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Aug. 18th, 2007 04:27 pmI worked half a day this morning, trying to stay caught up, and afterward I stopped by Huey's for lunch, except it was too crowded and crawling with six year olds, so i decided to go elsewhere.
Except my car wouldn't start. It had been surly for the couple days previous, growling and whining before firing up, but today it just wanted to rrrRrrrRrrr clickickickick. I tried to get a jumpstart from the guy who'd pulled in nextt to me, and ended up burning through his jumper cables because my heat-addled brain connected the wires backwards. I called Mrs. Cwabs, who promised to show up with some cables in half an hour or so.
While waiting, a couple in a Yukon offered to let me use their portable emergency crank thing, which broke one of its clips trying to connect to the battery, and didn't have enough power to get the engine to do more than idle clicking. A few minutes later, Mrs. Cwabs showed up with jumper cables in tow, but the battery in her MINI didn't quite have enough oomph to get the car jumped--neither did the Honda who volunteered to try a slightly larger engine, so it fell to taking out the battery and replacing it.
For those who don't know, I drive a fairly nice car. Two jobs ago I worked for a company that did quite a bit of work for Nissan, and one of the perks of working there was that you could get Nissans and Infinitis for one or two percent under dealer invoice, which allowed me to buy a G35 at invoice for about $3000 more than I could have bought an Altima at sticker price. The problem with nice cars is that the manufacturers do not want you to work on said cars, so the battery is placed in a compartment that has a hatch big enough to access the terminal connections but not large enough to remove the actual battery without removing the cover. The cover cannot be removed without a special tool, or alternatively, breaking the connectors so that the cover can't be put back on without buying new connectors (from the dealer, naturally). This is the path I took, snapping the plastic connectors in order to get the cover off so that I could remove the battery.
Which wouldn't come out--it was wedged into the compartment somehow. I finally figured out that I needed to dismount the fusebox in order to remove the battery, and fortunately I didn't break anything doing that. The battery wall is translucent, and through it I could see that the cells were all low on water (be reminded that it would have been impossible to add water to the cells without a special tool, as mentioned before). I guess two weeks of solid hundred-degree temperatures can dry out a battery--so everybody check yours.
The good folks at Advance Auto Parts sold me a new battery for eighty bucks, and some terminal pads and cleaning gunk that I didn't ask for for an additional three. I didn't have the energy to fight them then, so I'll take the terminal pads and cleaning gunk back tomorrow.
Putting the battery back in and reconnecting the terminals wasn't quite as painful a process, as gravity was working with me instead of against me. The car, with a shiny new battery, started like a champ, and when I looked at the thermometer, it read 117°. The end.
Except my car wouldn't start. It had been surly for the couple days previous, growling and whining before firing up, but today it just wanted to rrrRrrrRrrr clickickickick. I tried to get a jumpstart from the guy who'd pulled in nextt to me, and ended up burning through his jumper cables because my heat-addled brain connected the wires backwards. I called Mrs. Cwabs, who promised to show up with some cables in half an hour or so.
While waiting, a couple in a Yukon offered to let me use their portable emergency crank thing, which broke one of its clips trying to connect to the battery, and didn't have enough power to get the engine to do more than idle clicking. A few minutes later, Mrs. Cwabs showed up with jumper cables in tow, but the battery in her MINI didn't quite have enough oomph to get the car jumped--neither did the Honda who volunteered to try a slightly larger engine, so it fell to taking out the battery and replacing it.
For those who don't know, I drive a fairly nice car. Two jobs ago I worked for a company that did quite a bit of work for Nissan, and one of the perks of working there was that you could get Nissans and Infinitis for one or two percent under dealer invoice, which allowed me to buy a G35 at invoice for about $3000 more than I could have bought an Altima at sticker price. The problem with nice cars is that the manufacturers do not want you to work on said cars, so the battery is placed in a compartment that has a hatch big enough to access the terminal connections but not large enough to remove the actual battery without removing the cover. The cover cannot be removed without a special tool, or alternatively, breaking the connectors so that the cover can't be put back on without buying new connectors (from the dealer, naturally). This is the path I took, snapping the plastic connectors in order to get the cover off so that I could remove the battery.
Which wouldn't come out--it was wedged into the compartment somehow. I finally figured out that I needed to dismount the fusebox in order to remove the battery, and fortunately I didn't break anything doing that. The battery wall is translucent, and through it I could see that the cells were all low on water (be reminded that it would have been impossible to add water to the cells without a special tool, as mentioned before). I guess two weeks of solid hundred-degree temperatures can dry out a battery--so everybody check yours.
The good folks at Advance Auto Parts sold me a new battery for eighty bucks, and some terminal pads and cleaning gunk that I didn't ask for for an additional three. I didn't have the energy to fight them then, so I'll take the terminal pads and cleaning gunk back tomorrow.
Putting the battery back in and reconnecting the terminals wasn't quite as painful a process, as gravity was working with me instead of against me. The car, with a shiny new battery, started like a champ, and when I looked at the thermometer, it read 117°. The end.
