Jump Start
Last Sunday I dropped Tamara off at Loomis for her tutoring appointments with the understanding that I would pick her up again in a few hours. Unfortunately, the car had other plans. Oh well, at least we got to take a nice evening stroll together...
The dreaded 'click of death' when trying to start, no head lights, no windshield wipers, definitely a dead battery. I did all the requisite research to try to find the cheapest way to deal with it, mostly trying to avoid having to have it towed. And in the end, I got my brother to come over and try to jump the car for me.
Afterall that research, including actually reading our car manuals, we had it all figured out and let his car charge mine for several minutes. Too bad it didn't work. Eventually, I had to give in and call a tow truck. But instead of towing it, they just used their portable jump start kit to get my car running in seconds. Of course. (I really want one of these now, there are even models that have air compressors in them to fill flats!)
After, they got the car running I just drove the three blocks up to Advance Auto Parts (which the tow truck guy recommended) to buy a new battery, where the car promptly died again. Now, usually, AAP does free installation with a battery purchase, but my car happens to fall into the 'labor intensive' category and so, the clerk informed me, they can't change the battery because their insurance carrier is afraid they'd screw it up and doesn't want them to be held liable for it. Great, so I should have just gone with my original plan of just buying a battery and carrying it home.
But the clerk was a really nice guy and he offered to loan me a tool set (since mine were at home) and advise me while I exchanged the battery. The problem turned out to be just that there was a (completely and totally unnecessary) support bar bolted over the battery and that there was a fuse box strategically placed to make it difficult to get the battery out. Brilliant design, really, brilliant.
After I got the cross bar off and unclipped some hoses, the clerk unhooked the battery terminals for me. I was pretty surprised when the positive terminal literally fell out of the battery, but he said that happens to about 30% of the ones he exchanges. And that that may have been the source of my problem. Of course, that made me fell a little better since now I was going to leak battery acid all over their parking lot instead of my lawn.
With the battery disconnected, I, for liability purposes, had to be the one who actually pulled it out. It took a little coaxing, but it came free without disturbing the fuse box. And the new battery, which is a little smaller, went in quite easily. I'm sure it wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly without Shane's (the clerk's) help, but it was satisfying that I did it myself. It's just too bad that it cost me the tow truck fee too.
And I didn't even lose my radio station presets.
-Tim
The dreaded 'click of death' when trying to start, no head lights, no windshield wipers, definitely a dead battery. I did all the requisite research to try to find the cheapest way to deal with it, mostly trying to avoid having to have it towed. And in the end, I got my brother to come over and try to jump the car for me.
Afterall that research, including actually reading our car manuals, we had it all figured out and let his car charge mine for several minutes. Too bad it didn't work. Eventually, I had to give in and call a tow truck. But instead of towing it, they just used their portable jump start kit to get my car running in seconds. Of course. (I really want one of these now, there are even models that have air compressors in them to fill flats!)
After, they got the car running I just drove the three blocks up to Advance Auto Parts (which the tow truck guy recommended) to buy a new battery, where the car promptly died again. Now, usually, AAP does free installation with a battery purchase, but my car happens to fall into the 'labor intensive' category and so, the clerk informed me, they can't change the battery because their insurance carrier is afraid they'd screw it up and doesn't want them to be held liable for it. Great, so I should have just gone with my original plan of just buying a battery and carrying it home.
But the clerk was a really nice guy and he offered to loan me a tool set (since mine were at home) and advise me while I exchanged the battery. The problem turned out to be just that there was a (completely and totally unnecessary) support bar bolted over the battery and that there was a fuse box strategically placed to make it difficult to get the battery out. Brilliant design, really, brilliant.
After I got the cross bar off and unclipped some hoses, the clerk unhooked the battery terminals for me. I was pretty surprised when the positive terminal literally fell out of the battery, but he said that happens to about 30% of the ones he exchanges. And that that may have been the source of my problem. Of course, that made me fell a little better since now I was going to leak battery acid all over their parking lot instead of my lawn.
With the battery disconnected, I, for liability purposes, had to be the one who actually pulled it out. It took a little coaxing, but it came free without disturbing the fuse box. And the new battery, which is a little smaller, went in quite easily. I'm sure it wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly without Shane's (the clerk's) help, but it was satisfying that I did it myself. It's just too bad that it cost me the tow truck fee too.
And I didn't even lose my radio station presets.
-Tim
posted by tjmcardl | 11:27 PM
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