You can't find the battery?

[Bandit]

There are a few cars where the battery is in the trunk or some other place from the engine bay for the balance and handling.

It can be a game of Hunt the Wumpus to find it depending on the make and model of car.

B

[smileyeagle1021]

Edit: Both are made by GM.

well that explains a lot

this is why I love my nissan... you open the hood and you could have never looked at an engine before and know what to do... the battery is very prominently displayed on the right had side of the engine, the oil level check is painted a bright color, everything is labeled, I mean, seriously, an idiot (or an accounting major, when it comes to cars those are one and the same ) can figure everything out.
Leave it to GM to make something that should be incredibly simple, incredibly complicated.

[SpyOne]

Battery placement is a trade off.
Yes, the starter uses a huge amount of electricity, and the resistance of the cable is an issue, and a shorter cable is better.
BUT: batteries and heat are not friends. The further your battery is from hot Mister Engine, the longer it will last. Also, vibration is not good for batteries, so it should ideally be well removed from things that cause vibration (like Mister Engine again).
Last but not least, batteries are large, heavy, and tend to come in a limited variety of shapes and sizes. Back when the engine compartment had room for the engine plus tools and a case of oil, and a mechaninc could just swing his legs over the fender and climb in there with the engine to do work, finding a place for the battery under there was not at all difficult. It wasn't even hard to find a place under the hood that was far enough from hot engine parts to let the battery live a fairly long life. But modern cars have an engine compartment designed to be no larger than it absolutely has to be; I have heard of at least one car where the designers failed to leave enough room to remove the oil filter while the engine was in the car. It can be hard to find a place in there for a huge heavy rectangle, so they start looking for other places to put it.

I have heard many stories of people in the back seat of VWs accidentally shorting their battery with the springs. A worse issue was that the battery could leak small amounts of acid in normal operations, and in a normal car this might corrode the battery tray a little before it leaked to the ground, but in a VW it has no where to drain to, and is happening in a part of the car that the owner will probably never check unless he is having problems with his battery. I know of several people whose first indication of trouble was when they hit a bump and their battery fell right through the floor.

[wagegoth]

Some BMWs had the battery under the back seat, I think.

[Mr Yuck]

Actually, depending on the model, some BMW batteries are in the trunk.

[powerboy]

Sounds like I'm over-qualified for a mechanic job at Big Box. Are they hiring?

They probably are, but we would not get it, since we would be to good for the job.

[Nephy]

After I got my car, I accidentally left it on all night (not fully running, but on accessory or whatever you call it), killing my battery. (Yes, I am aware that I am a dipshit, no need to inform me).

The next morning I had to get a jump start, and I couldn't find the battery. Had my mechanic neighbor come over and take a look, and it took him about 10 minutes to find the battery.

They wrapped the windsheild washer fluid tank around the battery. No idea why.. the engeneers that made the car probably snickered for weeks thinking of all the people who would not be able to find their battery.

[Bosch]

sometimes the battery is in the trunk or under the back seat. another (i think something crystler, but i can't remember) is actually in the left front fenderwell hidden behind the fender cover.

That would have been the Intrepid, been there changed that, also the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky twins have them in the fenders as well.

Mitsu EVO's have them in the trunk, along with a bunch of other german cars. And another common one to relocate the battery to the back is with stereo equipment its easier to have it there than run the cables that length needed or in racing it has be mounted away from fire and protected by more structure. Or I have seen some cars that have been heavily modified so there isn't room under the hood for the battery anymore so its been relocated to the trunk.

My PT Cruiser you can't get to the battery for the air intake, it has a vanity cover that hides the battery. What you get a positive post and a negative post to jump start from. However the PT's that come with a turbo, they have a different air intake design that allows you to get to the battery but you still use the jump posts, to avoid the direct exposure to the batter and helping to prevent explosion which happens sometimes, its very rare today but in the past was much more common. Its just safer that way.

And the first post I am going to quote when anyone asks me again why I do most of my own mechanic work??? Yeah exactly

[Fox One]

this is why I love my nissan... you open the hood and you could have never looked at an engine before and know what to do... the battery is very prominently displayed on the right had side of the engine, the oil level check is painted a bright color, everything is labeled, I mean, seriously, an idiot (or an accounting major, when it comes to cars those are one and the same ) can figure everything out.
Leave it to GM to make something that should be incredibly simple, incredibly complicated.

In the Nissan 300ZX, the entire engine block must be hoisted from the car with the help of an engine lift in order to change a simple spark plug ($300+ in labor alone). Recent-generation Altimas are notorious for burning oil and having "time bomb" catalytic converters that spontaneously fail in such a dramatic way that the entire engine must be replaced ($6,000). No matter who the maker is, when you're putting together a machine that complex there are bound to be problems.

helping to prevent explosion which happens sometimes, its very rare today but in the past was much more common

This man speaks the truth! Remember, folks. If your car dies, you pop the hood, and the battery appears to be leaking, DO NOT JUMP IT! A normal car battery is filled with a sulfuric acid solution. When it starts to drain, however, a cavity within it is created. Car batteries normally produce hydrogen gas as a byproduct which is safely vented out of the battery, but that same hydrogen can build up within the empty space in the drained battery. Now apply a spark to said hydrogen cloud by connecting it to jumper cables and...BOOM! plastic shrapnel and sulfuric acid spray for all. A real hit at kids' parties and bar mitzvahs.