I made another video, yay.


NEEDED:
New battery
T-27 torx bit
10mm socket
13mm socket
Long extension
Ratchet
Philips screwdriver
About an hour

NOTES:
This shouldn't be a difficult job, but... packaging. What makes it difficult is that you're working behind the seat (which is not a comfortable place to be), you're likely to have a trim piece in the way of the sliding brackets (I hate them for this), and the battery is super heavy (53-1/2 lbs!).

Step 1
Move the right-hand seat all the way forward. In the US, this is the passenger seat. In the UK, this is the driver seat.

Step 2
Remove the parcel shelf (just pull it out, no tricks there), and the styrofoam blocks from on top and behind the battery.

Step 3
Remove the philips-head screws along the aluminum bar, then remove the bar itself. You can now pull the vertical piece of carpet away from the battery and have plenty of room to work around it.

Step 4
Use the ratchet, long extension, and 10mm socket to remove the 2 bolts holding the U-shaped bracket that goes over the top of the battery.

Step 5
Use the T-27 torx bit to loosen the 4 bolts on the two sliding clamps. These do not come all the way out. They just need to be loosened enough to let the brackets slide freely. Remove the sliding brackets NOTE: The carpeted trim piece to the left of the battery might be in the way. You'll have to loosen it, remove it, or simply pull it out of the way to get the brackets off. This might be difficult.

Step 6
Remove the vent tube.

Step 7
Use the 13mm socket to loosen the nut on the ground terminal and then pull the cable away from the battery, then do the same for the positive cable.

Step 8
Remove the battery. Be careful! It's very heavy!

Step 9
Put the new battery in place, then complete the above steps in reverse.

 

You don't say.


Great post, though. Thanks for making your knowledge "common."

 

I hope it helps someone! I think a lot of the fear people might have of working on their car is the fear of the unknown. Granted, there's a lot of caution required because the cost of fixing a blunder can be pretty steep. But the point of these videos is just to help people get familiarized with their cars and maybe show prospective owners that Aston ownership isn't as scary with Gaydon-era cars as it was with those from Newport Pagnell.

 

Thanks for the video. Have you considered plugging the battery tender into the auxiliary port in the boot prior to removing the battery so that all learned values in volatile memory are retained?

 

The dealer changed mine for $500. Wish I had this video a month ago :-(.

But thanks for the info should help for next time!

 

I did have a tender hooked up but ended up unplugging it because I had to shuffle some outlets, so I ended up losing everything anyway

Ouch... I'm guessing you paid $150 for labor and $350 for the battery... pretty harsh for something that's a 5-minute job on most cars!

 

Now.. the lightweight battery option(s) please..

 

Prototype being worked on now!

The good news is that once installed, battery swaps are back to being a 5-10 minute job

 

I like your DIY videos. Even for those who never work on their cars themselves, it gives an understanding of what the shop will have to do and (un?)fortunately also an idea of how badly they screw you over on labor charges. Not much of this stuff is rocket science but there is a high intimidation factor because as you said the cost of fixing a blunder can be painful. But in the end every car is a collection of nuts and bolts just like any other, the confidence comes from knowing the "secret handshake" of how to adjust the house of cards without the whole thing collapsing.

 

Thanks for the video rich, is this using a gopro?

I saw we pitch in and get you a head strap so we can get those POV videos. Could also repurpose for other kind of videos too

 

I know people from at least 2 dealerships watch these forums and know who I am... I've done business with both of them and have nothing bad to say about them, and I still do business with my current local dealership. The harsh reality for AML dealerships is that they aren't in a volume business and have to upcharge just to be viable. While my DIY guides and videos take away a small amount of their business, that isn't my goal whatsoever. Rather, it's to expand the appeal of AM ownership. These cars are the absolute best bang-for-your-buck exotic there is, but plenty of potential owners are afraid of buying something that will be a maintenance nightmare. If these videos help them realize there's nothing to be scared of, they're more likely to buy in and expand the appeal of the brand beyond the James Bond sensation that kicks up every few years when a new movie comes out. The way I see it, these are the results of people seeing my videos:

1) "I can do that myself." Dealership loses some business.
2) "I understand what I'm seeing but don't want to do it myself." Dealership doesn't lose any business.
3) "Aston Martin ownership isn't that scary, I should get one." Dealership gains some business.
4) "I don't care." Dealership isn't affected regardless. Often the case for people that want the dealership stamp in their maintenance records (very important for a lot of owners, and I think this is by far the biggest group of owners).

Bottom line being that those of us willing to DIY our own cars are few and far between, so I don't think there is a real impact on dealerships.

Yeah, just an old GoPro Hero2 that someone gave me in exchange for helping them move furniture a number of years ago lol. I wasn't planning to do anything too fancy with the videos so I'm just repurposing stuff I already have to make them. Trying to keep them as straight-forward and to the point as possible. No fluff, just info. That's why I did this video without any fasteners in place - nobody wants to watch me pull out bolts, they just want to know where the bolts are and how to remove them. Doing it that way got just about all the info necessary for a 1-hour job into a 6-minute explanation.

That said, a friend of mine that does videography wants to start helping me out with them, make a logo, all that sort of stuff to make them more professional. I'll never be the next Chris Harris, but there's a ton I can do to clean and polish my videos.

I've been spread way, way too thin this year, but I'll be a lot more involved with this stuff next year. I'm moving into my new place in January and after I've got it sorted how I want it, I'll be refocusing on car stuff - more track days, more videos, more product development, finally finishing that huge info guide I started compiling a couple months ago... All in due time.

 

awesome. Thanks for making the video!

When i start my car after its been sitting for a few weeks it seems sluggish. I am guess battery might be needed soon. I may just way till it completely dies to change.

Which battery did you get and how much was it?

 

The reality for me is that there isn't even one AML dealer in my entire state. So these videos and other online resources make me feel more confident that I can do a lot of the work myself, or at least help my local shop guys feel more confident about doing stuff they haven't done before. I'm in the same boat with my Ferrari, no dealers in this state. I must be a glutton for punishment.


I suspect that the vast, vast majority of Gaydon Aston owners wouldn't ever dream of working on their own car.

 

You'll get a low voltage warning at startup if your battery is getting weak. I left my parking lights on for a few hours one day and got the message at startup. I've kept my car on a trickle charger when parked and the warning hasn't returned since.

I'm going to be putting in a Braille B3121 using the custom mount I'm designing right now. I was going to dual-design for both the Braille and an Odyssey PC680, but the risk for the extra weight savings is a bit much...

OEM Varta: 53.6 lbs, 90 Ah, 2 hrs 50 mins reserve
Braille B3120: 21 lbs, 31 Ah, 1 hr 15 mins reserve
PC680: 15.4 lbs, 16 Ah, 24 mins reserve

My goal for all the stuff I'm developing is to make it a reasonable compromise. I think the Braille fits the bill for that - 30 lbs weight loss without as much concern for the battery going flat from non-use. The Odyssey's added risk for only a little extra weight savings is too far from what I'd consider a compromise.

The Braille can be bought from a number of vendors for about $230. The Odyssey is about half that but again, not worth the risk in my book.

Ahh, good point. I didn't even think of that!

 

Great Video! I find your helpfulness a great asset!

You are correct we are sometimes scared to pull away trim, and the OEM manual is very vague, does the Batt weight really make much of a difference in a car that is not tracked?

If I consider that some drivers are larger than others.