i need to replace the battery in my trans am, in sig... it decided to leak a bunch of acid all of a sudden for no real good reason. however i've heard horror stories about vats killing the car after disconnecting the battery, as well as the stereo requiring codes to be imputted into it, before it will work again, etc...

what do i need to make sure i have as far as codes etc, and what of all do i need to concern myself with before i go taking the battery out?

thanks in advance!

Jared

 

I've pulled mine out many a time..only thing that happens is your set radio stations get deleted but no biggie. Also if you have any engine codes they will get deleted too.

 

k just for safety sake, anyone with an 01-02 ls1, and the monsoon 500watt system?

 

If you bought the car used, and the previous owner put a code in the stock radio, and you don't know that code, the radio will be locked when you reconnect the battery. Without the code, you will not be able to use the radio, unless you go to a dealer, or someone here knows the procedure for unlocking it. However, you can buy a "memory saver", a device that plugs into the cig lighter that requires a 9V battery. This saves the memory in the radio and the pcm. Pepboys has them.

 

Also remove the negative post of the battery before the positive; this reduces the chance of a surge that can hurt the PCM.

 

OBE1 is correct, remove the ground cable first. I just dropped a new Optima Red Top in to replace the lousy, leaky stock battery. The battery was disconnected for about 30 mins, and I didn't even lose my radio settings.

 

The reason you should remove the negative battery post first is to prevent your wrench shorting out on metal and causing an explosion.


the right way-----

1) place wrench on - battery post
2) remove post - if wrench contacts the metal car it is no big deal, because that is ground anyways.
3) place wrench on + battery post
4) remove post + if wrench contacts the metal car it is no big deal, because the negative cable is already disconnected and the circuit is not complete.

the WRONG way -----

1) place wrench on + battery post
2) battery explodes if wrench contacts ground and completes the circuit, dead shorting the battery to the metal car.

 

The real reason you remove the negative first is to prevent power spikes to the PCM that can damage them. Yes it's true if you wrench touches the positive batter post and the frame (with the negative lead still connected) you get a short, but it would most likely cause a lot of sparks and no immediate explosion of the battery. I guess anything is possible though

 

if you want to think so

 

Dave is right, you'll get the exact same "power spikes" no matter which post you remove first.

You are breaking a connection in the circuit. It doesnt matter if it is connection A or connection B, it is the same thing. There is not any type of anti-spike device on the + battery cable, it is exactly the same as the - battery cable. The car has no way of telling the difference between the two posts.

The *only* reason you disconnect the negative cable first is to prevent shock/fire/explosion.