely tell unless someone pointed it out.

I'll take another picture sometime with the battery and cover installed and also painted, but for now the below will get the idea across.

Hope it helps someone's knuckles

 

[Birdman]

Not sure why you are modifying anything. I just use the hot side which is very east to get to and put the ground on the engine where it should be. As most know you need to be very careful when jumping these newer cars so you don't burn up and expensive ECU.

 

[burpod]

i just don't have a battery cover anymore, easy mod

 

[DucMike]

I hate to say it, but as good a samaritan as I am, I just don't take chances by jumping anything with my '03. Call me paranoid, but I just dont want to risk it.

 

[Keebler145]

I hate to say it, but as good a samaritan as I am, I just don't take chances by jumping anything with my '03. Call me paranoid, but I just dont want to risk it.

Same here if I don't have the old 7.3l Powerstroke f-550 I just keep on driving .

 

[Fix_Until_Broke]

Not sure why you are modifying anything. I just use the hot side which is very east to get to and put the ground on the engine where it should be. As most know you need to be very careful when jumping these newer cars so you don't burn up and expensive ECU.

Birdman (or anyone else) - Probably the dumb questions of the day, but...How is the hot side any easier to get at than the ground side, why should you ground to the engine instead of the ground side of the battery and, how would you burn up the ECU jump starting something else?

 

[Honeydew]

Hey FUB, the experts over on the Jeep CRD forum have explored that topic in great detail in this thread.

 

[AlbertaWyomingGuy]

blah blah blah

is it a myth???? just like they say you can't weld unless you unhook the battery. too many knuckheads have shorted out their own vehicle before they get hooked to the dead one, hence most people don't follow the correct cable hooking procedure.

I use my Jetta to jump my Duramax.

 

[Ookpic]

Nice Mod! May save some skinned knuckles for sure. Thanks!

BTW - I've my wife's car half a dozen times without any trouble.

 

[merkerguitars]

i just don't have a battery cover anymore, easy mod

Same here, first few things I did when I bought my car,

Battery cover, took it off, headlight trim, took it off, engine cover, took it off.

 

[milehighassassin]

Things get toasted on new vehicles when you reverse the polarity.


If you hook up red to red and black to black (or another ground) then you will be fine. I usually try and hook up to a shock strut, mount etc, instead of the black on the battery.

 

[Fix_Until_Broke]

Finally replaced the flooded battery with a 49/H8 AGM battery which required some more modifications to the battery cover. Seemed related, so figured I'd link the two together.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=5374336&postcount=21