New battery time, and boy did that escalate quickly.

[The_Bishop]

After 5 years my Walmart battery decided it didn't want to do battery things anymore, so I went off to get a new one.

Turns out that group 75 batteries are a bit tough to come by. Closest I could get is a 8475 AAA battery from Napa, which a quick eyeball measurement at the store vs the group 75 I had, they looked to be the same size. The 8475 had better reserve and CCA, so score!

Left them the core, brought the new battery home.

Now my '98, probably like 90% of the fourth gen cars out there, has the front battery retention lip busted off the coolant tank. I had fabricated a steel strap that was bent to go up the side of the battery, across the top, and bolt in to one of the brackets on the radiator support. In conjunction with the battery wedge, this held the battery firmly in place and worked for the five years I had the other battery installed.

The new battery is ever so slightly taller despite the dimensions supposedly being the same. Now the bracket doesn't fit. To make matters even more fun, the battery hold down bolt hole seems to be slightly stripped.

So... Out comes the new battery, and with a little finagling and cursing rusted hardware so does the coolant tank.

As for the stripped out battery hold down bolt hole - Thankfully I have a Rivnut tool with the slightly longer M8-1.25 Rivnuts to work in somewhat thicker material. To make extra sure it won't come loose or spin, I placed two small tack welds on it.

Under the coolant tank there's a worrying amount of surface rust, so that got wire brushed off and everything that looks like it is rusted or *might* consider rusting in the future got sprayed down the Rustoleum rust converter. This also included the area under the car that you access via the little door used to change the fog lights, because *surprise* there was some rust under the 'battery tray' there as well, and it's far easier to access with the coolant tank out of the way.

Back to the tank: A quick search on Amazon shows a replacement tank that's reasonably priced and I can have it by Saturday, so that's on the way. My hope is with the front lip being intact I can just use the standard hold down hardware and the top strap won't be necessary.

So, as we stand right now, The battery's on the side, the old coolant tank is waiting to go in the trash. The hold-down bolt hole is repaired with a rivnut and two small tack welds. The surface rust is all wire brushed down and treated with Rustoleum rust converter. Everything's all ready for the new tank, which will hopefully show up tomorrow.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[qwikz28]

That stinks about the rust. I know I recently ran a long bolt through the mount in and fished a washer and nut through the fender to get my battery clamped down. Not very elegant, but it worked.

[Blackbirdws6]

Gotta love those "5 min jobs" that turn into a multi day project. Par the course for most things I do

[The_Bishop]

QwikZ28 - I debated doing just that, then I remembered I had those rivnuts so gave that a try.

Blackbirdws6 - Every damned time it seems.

-=-=-

Well, the Dorman coolant tank came in, and I found out why the battery was slightly taller - There was a protective bit of plastic for shipping on the bottom. Once that came off it dropped into place.

On one hand, I could have made it work without the new tank.

On the other hand, that rust would have been hidden until it was more than just surface rust, so I guess that's a win. Also, the old tank had some mud/sludge in the bottom... The new tank is spotless.

Once the battery dropped all the way in, the top strap I made worked. So now the battery is actually held in by the wedge *and* the top strap so it really isn't going anywhere and hopefully that top strap keeps the front of the battery tray from breaking off.

I also got paranoid about *why* the battery died. The car sat for about 3 1/2 weeks while I was away, but it's sat longer than that during winter and never gave me a problem, so I did the whole inline meter-look for a parasitic draw thing. It takes a *long* time for everything to go to 'sleep' in the car, but once it did the draw was about 30ma, which seems in line with where it should be. Guess the 5 year old battery was just done.

Of course it's raining so no 'test ride'.