Battery cover removal question

Dazza · Post Mon Mar 26, 2018 11:50 am

Hi all,

A very silly and annoying problem here... my old C3 had a simple two-part battery cover that was nice and easy to remove. However, today I wanted to do a multimeter test on the battery of my 61 plate C3, and it's very different; only the +ive terminal is easily accessible. To remove the cover, the manual tells me to (i) unclip the casing to the right of the battery, then (ii) unclip the fusebox on top of the battery cover, before (iii) disconnecting the +ive terminal which should then allow the cover to be removed. It's (ii) which has got me stumped. The fusebox opens easily so you can see all the wiring inside, but I can't for the life of me see how to unclip the thing. I assumed 2 lugs at the bottom keep it in place, but even after I've wiggled past these it feels like there's something else holding it - I've pushed as much as I dare but it feels as if something might snap if I do any more. Oddly, I can find nothing at all online about this - any guides I can find are to do with the cover on my previous C3.

A pic is below - any ideas much appreciated.

Dazza

: Battery cover removal on a Citroen C3

C3driver52 · Post Mon Mar 26, 2018 1:20 pm

Dazza wrote:Hi all,

A very silly and annoying problem here... my old C3 had a simple two-part battery cover that was nice and easy to remove. However, today I wanted to do a multimeter test on the battery of my 61 plate C3, and it's very different; only the +ive terminal is easily accessible. To remove the cover, the manual tells me to (i) unclip the casing to the right of the battery, then (ii) unclip the fusebox on top of the battery cover, before (iii) disconnecting the +ive terminal which should then allow the cover to be removed. It's (ii) which has got me stumped. The fusebox opens easily so you can see all the wiring inside, but I can't for the life of me see how to unclip the thing. I assumed 2 lugs at the bottom keep it in place, but even after I've wiggled past these it feels like there's something else holding it - I've pushed as much as I dare but it feels as if something might snap if I do any more. Oddly, I can find nothing at all online about this - any guides I can find are to do with the cover on my previous C3.

A pic is below - any ideas much appreciated.

Dazza

Hi Dazza
I found this in the manual

: Battery Access on a Citroen C3

The battery is located under the bonnet.
To gain access to it:
open the bonnet using the interior release lever, then the exterior safety catch,
secure the bonnet stay,
unclip the control unit housing 1 located to the right of the battery,
unclip the fusebox 2 located on top of the battery,
remove the cable from the (+) terminal,
remove the plastic cover.

Dazza · Post Mon Mar 26, 2018 1:30 pm

Thanks a lot for your reply, C3driver52. That's the page I was trying to follow in my handbook.

Solution found - apologies for starting a new thread on this, but you never know... it may help someone in future.

I went out for one last go and found the problem - the cable you see in my pic above, the one which is nearest the little diagram/picture of the battery - leads to a 13mm(?) nut. Unscrew this and remove the nut, push the cable to the side, and that whole plate on the top then slides off with ease. Then the battery cover will come off after a little fight with the brake fluid reservoir.

It seems that this is how the one in the DS3 is, which is why my searches for the C3 brought no results.

Anyway, Citroen missed that step (removing the nut/cable) in the handbook

But I hope this may help someone else out in future. So, the full set of steps are:

The battery is located under the bonnet.
To gain access to it:
open the bonnet using the interior release lever, then the exterior safety catch,
secure the bonnet stay,
unclip the control unit housing 1 located to the right of the battery,
remove the cable on the bottom right (the one next to the + terminal cable) by undoing the 13mm nut which is inside the fusebox casing
unclip the fusebox 2 located on top of the battery,
remove the cable from the (+) terminal,
remove the plastic cover.

Battery and alternator now tested & fine - a 3 minute job became a 3 hour one, but we C3 owners all know about such scenarios

Dazza.

Arfur Dent · Post Mon Mar 26, 2018 1:33 pm

remove the cable on the bottom right (the one next to the + terminal cable) by undoing the 13mm nut

The missing instruction , thank you for the solution

Dazza wrote:Solution found - apologies for starting a new thread on this, but you never know... it may help someone in future.

I am sure you won't be the only person to get tripped up with the Citroen manual

Dazza · Post Mon Mar 26, 2018 2:52 pm

Cheers, Arfur. I was very surprised to find nothing on it, either on this site or elsewhere on the web. At least I've learned something else today(!) I'm not sure if the missing instruction is a passive-aggressive move on their part, seeing as with this design they clearly want you to access no more of the battery than the + terminal, which is easily accessible under a little flap. It seems that this is designed to block us doing anything as much as simple battery checks/maintenance, with the access to the + terminal only there to allow emergency/trickle charges. That said, the plot thickens in that my many searches earlier on turned up a video (in Italian, but easy to follow the visuals) for a C3 and this one does line up with the manual instructions i.e. the plate just slides off fairly easily with no need to remove the nut or related cable; watch from around 1m15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfAeFFuDDE0

Anyway, if someone else comes across the problem I had, hopefully this thread might mean that not quite so much of their day is eaten up by it

Richardhb · Post Thu Jan 06, 2022 4:07 pm

Bloody brilliant guys, I've spent half my day trying to remove it, and still came in fish-less. Tomorrow after watching the great You-Tube clips, and knowing roughly how its done.

Thanks all you guys.

Richard.

KEVINWCFS · Post Fri Jan 07, 2022 10:43 am

Dazza wrote: ↑Mon Mar 26, 2018 11:50 am Hi all,

A very silly and annoying problem here... my old C3 had a simple two-part battery cover that was nice and easy to remove. However, today I wanted to do a multimeter test on the battery of my 61 plate C3, and it's very different; only the +ive terminal is easily accessible. To remove the cover, the manual tells me to (i) unclip the casing to the right of the battery, then (ii) unclip the fusebox on top of the battery cover, before (iii) disconnecting the +ive terminal which should then allow the cover to be removed. It's (ii) which has got me stumped. The fusebox opens easily so you can see all the wiring inside, but I can't for the life of me see how to unclip the thing. I assumed 2 lugs at the bottom keep it in place, but even after I've wiggled past these it feels like there's something else holding it - I've pushed as much as I dare but it feels as if something might snap if I do any more. Oddly, I can find nothing at all online about this - any guides I can find are to do with the cover on my previous C3.

A pic is below - any ideas much appreciated.

Dazza

NO NEED TO CONNECT TO THE BLACK/NEGATIVE POST ON THE BATTERY, CONNECT TO ANY PART OF THE CAR BODYWORK/ENGINE, THE UNPAINTED ENGINE IS THE BEST AND ACTUALLY GIVES A BETTER "GROUND" THAN THE BATTERY POST SOMETIMES (BATTERY POSTS CAN BE CORODED AND SO CAN WHERE THE LEAD FROM THE POST ATTCHES TO THE CAR BODYWORK) ATTACHING TO THE CARS ENGINE LIFTING LOOP IS A GOOD CONECTION,
battery-cover.jpg

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