Bug Parts

I about waited too long to replace the battery in my Mazda 5. The battery was having trouble turning over the engine on cold mornings for the past several weeks. I had intended to get the battery replaced when I got the next oil change, but I hadn't gotten around to taking the car in for service. When I started the car to go out grocery shopping this afternoon, the engine barely turned over. I wasn't going to chance it starting tomorrow morning, and ended up doing what seemed like kamikaze car repair in the parking lot of the Auto Zone store on my way out of Corrales. 

The cash register automatically adds a $12 core charge for the battery. I asked the sales rep to take off the core charge, because I was going to change the battery in the parking lot. He looked at me sideways and suggested I do it at home, bring the old battery back and he'd give me a refund. I explained that my car might not even start, told him the sad story about how I limped in on a practically dead battery, and said I needed to change it "NOW!" After a slight impasse, he relented, took off the core charge, and I went out to change the battery.

Replacing the battery in my 1982 Ford pickup is easy, not so in my 2006 Mazda 5. Of course, the sales guy knew that it would not be easy, and one of the reasons it bugged him that I was changing it out in his parking lot. Whereas the battery sits open under the hood with a simple tie down in an old Ford, the battery is enclosed halfway under the dash with cooling vents that run from under the front grill to the battery box in the Mazda 5. The positive terminal has two cables that connect to what looks like some sort of transformer, and I had to take off two plastic covers and the cooling vents to get to the battery tie-downs. Once the tie-downs were removed and I got the cables off the terminals, I had to squeeze the battery out from under the dash. The problem was that nothing around the battery wanted to give, so squeezing it out was really tight and little tricky.

Once I got the old battery out, the new battery squeezed into place surprisingly well, taking much less effort than wrestling out the old one. Connecting the cables, securing the tie downs, putting the air vents and covers back in place went like a breeze. I triumphantly carried the old battery back into the store, another sales guy checked it in, pointed to the restrooms and told me not to touch anything on my way to wash up. All clean, I waltzed out of the store with an "Hasta la vista! Babies!", but the sales staff simply ignored me, most likely praying that nothing else would go wrong with my car before I got out of their parking lot!

As I was bringing groceries into the house when I got back home, I noticed a dead scarab on the path that must not of survived the sub-zero temperatures in the mulch. Since I seemed to "bug" the Auto Zone staff with my kamikaze car repair, I thought it fitting to get out my macro lens, and do photos of bug parts.