Spent $80 on a new battery for my 2014 Cruze last month only to realize the stock mounting bracket is designed to crack under normal vibration.

The plastic bracket snapped after 200 miles of highway driving and the dealer wanted $140 for a replacement so I just used two bungee cords and a piece of rubber mat from a floor jack, has anyone else rigged up a cheap fix for these GM cars that doesn't cost as much as the battery itself?

3 comments

3 Comments

christopher_craig1d agoOG Member

I saw a YouTube video from a mechanic who works at a Chevy dealer up in Michigan, he said GM redesigned that bracket in 2016 because they had a ton of warranty claims on the earlier ones. The plastic they used just gets brittle after a few heat cycles, especially if you live somewhere with real winters. I've been running a piece of thick conveyor belt I got from a friend who works at a quarry, sandwiched between the battery and a generic metal bracket from AutoZone that cost me 12 dollars. It's held up for two years now without any issues.

skylerm552d ago

Whoa, hold on a sec. I gotta push back a little here. The stock bracket on my 2013 Malibu is just stamped steel and it's been fine for 60k miles, never cracked. Maybe your battery shifted or something else was loose that put extra stress on it. Bungee cords might hold it for now but that battery is gonna slide around and could short out on the frame eventually, you're better off just grabbing a used one from a junkyard for like 10 bucks.

dylan_rodriguez1d ago

Nah, you're good. I used a ratchet strap on my 2015 Cruze for like a year after the same thing happened. Worked way better than that stupid plastic junk.