My '99 Intrepid has the same design as his Sebring. I had to replace my battery last year, and because I didn’t have the time or a really good feeling about attempting all of the work myself (removing the tire and attempting to get the battery out, since I’d never even seen where the battery was, I had my car towed to a shop and the battery replaced there. It cost me almost $100.
There aren’t many things I don’t like about my car, but that is definitely one of them.
…and this “you can access the battery by turning the left wheel…” bit is sheer fiction, unless you have a hydraulic press and are working directly under the car. And that approach requires you to dismantle the fake bumper material on the left side.
You can change the battery on the ground, but the left tire has to go.
The next cycle of this car needs to put a battery in the trunk. Either that, or explicitly modify the left front bumper shit so that things pop out more easily.
And I still want my alternator(amp)/battery(volt)/oil(pressure,temp) guages. And I want a HUD so I can check the guages while watching the road. What would really rock would be builtin tire jack thingies … when you need’em, just crank them down.
You know, if your car’s out of warranty, there’s no reason why you couldn’t do this yourself. They used (and I imagine that they still do) make kits for people who were building race cars to mount the battery in the trunk. AFAIK, these kits were pretty much universal and not specific to any make, model, or year.
At least it’s not like some of the last years Oldsmobiles where the battery is under the rear seat. Can you imagine what it’d be like if that thing died on you on a hot summer day, with a car seat and a bunch of groceries back there?
[extreme hijack]
First off, thank you for that link. I’ll be enjoying that for a while. Secondly, I feel a need to post a quote from that page which is not in any way related to the thread, but so hilarious it needs mentioning:
“I’m pretty sure “100% Juice” most likely means 100% of your daily recommended value of Juice…secondly, they didn’t say Fruit Juice, so as long all of the ingredients can be classified as a “Juice” then they didn’t lie at all”
100% daily value of juice…I’m just going to let you think about that for a while.
[/extreme hijack]