I bought a new 2014 Focus SE two months ago. One odd thing I noticed is that there's a cover over the front part of the battery box but the rear half of the battery isn't covered. I wondered why. I did some Googling and found that a rear cover exists, but I didn't find any reason why my car wouldn't have one. I asked a salesman at the dealer, he had no idea, so we went to look at another car on the lot. It also had no rear cover, though the front cover was just lying loose in the engine compartment, uninstalled.
1. Did Ford decide to delete the rear cover from my car for some engineering/economic reason?
2. Did someone (dealer, etc.) remove the cover for some operation and forgot to reinstall it?
3. Should I worry about the rear part of my battery going "nekkid"? I can see that the front section should be covered to protect the positive terminal from accidents, but maybe the rear part doesn't matter. Maybe it'll cool better that way.
Also: I've looked up the part online with several vendors and I notice that the online catalog seems to have the names reversed. The "rear" cover I'm talking about is smaller, with a socket to receive a tab from the front cover, and is installed toward the rear of the engine compartment. The illustrations in the online catalogs call it the front cover.
Does anyone have any insights?
1. Did Ford decide to delete the rear cover from my car for some engineering/economic reason?
2. Did someone (dealer, etc.) remove the cover for some operation and forgot to reinstall it?
3. Should I worry about the rear part of my battery going "nekkid"? I can see that the front section should be covered to protect the positive terminal from accidents, but maybe the rear part doesn't matter. Maybe it'll cool better that way.
Also: I've looked up the part online with several vendors and I notice that the online catalog seems to have the names reversed. The "rear" cover I'm talking about is smaller, with a socket to receive a tab from the front cover, and is installed toward the rear of the engine compartment. The illustrations in the online catalogs call it the front cover.
Does anyone have any insights?