well, it seems that my car has decided the way forward is a new ailment each and every month of this year. i kind of hold myself responsible, really - i unwisely took it in for a service at the start of the year and it really does not like pre-emptive fixing.
it had been running as well as ever (or close to it) of late, but then a funny thing happened yesterday afternoon. i picked the boys up as usual and then, wouldn't you know, the car just would not start.
a class thing about schools, however, is that lots of parents tend to come and collect their children, so within seconds i was able to get someone to pull up to the bumper (baby) of my car and give me a jump.
this got the car going and we could go home!
well, sort of. roughly half of the way home saw the electrics fail on the beast. i was somewhat concerned, but managed to nurse it home.
this morning it needed a further jump to get going. it would have been a jolly nice touch if Michele would have been able to deliver unto my car the jolt of electric that it craved but, alas, she was unavailable. and with those who live around me apparently away at the moment (my car was as lonely as it was low on current on our street last night), it was Grandma that came to the rescue!
after getting the boys to school we gave the car another belt of leccy and got it to a battery place. the chap at the battery place had two things to say to me - the first was that my brand of battery is rubbish. the second, after he tested it, was that actually my battery was rather good and remained good. the latter was a bit disappointing, as that meant there was to be no quick fix in the form of a new battery.
well, my car does not really do "quick and simple" fixes. actually, it does when something goes wrong with it on a Friday 13th for some reason. but that's not the date today, is it.
off to the electrical menders, then, to see what vexed my car so. Mum followed me all the way, and we got away with having to stop and recharge it just the once.
it (just) made it to the garage, and it turns out that something called an "alternator" is wrong with it. well, no, that's not true. it has not caught a car disease called "alternator", it's more the case that the alternator i had in it has gone a bit dead parrot, without the pining for the fjords.
a new one is getting bunged into it as i write, and with some luck i shall have it back soon!
i trust that your day has been a good deal less problematic on the vehicle front than mine!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mate, you really need to check out how to jump a car Re: the cable connections ! Glady nothing nasty happened but that set up is not grounded, see below (nicked off the net!).
ReplyDelete■Firmly connect one red clamp to the positive (+) terminal on the car with the dead battery.
■Connect the other red clamp to the positive (+) terminal on the car with the good battery.
■Connect one black clamp to the negative (-) terminal on the car with the good battery.
■Connect the other black clamp to an unpainted metal surface anywhere in the engine compartment of the car with the dead battery. This will ground the connection – even a bolt or crossbar will do.
Mike.
do you mean i didn't have it connected like mentioned above? my blueberry must take better pictures than i thought it did if you worked that out!
ReplyDeleteoh well, it worked well enough to get me to the menders. i shall bear in mind those comments in the future, but i am kind of assuming my battery has a new sense of immortality now that it conspires with a shiny new altenator. if indeed altenators are shiny.