Achmed

Is the C7 battery in a hard to reach or hard to find place?

I got my first oil change the other day, and they normally do their 15-point inspection or whatever it's called, and part of it is to test the battery. They seemed a bit confused as to where to find the battery at first, then looked behind the trunk as well, in the end the oil change and inspection report had the phrase "battery inaccessible" along with the remaining notes like tire tread ok, etc.

jokerdev

It's under the trunk liner. It is a little hard to get to, you have to loosen the wheel well trim on the right side, then pull up on the right corner to get to it. To get complete access, you'll probably need to loosen both sides to completely lift the liner.

jerryv

Was that a Jiffy-Lube? If that was at a Chevy dealership, you ought to look for a different one. Battery is under the carpet in the hatch area, passenger side, rear.

KenHorse

And the battery is a major PITA to get to

Cruiter

If your servicing dealer could not find the battery, I'd be done with them and looking for a alternate. I can tell you where it is, but it seems you haven't looked in your owners manual yet. Doing that might increase your knowledge of your car. I'm not trying to be snippy, just helpful.

slief

You don't have to loosen up any trim to access the battery. You just need to tug on the carpet a bit to get it out from under the trim piece. Then just pull it away from the corner. When you put it back in, simply push the corner under the trim then push should on the high spots in the carpet to flatten the carpet up and get it under the panel further. Once you've done it a couple times, it gets much easier.

gregd

Which begs a question that has been bugging me since I started seeing the comments about battery placement... How do you change the battery when the time comes? I am guessing there are jump points in the engine compartment if you have to jump start the car but do you have to perform surgery in the trunk to change the battery???

eboggs_jkvl

I know this sounds brutal but.....

What about using an ice pick? Stick it 5 or 6" from the side of the trim and lift and pull toward the center of the rear hatch space. It seems we just need a grip on the carpet to pull it horizontally from under the trim and the ice pick would give a start to get an edge out to gain access to the battery.

I don't see it as anything that would damage the carpet as long as you don't go at this twice a day. I've done this for other cars to get a "start" on access under the carpet.

Elmer

KenHorse

That's because you break the underside coating of the carpet and crease the attached "stuffing" when you do it for the first time.

Dumbass design....absolutely dumbass design......

slief

There are plenty of threads on the subject but in short, the carpet is easy enough. Just pull it back. I'd probably remove the rear trim peice that the cargo net attaches to in order to make it easier to get the carpet back enough.

Getting the battery out is more difficult but no different than it was in the C6 Z06 with the battery in the back. Some have used duct tape and attached the tape onto the sides of the battery and over it to make a handle. There are also cheap tools designed to lift batteries from the car that make it even easier.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/E-Z-Red-EZ...ifter/25608085

vetdude

Only GM.

KenHorse

Wait until you have to gain access to the rear fuse box!

slief

I just went out and pulled my carpet back. There are no creases in the carpet let alone cracks in the underside coating and I've pulled the carpet back a few times now. That said, they could have put an access door there but how often do we really need to access the battery let alone the fuses?

I never had to replace a fuse in either of my C6's nor did I ever have to replace a battery in the three years that I owned my 07 C6 and the 3.5 years that I owned my 09 Z06.

All this battery talk is much ado about nothing. Accessing the battery let alone the fuse panel is something the typical C7 owner will likely never have to do for a number of years and if and when they do, it's not even difficult to begin with. In fact, I had to replace a battery on the 07 Yukon XL which happens to have the battery under the hood. Guess what, it was more difficult to remove than it would be to remove the C7 battery. On the Yukon, I had to remove a support bar that was positioned directly over the battery in the rear passenger corner of the SUV. One could argue about how stupid that design is as well.

The only comment I will make to the contrary is that the fuse panel location is kind of stupid. That I will agree with but I go back to the fact that blowing a fuse in these cars is not typical at all and not something we can really expect to happen so fuse panel access should be a non issue as mentioned above.

Achmed

I wouldn't conclude that they could not find the battery - they were confused for a minute or few in where it would be, then spoke with the service manager who likely told them that it was in the trunk...in the end what they told me was that they didn't test the battery because it was "difficult to access" and that they didn't think it was worth trying to reach at this point since the car is still pretty new.

So I guess my question is just whether others who have gotten their oil changed have had their battery tested as part of it or were they given a similar response as me?

I'm getting a call apparently in a few days to give feedback on the service.

slief

FWIW, there is a battery jump start terminal under the hood. You have to remove a small cover over it. That should be a sufficient place for a battery check.
See Jump Starting on page 10-65 of your owners manual.

jerryv

+1 .. what he said. There's an easy access point in the engine compartment .. which they should have known.

KenHorse

Something ELSE a Chevy dealer should know.......

slief

If this was done at the Chevy dealer, I would completely agree.

Achmed

Thanks guys, I'm making a list, not because I like to complain but I was probably one of the first C7 oil changes there so my feedback could help with others' experience.

One of the other things that annoyed me was they didn't seem to konw off the bat that it's a 2014 model, because they started telling me the different types of oil and prices, so when I asked "isnt it covered?" the repsonse was "oh its a 2014...okay" then they said I'd have to still pay the difference in price between the 50/50 synthetic versus the full synthetic that they recommended, I debated with them a bit after which they talked to the service manager and came back and said I was right and that it'll be fully covered lol.

Modshack

This....