Battery terminal vs clamp. RANT included.

[ultrarunner]

Yep... as a kid working in the car lot I would change batteries, charge batteries, clean terminals... etc.

Sometime the clamp had stretched where a good bite was no longer possible... I took out the bolt and hacksawed a sliver of metal to restore clamping.

Tools of the trade... batter clamp puller, terminal/clamp brush, terminal/clamp reamer, post expander, extra batter clamp bolts... hydrometer and commercial battery charger with timer.

We had a real old-timer that had 6, 8 and 12 volt selection plus various amperages...

 

[N80]

A couple of thoughts here:

My issue has nothing to do with standards. This has occurred with three common batteries, the negative cable and clamp on the car are OEM. I don't have this issue in any of my other vehicles. Somebody screwed this up. I think it was Nissan. The frustration that I have with all this, wasted time and money notwithstanding, is this is an issue that should not be a problem for any car or battery maker in the last 50 years.

As to the suggestion above that changing a battery was simple and common sense has not seen this car....which, by the way, has otherwise been a beautiful, fast, good handling, luxurious, reliable manual transmission GT car that taken together is a very rare thing these days. I wish it would last forever.....it is a 2009 and still only has 60k miles on it. Anyway, you have to remove rubber trim and the faring that goes down from the windshield into the engine bay. Then you have to remove the plastic faring around the battery box. The clamp attachment in the rear is almost under the dashboard and comes off easily.You have to lift the batter over and up past all sorts of cables and hoses. The clerk at Auto Zone, or whatever, would not put the battery in for my wife after looking the car up. She said they were not allowed to.

 

[newbury]

A couple of thoughts here:
<snip>The clerk at Auto Zone, or whatever, would not put the battery in for my wife after looking the car up. She said they were not allowed to.

That seems to be becoming the norm. I needed a new battery, called around in Northern Virginia, probably 5 shops, not one put the battery in any more.

Got down to Fulton Mississippi, first NAPA I asked they did it.

 

[N80]

I don't blame the car parts stores for not being willing to do this for free. It is time consuming and a bit tedious getting all that trim back in place. In a car like this the goal is to get a 50/50 weight distribution front to back. They get pretty close on my Z at 53/47 which is not bad for a front engined car. My wife's car is based on the 350Z and has more HP but is heavier and much more pleasant to drive (quieter, better ride, better seats) and will probably never get on a race track......so one has to wonder why this crazy battery position. I guess they did not change it from the layout of the Z.