Can't get in my car... PUZZLE.

[Tom44]

3 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Some people get all the luck!  

You only need a 10mm spanner to swap a Mk7 battery iirc.  Lucky it's not a Focus as you have to dismantle half the engine bay for those.  

Never understood ford's logic with those, battery is placed in the most ridiculous place & as you say you've gotta then take a load of stuff off to get it out. Madness.

[Wino]

On 7/31/2020 at 11:41 AM, nicam49 said:

Well, for starters, what if you have a puncture and can't undo the wheel nuts because they've been tightened with a windy gun? 

Had this scenario yrs ago and invested in a Torque wrench. No issues since ( Touch wood) 👍

[Lonedev]

I bought myself socket wrench, no fancy torque stuff. Should do the job though! It seems the worst case scenario I'll need to pop out an air filter too which is a torx T25 or something. Whatever it was I have the bit here to take it out.  I couldn't find a readily available service manual for the car, I ended up plucking a low view count Youtube video from the ether to find exactly what I needed.  Meanwhile the car battery is coming via Yodel.  I best pray to the car gods that it actually makes it here, and in once piece.

[Tom44]

On 8/4/2020 at 10:35 AM, Lonedev said:

I bought myself socket wrench, no fancy torque stuff. Should do the job though! It seems the worst case scenario I'll need to pop out an air filter too which is a torx T25 or something. Whatever it was I have the bit here to take it out.  I couldn't find a readily available service manual for the car, I ended up plucking a low view count Youtube video from the ether to find exactly what I needed.  Meanwhile the car battery is coming via Yodel.  I best pray to the car gods that it actually makes it here, and in once piece.

As long as they don't lob it over a fence or put it in a bin you should be just fine 😂

[Lonedev]

Replacing that battery was a bit frustrating. I had to take off the air filter cover (Box connected to big pipe) in front of the battery to allow it to come out. It had 4x T20 screw heads, mostly rusted. So if you want to replace your battery, it's good to do the air filters at the same time... I'm going to ask for those screws to be replaced at the next service I think. In my case I had an insurance black box superglued to the battery and fastened to the car wiring, so I had to undo that mess before taking the battery out. I'll need to let them know to come out and refit it.  I used an 8mm and either 9 or 10mm head on the socket wrench I believe to undo the necessary bolts for the battery cover and connectors. There are a couple of awkward wiring clips you pull off by pulling the fastening away from the cable, and in one case a little red thing out first. Figured I'd leave this info in case someone is looking for it another time. An extender was super helpful so don't think you can do this with just spanners or a short screwdriver!

Car's now humming along happily. I managed to check the voltage of the old battery from the fiesta 'hidden menu', 8 Volts... Yeesh. That's one dead battery.   Also, for fun, whilst there was no battery in I started my car with the little jump starter pack to see if it was capable of that. Pretty cool that a little portable charger type thing can start an entire car. I'd not advise getting a tacklife one though, mine has a temperamental connector. Other than that it's been great. Sold on the idea, not on the brand.

I also got Greenflag breakdown cover for I think... £27 today. Got it through confused.com with all the bells and whistles. Finally time to book my ferry over to Scotland and if somehow I end up battery-less against a wall again I'll have Greenflag fish me out.  Cheers everyone!