It all used to be so simple. “Hey fella, you need a jump?” they’d say. “Boy, howdy, do I!” you’d reply. They’d pull up nose to nose with your car, chuck on some jumper leads, and get you on your way. “Forget that!” said automakers. “Let’s make everything different.”
They put the batteries somewhere else. Where? We’re not supposed to know! We’re dirty little consumers who are too stupid to be trusted with three volts, let alone twelve angry ones! Why, if we dared to jumpstart a car or change a battery ourselves, we might burn the whole car down. Best to hide the battery away from curious little hobbits.
It honestly ticks me off so much. My 2007 BMW E90 buries the battery deep in one side of the trunk. My old MX-5 did the same, and you had to ensure that vent hoses were hooked up so gases didn’t leak out and rust the inside of the car to pieces. My Mercedes puts the big box of acid right under the rear passenger seat along with a bunch of fuses for easy ridiculous accessibility.
I know, I know. I’m being overly harsh. Automakers have granted us some conveniences to ease the pain. They often put nice big 12-volt and ground terminals under the hood for hooking up jump leads. Batteries are often maintenance-free, now, too, so we’re not sloshing about water and acid every six to twelve months. Hiding the battery somewhere inside makes it less likely the terminals will get all gross and corroded. And yes, putting the battery somewhere deeper inside the car reduces the chances it’ll burst open, leak, or catch fire in a crash.
But still, I hate it! I hate it so much. I hate it at breakfast, I hate it at lunch. I hate it on Mazdas, and Jaguars, and Nissans. I hate it on Mercs, and I’m filled with derision. What rude designer approved this decision?
Honestly, I hate it because I drive hoopties. I drive beat up old cars and weird German ones, and I know one day, I’m going to have to change a battery. When that day comes, I won’t just be able to pop the hood and get it done in five minutes. Instead, I’ll be pulling off seats or interior trims, then I’ll be unbolting some whackadoodle battery topper panel and trying to wiggle the thing free. The whole time I’ll be trying not to short out the battery to the chassis while unbolting the terminals. That’s much harder to avoid when you’re wrestling around behind the rear wheel well!
If someone else is servicing your car, or you’re only looking at the battery now and then, it’s probably fine. You don’t even think about it. But for me? Every time I’m troubleshooting something and I’m told to “check the battery” I wince just a little bit. Have pity, and for all of our sakes, make them put the battery back where it’s supposed to go.
Lewin out.
Shots fired! This is wrong wrong wrong wrong! I will grant that the under-seat battery in the Mercedes is bad. This is the worst place to put a battery and I also don’t like it. But having a battery in the engine bay? Also bad. There’s too much heat cycling, it’s annoying to try and jump a car on the side of the road, and the area isn’t protected.
Just put it in the trunk! My E39 has a battery in approximately the same place as your E90 battery and it rules. I can park my car nose in and my car can be jumped easily without having to move the car. If my car does on the side of the road, someone can just pull up right behind me and give me a jump without 900-foot jumper cables or trying to point the nose in the other direction.Â
Also, let’s not forget the big reason why this is being done in certain cars: weight balance. The battery in my E39 weighs approximately 45 pounds. It’s a big boy. The engine in the E39 weighs way more than 45 pounds, meaning that’s a lot of weight over the front nose which, dynamically, isn’t great. Thanks to putting the battery in the back (and a few other things) my E39 BMW has a nearly 50:50 weight distribution and it feels ideal to drive. So, my argument is not to put all batteries in the front, but to put all batteries in the trunk! -Matt HardigreeÂ
Image credits: Lewin Day, Varta
The battery on my wife’s 2013 Grand Cherokee is under the front passenger seat. It’s comforting to know that I’ve got a bunch of highly charged acid directly under my ass on long summer trips.
Adding to this is the knowledge that the battery on her 2008 grand cherokee literally exploded when she went to start it at work about 10 years ago. Granted – as others have mentioned, the conditions under the hood are (allegedly) far more harsh than under my ass, but we still have that ’08 and every time I look at the acid pock-marked paint on the front fender, I wonder “what if?”
