Audi A4 B7: How to Install Rain Tray and Battery Cover
Let's cover a basic, yet commonly overlooked modification that you should make to your beloved Audi.
This article applies to the Audi A4 B7 (2005-2007).
It is not uncommon for a vehicle's battery to be exposed under the hood. However, they usually sit on a small battery tray. Volkswagen/Audi have mounted the battery in the rear-center of the engine bay, in the cowl, right next to the firewall. This is fine and dandy, except for the fact that the battery is recessed deep into the cowl while being exposed. What's the problem with this design? The answer is twofold: first, the location of the battery is at the rear of the hood, so when it rains, the battery gets flooded with rain water; secondly, because it's mounted deep into the cowl, it forms a valley of sorts that collects that water and allows it to sit. Over time, this wreaks havoc on the battery and the electrical system in general. In what can be described as a Germanic oversight, VW/Audi acknowledges that this is less than ideal and offers a cover for the battery, but it's an optional extra, and not commonly sold in dealerships.
It's time to wise up and cover the cowl area before your Audi experiences electrical gremlins or other issues. Fortunately, for about $75 and a few minutes of your time, you can easily correct this "Vorsprung durch Technik" oversight.
Materials Needed
- None!
Step 1 – Pop the hood and locate the cowl
Our shiny new cowl cover goes over the cowl—shocking, we know—so get familiar with how it is setup on your Audi. To do so, pop the hood of your A4 and look near the firewall.
Step 2 – Install the cowl
To install the rain tray and battery cover, you need to partially remove the passenger-side cowl cover. That cover is simply clipped in, so gently pry it up.
From here, clip in your new rain tray and battery cover over the previously exposed center section of the cowl. It should clip into place like the passenger-side cover. Once the new center cover is installed, clip the passenger cover back in so that it latches in, with a slightly overlap of the new rain tray and battery cover. With that, you are done.
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