Electrical Tips for Your Automobile Maintenance Checking the electrical components of your car is another essential thing that car owners must keep in mind. If you are going to do any work regarding your car and it involves the electrical system, you need to disconnect the battery first. To do so, loosening the connector for the ground/negative terminal is needed. Wiggle its terminal cap off. You can use a wire-tie or same to tie back out the cable. If you’re going to take the battery out, take off the positive connector. Why Negative and then Positive: The negative side will still be connected if the positive side will first be disconnected.
You will have a short circuit if you accidentally drop a tool and it suddenly lands on the positive side of the battery. By disconnecting the ground first, you are cutting off the current return path. Reconnecting the Battery: Positive terminal should be connected first and the negative one next. But when you slip the negative terminal on, there’ll be sparks as it makes contact with the ground one. There is no need for you worry about this. You need to make sure that the terminal caps are tight. Check Your Battery Terminals Today, most modern cars run on a 12V ground/negative electrical system. If your battery contacts or terminals are not clean, you are making it more difficult for the current to pass around the system. You need to clean each terminal post with a certain wire brush to get an excellent clean metal contact surface.