[IvorETower]

After twice going flat when the car was not used for a few days I concluded that the battery in my 2014 dCi auto was on its last legs.
As the second occurrence was last night when my wife was going to go out (I ended up taking her in my car) and as I am aiming to be out all day Saturday, instead of using up lots of my time going to get it changed I decided for the first time ever to buy a new battery and change it myself.

Renault may have changed the method of mounting etc on later cars but for my car, not fitted with start-stop, still needed an "EFB" battery and not just a standard lead-acid one. This is apparently due to the "smart recharging" technology built into the car. I bought from GSF and they would not warrant the cheaper lead--acid one as they said it was not suited to the car.

You will need:
Your radio code
Torx driver to remove the battery clamp (T40 IIRC)
9mm spanner
10mm spanner

I started by pulling out the small-diameter vent tube from the side of the battery, loosening the battery clamp, then removing the black wire from the negative terminal using a 9mm spanner. You then need a 10mm spanner to remove the negative battery terminal clamp and the wire/connector assembly that is attached.

Next 9mm spanner again to remove the red wire from the positive terminal.

I then removed the clamp and took the battery out - pull it slightly towards the front of the car to release it then lift straight up.
Then when out of the car you can use a 10mm spanner to remove the clamp from the positive terminal and transfer it to the new battery.

Fit the new battery into the car by placing it into the tray and push it rearwards, then fit the clamp. Reconnect the positive wire, then the negative clamp and then the negative wire. Push the vent tube back in.

Start the car (I chose to leave the driver's door open all through the change process to prevent the central locking from unintentionally activating, but closed it before starting the engine). Put the radio code in, operate all 4 electric windows in turn fully down then up and - hey presto !

No photos (sorry) as I did it all in the dark using the light from my garage and an LED magnetic "universal" torch.

 

[dick riculous]

May I ask what was the price of the battery

 

[OldG4Mac]

"EFB" battery.Thats a new one on me what is it? And I bet its means a whole lot more expensive. Ive the same age of car so I am expecting I'll be in the same boat soon.

 

[dick riculous]

EFB explained

https://www.yuasa.co.uk/info/technical/agm-efb-explained/


https://rac.com.au/car-motoring/info/car-batteries-explained

 

[OldG4Mac]

Many thanks for the info, thats all very high tec, and interesting. Its nice to know.

 

[IvorETower]

May I ask what was the price of the battery

£101... I've not had to buy a battery for... must be getting on for 10 years so was still thinking that it would be around £60 or £70 as I do tend to occasionally look at the prices when wandering around Halfords. When I started looking around online, I was a bit horrified that starting prices were from over £150... thinking that without stop-start I would just need an "ordinary" lead-acid battery I was still surprised that prices were from around £90, and then I came across the special promotion at GSF for £67. When I went to collect it, they asked what car it was for, double-checked and said that it was not suitable, even showing me the screen to confirm this.

Sure enough when I got home from work and checked the original battery on the Captur, it is indeed labelled as EFB.
Glad I paid the extra and got the right type, and all is now well with the car (fingers crossed)

 

[dick riculous]

£101

Thanks for the info

 

[dick riculous]

After looking extensively on the internet I have found a cheaper battery supplier


https://www.tayna.co.uk


It seems to have a very good rating


As far as I know the battery model number for the diesel Captur is 096 efb

 

[IvorETower]

Tayna have been recommended by acquaintances on another forum.
Trouble is that (a) again they recommend the wrong type for my Captur, and (b) delivery is 1 - 2 working days which would mean that I would still be waiting for it.

As it happens my wife had to make a sudden, unexpected long drive yesterday to help our elder daughter as one of her kids was ill - something she would not have risked with the old battery... and incidentally after the non-start issue on Thursday night I had connected a charge up. On Friday evening when I went to change the battery, the charger was still going at around 4A so the old battery was not charging properly. Fortunately it had charged sufficiently for me to start the Captur and extract it from the garage so that I had room to work in the engine bay.... and the car reportedly ran much better than it has done for a while.

 

[jabicho]

Have you got any type of Obd2 software to check for possible error codes? I mean, "Carly for Renault" , "Torque" or similar? I´m sure some errors must remain on the ECU after this change...

 

[IvorETower]

No, I don't have any OBD or other diagnostic tools

 

[dick riculous]

A ODB11 plugin is under £4 on ebay with bluetooth software and the code software is free on the internet



It's handy to have and can be tranfered to another car