i put a new battery in our 2011 XF a couple weeks ago and proceeded to pull out the vent pipe with the old battery (bull in a china shop comes to mind).

I cannot see an obvious place where the vent tube is routed to the outside. There appears to be no obvious hole in the sheet metal underneath (except for the captive hold down nut), so where do I route it?

thanks!

 

The vent tube comes out of the front part of the battery and then goes down toward the bottom of the battery and then to the right (or left, I forget) and then towards the rear of the car and then out through a grommet on the trunk floor.

 

Thanks for the reply. Not quite sure I get it though, my vent comes out of the battery at the back of the car rather than the front. I didn't see any grommets on the underside around the battery area either.

Maybe year specific? Mines a 2011 NA.

 

I'm pretty sure my vent tube comes out of the battery on the side facing front, but I'll check to make sure. Batteries come with two holes, one on each short edge and a small plug is inserted into the one that isn't in use. The plug can be moved to the other side.


I'll also check on the grommet.


I wouldn't skip venting to the outside bec otherwise it will cause corrosion inside your trunk.

 

The vent tube definitely comes out of a right-angle piece of plastic tube that is stuck into the front part of the battery. In the attached photo, you can see that it is next to the red covering over the positive terminal. The tube (which is black) goes down and to the left. In the second photo, you can see the edge of a small red plug that is inserted into the hole at the rear of the battery (the bottom of the photo is the positive end of the battery at the rear of the car). If you want, you can insert the tube into the negative (rear) end of the battery, but you'll have a lot of excess tubing unless you cut it down.


The tube exits the trunk through a round black grommet that is on the rear of the trunk (not on the bottom) on a vertical plane (see 3rd photo).


Hope this helps.

 

Strange, my battery has never been moved and the vent was in the back of it. The back is a poor place for it to have been because I broke the right angled red plastic piece getting the battery out. kludged it back together by drilling it out and using a piece of copper brake line as a joiner - hopefully that wont corrode away quickly!

Regardless, thanks very much for the photos, I'll have another look for the grommet.

 

Exactly where you said it would be - thanks Long Islander

 

So I got my battery replaced and I don't see that little white plastic connector that is attached to the vent tube so I cannot connect my vent tube to my new battery. Do I need to connect the vent tube to the battery for the car to start? Would there be a problem if I don't connect the vent tube to the battery? Also, there is a spare wire connector by the battery that isn't connected to anything. Is there supposed to be there hanging loose like that?

Please advise.