Went to remove the battery from my daughters Ka - what an awkward job. There is 25mm strap across the top, with a metal plate on te end which is bolted down at the. No room for anything apart from a socket and extension. Nut is 17mm with about 40-50mm of thread protruding so a standard socket will not fit. I had to find a long reach plug socket and remove the rubber insert, then with restricted access, 1/4 of a turn at a time undo the nut. What should have been a 5 minute task took an hour. Why do some manufacturers make things so difficult?
Simple jobs on cars ...... ha ha ha ..... very rare I’ve found Just this weekend I replaced 2 tiny bulbs that light up heating control panel £3 for 2 bulbs so that’s good but Took me 2 hours to remove various screws, clips, radio, storage box, wiring plugs to finally get to heating controls then bulbs are in holders that you have to remove but they’re recessed behind heater panel Can’t remove heater control without unclipping cables to vents and I didn’t fancy that Managed to angle heater control just a little, torch inside recess, one of those inspection mirrors on a handle that angles, small pliers, several layers of skin ripped off and job done All good fun and all for £3 !
The heater matrix leaked on my old Berlingo van. To remove it, you merely had to undo two bolts on the bulkhead in the engine compartment and then "just" remove the whole dashboard.... A can of Forte radiator sealant fortunately repaired it instead and it then lasted several more years.
Commercial vehicle owners worry about maintenance, but private vehicle owners rarely worry, as to battery with modern AGM lead acid it needs to be kept cool so normal place is in the boot, and as such as long as boot is empty easy enough to physically change, but then you have to go into the engine management and tell it a new battery has been fitted, so today no longer a DIY job.
Had a similar job a while back on a Honda. Their approach seems to be use a load of clips, a few screws and a handfull of bolts! Reassuringly over engineered but a nightmare. While I had it all apart I changed every bulb I could find. Don't want to be doing that again in a hurry!
Also finding the battery, remember a Land Rover, 6 volt battery under the bonnet, but sure it was 12 volt, found another under the seat.
I used to have a Renault scenic; changing the bulbs on front headlight, especially on the driver side was a nightmare. Remove wheel, remove access panel in wheel arch, thread your hand through and remove bulb by feel and repeat. The passenger side was a bit easier, just remove the battery, detach a few plugs to move the wiring harness and then change the bulb as normal.
Stop/start technology may in theory save some fuel, but the batteries can cost in the £100s. Some higher-end models such as Mercedes are using advanced lithium batteries which are a lot lighter and longer lasting. However replacement at a main dealer could set you back £1000!
It took me two hours to change the bulb behind the heater panel in my Renault Master! Had to take most of the dashboard out! I was dreading doing the headlamps in my Passat as there's so little room behind the assemblies, until I discovered that the cunning Germans had installed little access panels in the front wheel arches for this very purpose!
Had similar replacing headlamp bulb on my old Ka. Spent an extra £5 at Halfords for them to fit it. He broke 2 bulbs as well, his problem not mine!
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