Battery Cover

My thoughts exactly. I finally threw it away.

Maybe it's to force us to clean the battery terminals.

I thought I read about a device that you could plug to allow keeping enough voltage on the system so you would not loose the presets and computer power.

1) Batteries are sensitive to heat. Allegedly, the purpose of the cover is to provide thermal insulation and extend battery life. No clue how effective that piece of plastic is. 2) Unless your alternator is overcharging, modern batteries recover the vapor and don't need topping up. I can't remember how many years it's been since I had to add water in any of my 3 vehicles. 3) Auto stores sell an adapter that lets you connect a 9V battery to the cigarette lighter socket.. If you are VERY careful not to open any doors when the car battery is disconnected, that tiny 9V battery is supposed to provide enough juice to maintain the radio settings and to keep the computer memory alive for a short period of time. May be worth trying, but I have no experience with this trick.

Here's a thought.... the battery cannot contain "all" of the ventable gasses.... at least I've never seen any expandable chambers on a battery to compensate for thermocycling and/or gassing.....

The battery cover provides a modicum of heat deflection... it deflects gaseous discharge away from engine components containg mundane things like

*copper wiring*... but, in the 'real' world, I imagine that copper doesn't sulfate in the presence of sulfurace gasses....

What I do consider.... the bean counters are scrabbling for every penny of increased profit or possible price decrease to entice more customers.... If a part is superfluous, unnecessary, not required or deletable, does anyone think that the layman can re-engineer the assembly on a whim?

The modern automobile is made up of thousands upon thousands of parts.... some are easily understood... some require deep concentration and others may never be fully considered or appreciated.... I've thrown many BROKEN parts into the trash... I have, in the last 20 years, not thrown "superfluous" parts in the garbage.

Strangely, I perform the required maintenances on my own vehicles at the prescribed intervals.... I am a Ford certified Master technician with diesel certification....

If you don't know what a part or assembly is supposed to do or what it is for.... there is a good chance it should be treated well and reinstalled after removal....

Thanks for letting me get my foot in the door....

"Jim Warman" wrote in message news:8O0Ii.69436$bO6.21609@edtnps89...

I have an old lawnmower. I have removed many parts from it. It works better now. They were mostly broken but not necessarily superfluous. In any case I deemed them to be unnecessary and interfering with the main function of the machine--to mow the lawn. I even turned the engine sideways because I determined the throttle control cable was binding due the to right turn it had to make. It works better now. This is not to say that the battery cover does not perform some function as you pointed out. I assumed that it does. But it was interfering with my routine maintenance so it's a goner. I have to clean the battery terminals anyway. And that brings us to the red plastic cover over the positive terminal. It seems to me that it traps acid vapors and *causes* the terminal to corrode much more quickly. Sure, it prevents idiots from accidently shorting out their battery by setting a wrench across the terminals, but I still say it causes other problems. I still have my red plastic covers, but I don't know for how long. I don't know why Ford or whoever does some of the things they do but I suspect some things were imposed upon them by the government because some politician was working on his own car and did something stupid so now we have a new law. One of the reasons I like my old '91 Exploder so much is: no air bags. I can easily imagine a situation where I bump into something on a mountain trail, the bad inflates and I go over a cliff cause I can't see. I also recently found out that my car insurance is lower if you don't have anti-lock brakes. Why is that?