m35x battery replacement

[lanman_4]

How difficult is it to replace the battery in a 2006 M35x yourself? L_4

[AlabamaDan]

Should be SUPER easy. If you've never done anything with cars before, this is a good place to start. We'll have you changing your own oil in no time.

I'm not familiar with the M, but there's probably two nuts that secure a battery hold down. Take those off and the battery hold down should come up.

Remove the negative (black) cable from the battery. It's probably a 10mm or 12mm wrench. Then the positive (red) cable.

Check and see if your cables have any corrosion on them. If so use a wire brush to get that stuff off. For $2 you can buy a special little tool to do that with. While you're at it, for $1 they have these little red and green pads to prevent future corrosion that work. Buy them.

Be careful not to get battery acid (watery stuff) or that corrosion on you. It will eat holes in clothes and make skin itch.

Replace in the reverse order you took everything out. Be VERY careful to connect negative (black) cable to the negative post (-) and positive (red) cable to positive (+) post. Do not get these backwards.

One last comment, most batteries when you buy them aren't 100% charged. If you don't have a charger, have the auto parts store charge it up for you before installing.

Now, about that oil.....

[lanman_4]

Hi D,Thanks for the reply. Yes I have done quite a bit of engine work in my day....I didn't think it would be a huge deal but I haven't owed this car very long and wanted to make sure there weren't any "gothcha's" in the removal \ install. The local dealer here wants me to have them do it.... the battery is only $130, installing it would (at least) double the cost,, I think I'll do it myself. Have a good day,L_4

[AlabamaDan]

I thought from your post you were a newbie to car maintenance or ownership. I can't imagine anything special being involved, but perhaps another M owner will chime in.

[Q45tech]

Other than the possibility of installing it backwards and destroying fuses and modules, no difficulty with the proper tools and equipment assuming you get oem Nissan or the exact correct size and shape and terminal position.

[lanman_4]

Thanks everyone for your replies. The only thing I found that I hadn't done before was to remove a bunch of the top end plastic that covers the engine. Just had to pop off about 3 covers and the battery compartment was no trouble to get at. L_4

[JohnFx]

I just finished doing this myself and let's just say it was a trying experience. I started to suspect Nissan's engineers of being purposely sadistic in the placement of the battery.

1) There is a cover over the battery that opens just enough to jump start the car, but not enough to replace the battery.

2) You can get the battery out by removing a minimum of two plastic covers with at least six fasteners. Ideally you have to remove three to make it an easy task to remove the battery, but I couldn't figure out how to get the last one off without removing the wiper blades. With the second cover off it is tantalizingly close to letting you remove the battery. About 1/2" of it is covered by the plastic cover over the wiper assembly. You can (with an extra pair of hands) wriggle the battery out by bending the plastic a tad, but it is very awkward. This also required disconnecting the fuse box from its mount to make room.

3) I bought the car used so it is entirely possible the previous owner did this, but the battery date was pretty close the model year and Nissan branded so I doubt it. The bolts on the terminals were two different sizes (one metric, one not) This is when I started getting paranoid.

4) The deal that bolts down the battery (two metal rods with a screw at the end) was difficult to get off, and impossible to get back on due how tight the area was and the fact that it was an operation you have to do blind. I gave up on it. With the difficulty I had getting that sucker out, there is no way I could see it coming unseated on its own.

5) The stock battery had absolutely no markings to indicate the CCA or any other info about the battery. Not that it was a problem to look up at the auto parts store, but we had to look up that information before they could run a test.

For such a common do it yourself task, the engineering of the engine compartment made the task unnecessarily difficult. Not technically challenging, but an obstacle course. To demonstrate how ridiculous it was, I seriously entertained for about 3 minutes the possibility that there might be a way to remove it from underneath the dash inside the car because it was set so far back.

[qship96]

You MUST find a way to reattach the battery hold-down bracket and bolts.Even though the battery wont "fly away" due to it being confined to the small area that nissan sentenced it to, it WILL jump around JUST ENOUGH due to potholes, bumps, and rough roads to slowly self destruct itself internally due to the road shock.....do not wait on this if you want the battery to last.

[oldmako]

All good info from some of the Qheads. No shinola on the hold down.

Any of yous guys use dialectric grease on the posts/conectors? I tend to schlop it all over since I live on the coast. It's 'mazin what a tiny bit of corrosion can to to electrons. And as electric as these mothers are, how can it hurt??

