I just had a battery replaced in my 2006 GC at a dealer. I noticed the thermo cover was missing. I called and was told these are no longer required? I do know the old battery was leaking and it was a Mopar battery that was under warranty. Should I be concerned about the cover missing or let it go? I have had vehicles in the past that never had one.

 

Wash away any debate over the need for the cover and it boils down to the fact you paid for that cover when you bought the vehicle. It's yours. They have no right to take it. A better move on their part would have been to at least put it in the back of the van instead of doing who knows what with it. Maybe an employee there wanted one.

The cover is there to help shield the battery from it's number one enemy - heat.

 

I can picture the shady corner repair shop neglecting to put the battery shield back on because they're lazy, but I have a hard time understanding why a dealership would do that. Maybe they tore it and didn't think you would notice. Your van will run fine without it in the short term, but I agree 100% with Cougar41 that it protects the battery from heat and the dealership was wrong to not give it back to you uninstalled at the minimum.

The exhaust manifold runs fairly close to the battery, so you probably don't want to run too long without the cover on the battery.

 

I would need to look further into whether it's required, but I'm not sure why the dealership would not simply give this back to you. If you dropped your vehicle off with a battery cover, it's no longer there now, and you want it back, there is no reason they shouldn't provide it back to you.

Please let me know if you run into any issues retrieving this battery cover. I can look into things further on my end if you PM me your info.

 

I spoke to them today and they said that the battery had some leakage and the cover was stuck to the battery and could not be used. I did see some leakage in the tray I noticed before and a white crust around it. I was assured it would not effect the warranty or performance of the battery.

 

If you had 1/4" of loosely woven fuzz around you, would it keep you from freezing or overheating?


If a battery leaks, those things become acid sponges and need to go in the trash.

 

More than likely the installer trashed the cover.
Many get soaked with acid & are thrown out.
The cover is not really needed. Your battery will die with or without the cover.
Myself, I wouldn't bother them for the cover.