TheDingo

Replacing my battery. The t5-dlg battery from auto zone has a hole for a vent tube on both sides. My car only has one vent tube. Am I missing a tube or will venting one hole do the job?

Thanks for the info.

TWS Racing

There's only one vent tube/hose. Battery should come with a little plastic plug for the hole on the opposite side.

TheDingo

Awesome. That's easy enough. Thanks!

TheDingo

It didn't come with a plastic plug. Thanks AutoZone!

Any recommendations for a secondary option?

Mark2009

Chewing gum?

TheDingo

Can it be rubber? Or just plastic?

WhiteKnight

About to pick one of these up myself. I'll check for a plug when I do. Thanks for posting.

vetrnz06

i had a caddy with a battery under the seat and currently have a pontiac g8 gt. just replaced the g8 battery. same thing -large series h7 battery that was vented on both sides. car was only set up to vent one side with a hose/fitting apparatus. battery in enclosed area in trunk so i bought a 'T' fitting and a short length of hose and connected the two into one vent hose which vents thru the floor. no vapors,misting etc. this way to do.and no damage to battery box or trunk interior pieces. prob extra $5

TheDingo

I think that's what I'm going to have to do. I fabbed up a plug for one side but the vent hose won't fit in to the side of this battery. So I'm back to square one pretty much.

Edit: The holes are 1/8". It's going to be a chore finding tubing to fit in there. What a pain in the ***.

Jawnathin

Just take the old elbow connector off your old battery and put it on the new one? Thats what I had to do when I replaced the battery.

TheDingo

The previous owner ditched the elbow when he changed the battery previously I'm guessing because that part was MIA. I went up to Auto Zone and got a T-fitting and they had some 1/8" hose. I put the T-fitting in the vent to go out of the car. I'll install the battery and plug the hose up to both holes tomorrow. I'm done messing with this **** tonight haha time for beer.

WhiteKnight

Who designed this $#%&?! How are you supposed to pull out a 40+lb battery with your finger tips? There's no clearance with the plastic frame around the top. Do you have to pull the carpet? Or am I missing something?

Jawnathin

Oh, got it. If your car didn't have one, it can be a PITA to get another. When I broke mine, I ended up buying some kit for a few bucks, tossed everything out but the elbow. Now it's as good as new.

Be careful not to break the elbow inside of the battery! I found that out the hard way. The left over part of the elbow can be a PITA to remove. I ended up inserting a slightly oversized screw so it could catch and grab onto the plastic elbow piece that was left inside the battery slot, then was able to pull out the screw along with that elbow piece. Otherwise I couldn't get the new elbow inside the slot and the vent tube wasn't long enough to go to the other side.

Hopefully you don't have to deal with that, but just a tip if you do (or anyone searching in the future runs into)


Yes, it is a giant PITA. There is nothing to grab onto and the space is very tight without any place to get the cables out of the way. Terrible design. I tried to make a strap out of duct tape, but the tape would just come undone and the battery would just fall back into the car. I ended up getting a pair of vice grips, clamping them to the terminals, and yanking the battery straight up. My new battery has a handle built into the top, so that should help on the next go around.

WhiteKnight

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...uestion-2.html

Thanks. I'll be doing the vice grip method. And no ... the new Duralast Gold did not have the vent plug and elbow. Got to reuse the OEM pieces if you have them. What a f$%&in PITA just to change a battery.

TWS Racing

To replace the battery in my ZR1, I had to pull up the surround. The frame on top of the battery well. Remove the pins on the back panel (where your cargo net attaches). Move it out of the way. Then gently pull up on the surround. There is on clip on the back in board corner - I say "back" but it's the inboard corner towards the front of the car. Hold it up and then pull your battery out of the well and then through the surround that you have pulled up several inches. In my ZR1, the surround is just barely bigger than the battery and there was no room for the cables, so I had to use the method I just described.

Mark2009

Battery vent hose: GM 10344851, $21.28 retail (item #1 below). It probably includes the fittings.

TheDingo

Wow. What a joke just to change a battery.

I didn't know GM makes/sells a plug and elbow! I doubt I'll ever need that now with my setup but interesting nonetheless. This thing has a 5 year warranty and given my experience with corvettes I'll probably never have to buy another battery again.

TheDingo

Oh.. I see. Yeah I have that part. The elbow is too big to fit in to the t5-dlg battery. Thanks for the info!

Mark2009

Interesting. I bought an AutoCraft Gold 90/T5 battery for mine at Advance Auto and the hose plugged right in. Go figure

Mark2009

Oh, you should have owned a 1985 C4. Technically you were supposed to remove the driver side lower fender (you could get by with taking one screw/bolt loose and prying the fender farther than it was designed to bend). It was essentially mounted right behind the driver side front fenderwell, just on top of the frame.