My car has been doing fewer miles per week recently and now, with the current situation will be doing less for the foreseeable future (it hasn't been out of the garage since Saturday week!). I want to keep the Stop/Start battery healthy so I've ordered a good charging device with which to maintain the battery but the terminals on my vehicle look different to the ones I've seen on forum posts about the subject. I don't want to damage the battery sensor so can someone look at the photos and suggest the best points to which the charge leads should be attached?

Sorry; images won't work...

OK, try again;

With the battery in-situ, safest is positive to positive battery terminal, negative to a secure earth point on the chassis. This works irrespective of the type of intelligent battery sensor that is fitted.

Some trickle chargers come with an adapter that you can permanently wire into the car; connect the adapter in the same way.

Thanks JR; that's simple enough then. I think the charger does come with such an adapter.

Have you removed the cover from the positive terminal ? Looks too exposed?

John202020 said:

Have you removed the cover from the positive terminal ? Looks too exposed?

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You can see the holes for the covers in the battery case.

Unfortunately, if you buy an aftermarket battery (and who would want to pay the price for one with a Fiat part number ) both the covers and their securing holes are not always identical to the original.

The replacement battery I fitted to the Panda recently was supplied with covers (this also protects the battery whilst in transit), but annoyingly the new covers wouldn't fit round the battery connectors, and the old covers wouldn't fit the new battery.

Also some mechanics in battery fitting places are lazy and don't replace the covers, even when they do fit.

In the old days, we never had covered battery terminals anyway. Just be careful with the spanners when under the bonnet (and disconnect the negative quick release if you're doing serious work around the battery).

If you've ever looked at eLearn, you'll have found that many of the procedures begin with "disconnect the battery negative terminal ".

Just ours has this cover attached to the cable so you can't misplace it, and you can see the transit cover holes in the top of the battery

You're right of course, John. I'd removed the cover to inspect the terminals - all bright and shiny. My wife's Pop has the same red cover as yours but my TA doesn't have an integral cover.

Actually that cover came from the old battery and, as far as I can remember, the original OEM before that. This battery only came with red and black caps on the terminals themselves.

Been there, done that JR, and I've got a burnt spanner somewhere to prove it!