And if no dielectric grease, vaseline on the outside of the connectors will help keep corrosion at bay.

I'm just sayin.....

[jatthomas]

I own an '06 M45.... It's dead in my garage without any lights, radio, nothing... I am surprised the door is in the unlock position so I can at least enter the car and grab some of my belongings... I've just bought the car 3 months ago so I figured the battery must be dead. Because I don't have a pair of jumping cables, I thought I take the battery out to AutoZone and have them check it out... Let's say, as soon as I found the cover and looked at how the battery is located, I immediately thought - what an absolutely dumb/stupid way to locate the battery where it's a pain in the *** to remove and re-install. For a car that rely so much on the battery, you would think these guys would give more thoughts on placement of the battery for ease of maintenance!!!

I am half an hour into it and still can't get the damn battery out... there is hardly any room to manuever...

[JohnFx]

You MUST find a way to reattach the battery hold-down bracket and bolts.Even though the battery wont "fly away" due to it being confined to the small area that nissan sentenced it to, it WILL jump around JUST ENOUGH due to potholes, bumps, and rough roads to slowly self destruct itself internally due to the road shock.....do not wait on this if you want the battery to last.

Okay, after futzing with it and cursing my bloody knuckles I finally gave up and paid the dealer an ungodly amount to put that stupid tie-down back on. What a cluster-frick

[csembro]

I wanted to add my experience to this thread for replacing the battery on my M45, which should be the same as the M35.

Everyone is basically correct, you need to remove 4 covers to remove and replace the battery:

1. Cover over the windshield washer reservoir
2. Cover that says BATTERY on it
3. Cover that holds the battery cover
4. Cover over the bottom edge of the windshield on passenger side

That last part is a little deceptive, because it looks like the windshield ledge over would require the removal of the wiper arms. This is not true. The cover is actually divided into two pieces. You only need to remove the rubber gasket from the top edge, then unclip the passenger side from the rest.

With that last piece out of the way, it is very easy to access the battery and the hold-down bracket.

Be sure to put a towel over the fender so you don't scratch the paint.

[ninjazx6r1]

Excellent!! With this advice, it only took me 15 minutes or so to complete the replacement. Took advantage of having thngs off and cleaned them.

[cdlyles]

The advice in regards to the final engine cover that splits in half was huge to making this a simple job, which if designed right should have been much simpler anyways. Thanks for the advice, once read this posting, only took 15 minutes as well on my m45 to swap out the battery. Thanks

[mmartin110]

Only trick to add is pull the last windshield panel towards front to get to snap off. Its only held in by that snap in middle.

[Snoweman]

I can't thank the members contributing to this thread enough for your help. After reading this post, I could have had the battery changed in under 10 minutes if it wasn't for that infernal rear post of the battery hold down coming unhinged every time I went to put the bracket on it. I finally got it, but it took me over 5 minutes to complete that little task. For any noobs out there (like me), the windshield washer cover has two clip points (pointed out on the cover), then slides forward to come off. I don't know if the back tab that slides back into place was damaged previously by my dealer or other (windshield replacement - twice), but one fell off when I tried to put it back in place. Oh well.

Thank you again for all of the great advice. I would have really hurt myself and my M if it weren't for reading this post.

[Q451990]

to NICO!

I'm glad this post helped - please don't be a stranger, and check in with our M forum too!

Heath

[exocast33]

Can anyone answer with certainty that if I change my battery -- I don't need a code to reset Fobs, Nav, Backup camera? I will pull it myself but not sure I have a code or anything.

[06M4.5]

you'll have to reset the radio stations, clock, windows & sunroof at the least.

[exocast33]

OK ... I changed the battery pretty quickly in M45. As prev post stated, must remove 4 plastic covers -- but that was easy. I switched my batteries quickly, and only had to reset the radio. Just make sure you don't put any plastic covers or rubber seals on hot engine. So i didn't need Code.

[palincal]

Thanks to the info here I was able to change the battery easily although those tabs are annoyingly hard to pull. After I changed the battery the car won't start and kept showing "no key" symbol. The door would lock/unlock fine with the key fob. I disconnected the battery and tried again but same issue. The brake pedal won't depress either. Luckily, when I decided to disconnected the battery one last time, I left the key fob in the key slot. This time it detected the key and everything worked fine. The key fob has fresh battery but it was not detected until I put it in the slot, disconnected and reconnected the battery. Try this trick if you are having problems with key detection.