Anyone else learned to never read another owner's manual?

First, let me say the Equinox battery situation is crazy. I read the manual to the letter, says to use the little battery auxiliary charging thing and ground it on the unpainted metal rod they put there just for grounding… Sat for like 2 hours. My car buddy shows up, sees I followed the instructions, and laughed. He connects everything like you would on any other car, and we immediately have power…

Regardless of what you think or experienced, reading the owner’s manual is beneficial. It has lots of useful info, like maintenance schedules and what lights mean. Lots of posts on this forum can easily be answered by just checking the manual.

@Briar
I’m just being dramatic now that I’m over the frustration. I’ve always read manuals as a Toyota owner, but the Chevy Equinox I had to help with today drove me insane, lol.

I weirdly look forward to reading the manual with any new vehicle. I always find some cool feature I didn’t know about!

Not sure what the OP’s issues were, but if they’re talking about the 12V battery, it’s a pain to jump because it’s under a module. You have to look for a bright red cap near the engine fuse block for jumping instead. The manual does say to attach to a grounded area too. If you have questions, just ask!

@Dylan
Yeah, I found all that out too, but it was so slow compared to attaching directly to the battery. I’m used to Toyota setups, so I was completely lost with this positioning.

The reason they say to ground to the car body instead of the battery terminal is to avoid arcing. It can be dangerous with hydrogen gas around the battery. I just connect directly between the terminals myself.

Help me out: what is the ‘Equinox battery situation’ exactly?

Jory said:
Help me out: what is the ‘Equinox battery situation’ exactly?

The battery is fully covered. There’s a positive terminal access on the fuse plate, but the manual says to ground to this random piece of unpainted metal. It’s confusing, lol.