Taken from todays Sunday Times motoring section questions and answers (the ST version of Ask HJ)
Question:
" ... All the lights failed inside and out, except the headlights. We pulled over, my friend opened the boot to get a jacket, and when he slammed the boot lid shut all the lights came on. We took it to the garage, who could find no fault, but replaced all the bulbs for £80 and the fault has not returned. Do you think thats has resolved it? "
Answer: "Almost certainly not"
Dont you just love the garage?
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Thats got to be an urban myth, no one could be taken in by that shirley.
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The gullibililty / inability to understand cars of the general public has to be seen to be believed. I watched a neighbour the other week attempt to start his car with (apparently) no fuel, after 3 goes with the starter motor he corralled a few helpers to push it down the road for a bump-start. The battery and starter motor sounded in perfect health both before and after the failed bump-start, what he thought it would achieve is beyond me...
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I agree, Dave. I used to attend a lot of flat batteries....' We've pushed it round the block, but nothing '
You need at least a bit of electric to make the points fire up the coils......jump leads on......BrmmBrmm straight away.
They thought you were a genius !
Ted
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My car is almost three years old, is used regularly, and has no charging problems, but........
I put it on a smart charger most weekends, easy for me, I have a garage with power and light with access from the house and a coffee delivery service. Many would be surprised at how long it takes to reach full charge even though the car shows no signs of reduced battery charge.
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Sold it now, but I put a geared starter on the Morgan 4/4. Engine still turned merrily when battery was too flat to work the ignition.
That was confusing for a short while. Dam Japanese and their too good starters!
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I have just devised a saying.
"90% of carburettor problems are electrical"
Just thought I would share that with you all on New Years Eve.
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>>
>> "90% of carburettor problems are electrical"
>>
>> Just thought I would share that with you all on New Years Eve.
>>
That's very good, and true.
It was even truer than true in the case of a Volvo 240 I once had with a Solex Cisac carburettor. The most common fault was icing, caused by a corroded connection to a tiny heating plate by the idle jet.
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>> I put it on a smart charger most weekends, easy for me, I have a
>> garage with power and light with access from the house and a coffee delivery service.
>> Many would be surprised at how long it takes to reach full charge even though
>> the car shows no signs of reduced battery charge.
>>
Just out of interest ON, how long does it take ?
I have an 8 year old Volvo with the original 800A battery. Once a year I stick it on a full boost charge using a CTEK MXS 5.0 charger. It takes 3 hours to get back to full charge.
The car is used Mon-Fri through the winter for a 10 mile each way commute which includes using glow plugs, heated seats/rear window/mirrors, full blower function, lights etc... i.e. quite a heavy load in sometimes -10's C temps. The summer it gets used when it's throwing it down, lights, wipers, blower.
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>> Just out of interest ON, how long does it take ?
>>
>> I have an 8 year old Volvo with the original 800A battery. Once a year
>> I stick it on a full boost charge using a CTEK MXS 5.0 charger. It
>> takes 3 hours to get back to full charge.
My Ceed has a 600 CCA battery and it used to take about five hours with an ALDI 3.6 amp charger. I was upgraded to a CTEC MSX 5.0 for Christmas and it now takes about two to three hours depending on car use.
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never had the need to charge my battery for the last 10 years.
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>> never had the need to charge my battery for the last 10 years.
>>
Thats done well Z, which brand?
:-)
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dunno never had a car more than 4 years old before.......
HoHoHo happy new year.
The point being of course, that I have never had the need to trickle charge a car battery to keep it working, it will fail, in time, like they all do with a sudden bang, trickle charged or not,
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 31 Dec 12 at 13:52
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>> it will fail, in time, like they all do with a sudden bang,
Yes, of course it will. But as you well know, for a modest investment you can minimise the risk of breaking down in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, in the pouring rain, etc. etc...
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I am starting a new business, slightly used batteries, I have a good solid source of supply...
Might even borrow the matelots charger.
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>> never had the need to charge my battery for the last 10 years.
>>
Neither have I, I haven't needed to wash the car either, but I do occasionally.
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>> >> never had the need to charge my battery for the last 10 years.
>> >>
>>
>> Neither have I,
so why do it? y9u are simply using electrickery for no reason.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 31 Dec 12 at 13:53
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I am keeping the national consumption up so that the politicians will see the folly of wind power and build some nuclear power stations.
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The reason I do the boost charge is to stop the plates furring up due to the infrequent summer use.
It's true after the first charge a battery is on it's way to the scrap yard with subsequent use no point in accelerating its path through neglect is the way I look at it. The cost to replace far outweighs the small amount of electricity I use once a year.
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>> I put it on a smart charger most weekends, easy for me,
ON
I'm thinking of buying one of these to replace my ancient charger. As yours gets used quite frequently, can you recommend it?
Thanks.
CS
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>> I'm thinking of buying one of these to replace my ancient charger. As yours gets
>> used quite frequently, can you recommend it?
>>
An excellent bit of kit, one advantage the MXS 5 has is you do not have to select its mode on switch on, it defaults to the last used mode. I have had the mode switch fail on one of this type of charger which required selection on each use. It is handy to be able to see what stage of the charging process the charger is at. I have used both Lidl and Aldi chargers but the CTEK is in a different league.
You may find this helpful
www.ctek.com/int/en/page/support/manuals
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 1 Jan 13 at 15:58
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>>I have used both Lidl and Aldi chargers but the CTEK is in a different league.
>>
Pleade tell us more.
I bought an Aldi one a while back but have yet to use it in anger.
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>> Please tell us more.
>> I bought an Aldi one a while back but have yet to use it in
>> anger.