Also – I had to replace said ass mounted battery last summer. Thankfully we have a poverty spec Laredo without any power passenger seat fanciness. Being somewhat new to ass mounted batteries, I’m not sure I would have thought to leave the vehicle with the dead battery running while I moved the seat forward for access to the ass battery compartment.
‘ass mounted batteries’ added to lexicon: thank you 😉
You’re welcome. To that end (sic), if anyone wants to use “ass batteries” as a band name, you have my blessing.
You just reminded me, I think I looked at an instructional video for replacing the battery(/ies) in a Ford Transit a while back and they’re under the driver seat and it looked stupidly convoluted. On the other hand, putting them in the back would surely mess with certain upfitter options.
For a sports car, especially a lightweight one, moving the battery to the rear can improve weight distribution by enough to make it worth the hassle. In something the size, heft, and purpose of a Grand Cherokee… why?
And there was I thinking that batteries should got in the battery box on the nearside running board. It is annoying when they are one the wrong side though.
[Visions of stately coaches heaving to alongsides with much palaver and tossing of lines]
Mercedes LOVES a good game of hide the battery! Not only are some of them under the seat, there are some that require cutting carpet to get to. As in you have to physically damage your car to access a component expected to be regularly changed out as maintenance! And then there’s the auxiliary batteries, which will ONLY work with a genuine Mercedes battery. About a year ago even the dealer ran out so they sent us Interstate aux batteries with a Mercedes sticker on them. It took about 2 months before we had to warranty the two we put into cars due to throwing auxiliary battery warnings. There is some sort of special magic in those little boxes, I swear to god.
The current king of battery fuckery is Porsche. Do you own a 2019 Cayenne? Well, it’s getting to be about time for the battery to start failing. Some Cayennes had a lithium ion battery installed. Not like some sort of hybrid idea; normal-ass ICE car with a normally located (under passenger seat) battery, but some absolute tit in Stuttgart wanted to shave a few pounds off a 4,500lb SUV. A normal AGM battery replacement is usually around $475 with us. Li Cayenne battery? About $2,750. And it would take 7-10 days just to get the battery thanks to Haz Mat shipping IF THEY WEREN’T BACKORDERED TO GOD KNOWS WHEN. Luckily, there are a couple companies starting to rebuild these “battery modules” but they only warranty them for a year or two. Just long enough to get rid of the car.
And I thought I had problems in replacing the battery in my Honda kei car – bizarro 38B20R dimension and with JIS pencil post terminals. I went through lots of trouble to find the correct type, only to realize that someone had already swapped the clamps and I ended up having to get JIS to SAE adapters. Bah.
TIL how many random battery mounting spots there are.
Honestly, the trunk sounds like a better location than on my husband’s Escape, which is so close to the cowl that it’s almost impossible to get to.
My 2013 Ford Focus was like that, with the battery tucked so far underneath that I think it would have been easier to deal with fishing it out of the trunk when it came time to replace.
My wife’s old 14 Chevy Traverse had it in the floor in the second row. It wouldn’t have been so bad but there was just barely enough room to get the battery in the compartment. I snapped the tiny little gas vent tube connector when putting a new battery in it and had to scour the internet for a new tube.
Beat me to it! My mom had a 2011 Traverse and called me up one day saying it wouldn’t start. After hunting for the battery, I found it in the floor only to also find out that it has bulged – which made it nearly impossible to remove. I ended up snaking the strap part of a ratchet strap under the battery (I honestly don’t remember how) twice, then lifting it out as much as I could before I compressed the battery sides enough to get it out. It was a nightmare. Putting a new battery in was a relative joy, but that location was absolutely the worst.
This is EXACTLY what they make chainsaws for.
My Buick LeSabre has the battery under the back seat, in order to maximize the LeSabre’s razor-sharp handling.
Sidepost as well, for that added fun
I would have to decline giving a jump to someone with a battery mounted in the rear unless it has jump terminals up front. Otherwise it will look like my car is sniffing their car’s butt, and that just isn’t right.
Yeah, my wife had a Cobalt (That had all those recalls including ignition) w/ the battery in the trunk…it was stupid. One time we broke down in Louisiana and got a jump from a State Trooper. I think the steering/ignition was locked or something and it wouldn’t do anything. We had to open the hood (luckily in there there’s a spot to give the car enough power to unlock the steering/ignition or whatever was going on) and then open the trunk and jump the battery there (I think we even tried that 1st which is the obvious 1st step and it wouldn’t work or something- maybe it needed power to open trunk which is even dumber)
You know there are jump terminals underneath the hood of your wife’s Cobalt, right?
My SO has a Cobalt. I’ve jump-started his car many times from underneath the hood (he kept leaving the headlights on, despite there being an automatic setting lol).
Maybe RTFM next time before calling a logical design decision stupid?
She doesn’t have it anymore since it was a POS…yeah, I don’t remember exactly what the setup was but at the time that’s what we thought we had to do…still think it’s stupid in the trunk
Aww! Poor Cobalt. Don’t get me wrong, I do not enjoy driving my SO’s Cobalt, but wow is it cheap to run and easy to fix. The perfect car for someone who doesn’t drive much and wants to keep running costs as low as possible.
I’m used to working on German stuff that is engineered to drive wonderfully. It’s kinda cool to work on a car like the Cobalt and appreciate how the engineers designed it to be cheap, reliable, and easy to fix.
Wait till you find out where it is in a 2017+ Q7
(underneath the front passengers feet, for LHD cars)
Is it accessed from the inside or the bottom?
Inside. Just forward of the passenger seat underneath the floor mat there’s a carpeted cover held down with velcro.
Ah, could be worse I suppose.
I assume the first gens are like Touaregs and have the battery under the driver’s seat.
That is a pain.
I appreciate putting it in the back in sporty cars. It helps with weight balance, and “because sports car” is reason enough. I’m with Matt on this one – especially if it’s done well.
But Prius, I’m looking at you. You are not a sports car. You are front wheel drive. Additionally, your battery is tucked in so tightly that it’s a pain to arrange everything so the trunk panels fit back together. And you have an electronic latch for the hatch. Prius, you are the perfect example of why batteries should not always be in the trunk.
I don’t quite get the “tucked in tightly” thing (mine has a bracket to hold it nicely in place), but yeah, the electronic latch thing is easily my biggest beef with the car, even if that works out to being a small beef on the whole.
Counterpoint: When has a Prius ever needed a jumpstart?
Basically never, since the 12 volt battery only energizes the computers and runs stuff like wipers and window motors. The high-voltage traction battery is the one that starts the engine as well as keeps the 12 volt battery topped off via an inverter.
Essentially, you’re never going to deal with the electronic hatch latch locking you out of jumping your 12 volt battery in a Prius; it’s just not something that I think can almost ever need to be done or happen.
There was an article on here a few weeks or so after the site went live about 12 volt batteries dying in hybrid cars like the Prius. Basically, the car started behaving weirdly, with strange electronic gremlins and so forth, but the car still started and ran just fine, every time.
My E46 had the battery in the passenger side of the trunk. My E88 one-upped that by burying it in what appeared to be a wheel well in the center of the trunk. That may have been a convertible-exclusive, but there it was, hiding under a false floor, but easy to access.
Hang on a minute – didn’t Torch proof this before publishing?
Batteries placed in inconvenient locations is the hallmark of the Beetle (and Karmann Ghia). This is definitely not new.
The original Beetle had it under the rear seat on the passenger side. It was not an uncommon sight to see one hanging by the cables below the car. My e36/37 has it in the middle of the trunk, helping with weight distribution & keeping it away from the heat of the motor
One common mod for drag racers back in the day was relocating the battery to the trunk—often near the passenger rear wheel for traction. The problem I have with that is the weight of the cabling you need to do it properly.
My father had a Seville STS years ago. The battery was underneath the exact middle of the rear seat, possibly the most inconvenient location for a jump.
There is a positive port under the hood, and you use the alternator bracket for negative.
RTFM only ever occurs to most of us long after it’s too late. Assuming the manual is still around; JDM cars are usually cleaned out very thoroughly before shipping, meaning those documents are typically lost for good.