>>
The mode switch on either my Aldi or Lidl charger failed rendering it useless. The CETK charger is faster, (not surprising as it is more powerful), its clamps are better quality and the battery attachments are interchangeable with plug in clamps or bolt on terminals, cigarette lighter plug etc. It has a display to show which of its eight charging steps it has progressed to.
All explained in the user manual link I provided.
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>> You may find this helpful
>>
>> www.ctek.com/int/en/page/support/manuals
Very helpful indeed. Thanks, ON.
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>> >> I put it on a smart charger most weekends, easy for me,
>>
>> ON
>> I'm thinking of buying one of these to replace my ancient charger. As yours gets
>> used quite frequently, can you recommend it?
Just throw the old batteries away a little earlier than you normally do?
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>> Just throw the old batteries away a little earlier than you normally do?
>>
I like to get a Full five years out of my batteries. Waste not - want not.
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I don't bump start and gave it up 20 years ago when I bought a set of good waulity jump leads.. And keep them in the boot.
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Never heard of that brand madf. Where do you get them?
:-)
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>> Never heard of that brand madf. Where do you get them?
>>
>> :-)
>>
Ooops
my bad.
Can't get the staff nowadays!
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Seems to be a dying art, but still useful at times. Got me out of a pickle only a few months ago when my bike battery died 20 miles from home. A lot of people have no idea how to do it these days IMO.
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I had a mate that came round a couple of years ago, he missed the NYE night as his car kept breaking down on the way. Next day (news day) he gives me a ring as he was still in Manchester and his car was over heating. He wanted me to look at it to see if the HG seemed ok. The night before his battery kept running out of electricity which is why he kept breaking down.
So he pulls up outside my house, just as I was about to say DON'T TURN THE IGNITION OFF! he did.
Anyway looked at the car, see no signs of HG problems but we both agree the fan should be kicking in and it wasn't hence the engine running too hot. Jump leads out and got his car going again, the fan turned out to be a simple connection fault.
Of course my neighbours saw all this, so anytime now a car doesn't start it is always us that gets the ring on the door. I even had a neighbour knocking on the door a few weeks ago asking where to get tyres from...
It seems once they see you under a bonnet they assume you know about cars. We must have jump started around 5 cars in the last couple of years. It seems most my neighbours don't know how cheap 063 batteries are!
The trickiest car we had to jump start was a Picasso as the battery is hidden in a stupid place.
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>>The trickiest car we had to jump start was a Picasso as the battery is hidden in a stupid place.<<
But it is one of the easiest - there are well labelled terminals under the bonnet! RTFM
Probably because if you connect to the battery when it is totally flat you need the doors open and then you may screw up all the BSI electronics and some things never work again!
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Bump starting.
Used to do it on motorbikes to show off, roll it down the road, jump on side saddle, drop it in gear and roar off whilst swinging a leg over.
One of our group was able to straddle the saddle as he jumped on - painful if it went wrong.
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I'd never have got to work when i had me old 100E side valve Popular without bumping.
Bump start every morning down the hill was the only way it would ever start depite plenty of battery, once warmed OK and cold after work in the afternoon not a problem either, never did cure it.
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I quick lorry tale about bump starting, go on then groan..;)
I had a lorry where the starter was getting intermittent, articulated car transporter with peak over cab.
Eventually the starter failed completely but i managed to bump start it on the slight incline, kept it running all day and it was booked in to the main dealer on my return.
So, many hours later i'm at the level sited main dealer loaded with cars (cannot drop loaded trailer) so no cab tilt unless jack knifed at 90', young mechanic comes out and i explain clearly that its not batteries its starter motor..''turn it off''...'er shall i jack knife the vehicle so you can still tilt the cab'...he's getting snotty now ''turn it off, i'll get the thing started''..''ok'' so cut the engine.
Older mechanic i knew well watching this from the workshop doors, young fellow connects up jump pack, low and behold it won't start, young fellow now has to change starter by forcing himself in the gap between the wheels and cab instead of easily with cab tilted.
My old mechanic mate rolling on floor waves me goodbye.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 2 Jan 13 at 00:35
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Bump starting 1: You wouldn't believe how hard it is to bump start a cold common rail diesel car. Virtually impossible in fact. Impossibility of bump starting has always been the reason I've avoided automatics up to now, but I figured if the Mazda6 gets that bad I'm doing something wrong.
Bump starting 2: I had an old-shape Panda with the 999 FIRE engine (ho ho ho) which I once spent a month bump-starting on my own when the starter had packed up. Featherweight car so not particularly difficult, only embarrassment forced me to get it fixed.
Jump starting: We don't do recovery in my job, we expect all the cars we move to be runners. Had to fetch an Aston DB7 Volante before Xmas, the owner had thoughtfully reversed it into a corner (battery in boot) about six months before. He disappeared to get his other car out to jump-start it, and reappeared in an early Merc A-Class (battery under cabin floor)... Add in barely long-enough jump leads and that became a real exercise in contortion.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Tue 1 Jan 13 at 21:12
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Reminds me of my old Datsun 120Y in the late 1980's.
On the way to work one morning it was chugging away and loosing power.
I dropped in to the local independent recovery and mechanics company with an apparently good reputation.
They popped the bonnet and after about 10 minutes advised that the repair would cost about £150.
As I was earning about £250 a month that was a lot of money and the car wasn't worth much more than that.
I declined the repair and someone at work advised that I should seek a second opinion from a one man band about half a mile from the previous garage. He had a look at it. Said "Do you have enough on you for a couple of beers?" and fixed the wire from inside the distributor that had come adrift!
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We once had an old Polo (wife had it from new). It was in for an MOT and the garage checked the battery (we might have asked about something or other).... voltage measured they said was not enough to start the car. Well we'd started it and driven it there, it passed the MOT and we started it and drove home :-)
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Garage Mechanics, you got to laff. - -