Well, okay, but it’s a big, red plastic cap with a “+” on it. It’s self-evident to anyone who knows how to jump a car.
Must have missed that when we took the rear seat apart to jump the car.
That almost sounds like they chose the battery placement out of spite.
My only concern with battery placement in the trunk is when there is a leak. 😮
…serious question, are battery leaks common?
If your alternator is over-charging the battery it can cause it to ‘boil over’—or at least vent a caustic mist. This is why proper venting is quite important as few cars have a volt gauge.
only actual leak I experienced was self-inflicted: cracked an old, improperly secured battery bouncing over ruts/general hoonery
Usually the ones that have a battery in the passenger area, like the back of a hatch, at least use AGM batteries with a vent hose.
Lewin: “Put the battery in the front”
Chrysler: “Got it, we put it into front wheel well so that you both cannot easily access and it is exposed to increased elements”
Lewin: “NO! NOT LIKE THIS!”
I was just about to talk about my mom’s 94 Dodge Stratus from back in the day.
Sebring Sucks!
Ahhh the Dodge Journey, a car so comically bad compared to its class the only journey it should be taking is to a scrap yard, or taking you on a Journey to the Nissan dealer. Then again, I’m pretty sure the only people that bought Journeys were the ones that couldn’t qualify for Nissan financing
Ironically, the Journey is probably the best-looking car of it’s type out there.
The best thing is when they put the battery in the trunk, and give the trunk lid an electric latch. That way you can’t (easily) replace the battery when it’s dead.
Every battery should be in the trunk with terminals under the hood. That way you can jump from either end, and the battery is exposed to much less heat and vibration than it would be in the engine compartment, which equals longer life.
Plus when storing a car on a battery tender it’s super nice to just back into the garage and have a short run from the trunk to the outlet rather than running a cord into the engine bay.
Yes, this is the correct take.
I mean, my only question there is, you’d have to leave the hatch open for the trunk, which adds a lot of length depending on the car. Not to mention, that means you have to remember to turn off the dome lights every time.
Not to mention, for any car where the trunk battery is under the floor (like my Prius), I think under the hood is less hassle to get to.
I have a liftback and a traditional sedan with batteries in the trunk that I do this with and in both cases I can just shut the trunk lid carefully on the cord. No leaving it open, no dome light, works great.
I’m with Matt on this one. I had a Saturn Ion with a trunk-mounted battery and it was great for every reason listed. I helped a lot of people on the side of the road because I could give them a jump without having to figure out how to get nose-to-nose. I had to get a jump on run me, but I was parked nose-in to a building, so there was really no way to get cables up to the engine bay.
So I guess EVs are REALLY on your bad list..
Battery in the trunk is superior. My E36, E82, and Camaro have had them there. Another benefit of it being there is when you go to replace it, it’s a much friendly lift over height.
As a former owner of a couple E30 325i’s, weight distribution > front battery.
What about Dodge/Chrysler/Ferrari with their wheel well battery placement? Or certain Porche/Mercedes with it under the driver or passenger seats with no way to access without cutting carpet?
Dodge/Jeep does the under-seat thing with the Durango/Grand Cherokee.
New GC’s are worse too: instead of being under one seat, now you have a battery under both seats…. one gets the main, the other gets an auxiliary for stop/start.
Jeep also does the wheel well for the Wrangler/Gladiator auxiliary batteries as well. But behind the right front wheel, IIRC, and not in front of the wheel.
CUTTING CARPET?
Holy hell. Revoke their manufacturing licenses immediately.
Yeah, pretty poor take. The battery is pretty high on the list of Heaviest Single Objects in a car, meaning changing the location of the battery has a comparatively large effect on the weight balance of the car.
And where is the single worst place to add
a bunch of weight? That’s right! High up in the front corner!
I rather like the location used by Jeeps and Honda Civics: tucked back against the firewall. It gets it out of the way of the radiator, headlights, and accessory drive, and it’s actually closer to the starter and fuse box
You just reminded me that the ‘59 Morris Minor 1000 had the battery dead center on the firewall. A bit high up, though
I really appreciate my Miatas having their batteries in the trunk. I don’t think I would like it on just any car though.