What's a reasonable number of times to be asked to give a jump start?

[Steve Firth]

Or on the (later modles of) V12 Jaguars.

[ARWadsworth]

No thanks. It is probably a thankless task.

[Alan]

In message , The Natural Philosopher wrote

After the power is removed (battery change) many cars only need to be driven for a few miles to get the "computer" to re-learn the engine controls and your style of driving. During this period the engine may appear to run a little rough. The dealer probably just let the apprentice thrash your car around the local roads for 15 minutes and then charged you £50 to £100 :(

[Tim Watts]

I know - just kidding.

Seems to be the paperwork that kills them these days.

[Alan]

In message , Bill wrote

Well they all have weeks of extra holidays every time there is a flake of snow while the rest of the country carries on and manages to get work relatively easily.

[Invisible Man]

Forgot to unplug my iPod when my MX-5 went in for a body repair. Car stereo works (now I've reset everything), iPod works on its own but car stereo no longer recognises iPod.

[Invisible Man]

[Ala]

indeed parents do it nearly every day and for free

everything that has to do with physical existence is a pain to me. I wish I could just be a brain with nothing else. I hate my body so I hate shopping for clothes and furniture that are associated with the body. Decorating seems to be something so amazingly unnecessary to a corporeal existence, that I have to view it as an accessory of the nonsense of the human corporeal existence. I don't get it, and never will. I instinctively and intuitively know that people react to their environments, what with such things as feng shui and interior design as disciplines and fields of study. However, my environment beyond inches away has no impact on me.

My mother taught me that I never have been able to assimilate environmental impact because I don't see well. she is right.

if the mess in your house is invisible you are unaware of it. And if you are unaware of the mess, how can you be aware of pretty things in your environment. Unless someone takes the time to point something out to me in my environment, it doesn't get noticed. Hence, shopping for things to put in my environment presents as a mystery, more than a pain or annoyance. For decades, I would not let anyone into my home, because I didn't want to be bothered with creating a physical environment for guests. I figure if they want to see something interesting, there's a whole world of things out there we could view, while talking. Why's it gotta be my house? I guess I still feel that way, and I am unlikely to have guests at my new place,

but if it gives my parents pleasure to buy me crap, I let them. It keeps them busy to hunt for bargains.

they've tried to teach me about bargain hunting but that hasn't worked well

As for why my dad likes to shop -- easy. Clearly, his mind is built like that. It's challenging, but not at all for the reasons you might think. He used to be businessman so he likes to try and figure out how companies organize their inventory and sales departments. He spends a lot of time comparing the prices and quality of the different things being offered. Having been in sales, he also likes to see if he can bargain. When he buys something (eg a camera or a lawnmower), he likes to go to the store and dicker with them to see if he can get yet another hundred bux off the sales price. He generally understand when the person is working on commission and when the price is not under the salespersons control. Because he does the homework necessary to find out. And when he realizes it is a commissioned salesperson, he takes every advantage to see how he can get the best price.

So sure, it's a challenge. If I had the time and inclination, I would do the same thing. But I don't have the time and inclination to research and dicker over something like furniture. It's not a long term investment and for the most part, is disposable, so why bother. If asked to do the same research and dickering for something that might turn into a long term investment (a stock or a piece of art or a gemstone), I would do the homework. But furniture is just too annoying and shortlived. And don't tell me about antiques having worth. I'd beat the crap out of an antique. Can't imagine why anyone would want valuable antiques to exist in a household where you actually live. I'd break it stain it bust it lose it. Why bother.

[Frank Erskine]

And those that cannot teach, become an adviser.

[Jethro]

I think you over estimate how sensitive people are to other peoples situations. Remember, this guy needs his car starting - that is more important that ANYTHING else.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "ARWadsworth" saying something like:

Tight bastards, I've found. Except when it comes to drinking.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Eh? My brother was a teacher all his working life. He never did any 'work' outside school hours. Except for parent's evenings etc or clubs he was involved in. Did all marking and preparation in the lunch hour and spare periods instead of gossiping. ;-)

[<me9]

When did he pack up? must have been a couple of decades ago.

That's what SWMBO did. But she doesn't teach now because of the extra expectations of work outside hours to cover ever changing curicula and beuorocracy.

[Huge]

Hah. None of you have ever owned a TVR. Or a Bristol.

[Scott M]

The latest BMW 5ers & 6ers seem to have some complicated battery control modules that the dealers charge an arm and leg to recode when a new battery goes in. They need to know what sort of battery is in there (now there's different types rather than the trad. bucket of H2SO4 with Pb plates) and, apparently, they vary the level of charge as it gets older so need to be told when a new battery goes in.

They also charge for "resetting windows", "recalibrating the steering assistance" and things like that, each at about £7 a pop. The bill for replacing the battery is about the same as the cost of the battery.

[JS]

I once had Halfords swap a battery on an Astra, and they used a battery saver device plugged into the the cigaret lighter socket but left the iginition switch at 0. The astra has a split position 2 so that circuits essential to starting are left on when cranking in position 3. This caused parts of the engine managment to be back fed in strange ways. The result was it was a total pig tostart and the engine managment warning light was only cleared when I took it to the main dealer who charged =A360 to have the ECU reflashed. If the battery saver had not been used then I would have only had to reset the electric windows and the radio.

The guy at Halfords came out with some clasics when he was trying to helpwith the non starting such as locking and unlocking the car would reboot it, he also was using a long extender on a socket rench and disconcted the positive first...

[Tim Watts]

The resetting windows got me. SWMBO's MINI lost the plot and needed "recalibrating".

The fact that this needs to be done with a computer, rather than by a simple user procedure of (say) hold down the Up-window control for 30 seconds and let the machine assume that a) the window got there (you'd be off to the mechanic if it wouldn't close anyway) and b) that a 30 second depress indicates to override all notions of stops and just keep going until the motor stalls, then learn that position

strikes me as either piss poor engineering or a scam. Given it's BMW I suspect the latter.

Or, heavens above, they could always have a physical limit detector - gasp, a microswitch!

[John Stumbles]

clip+ ... clip+ clip- ... clip- starter: nothing wiggle clips ... still nothing "Oh dear these jump leads don't seem to be working. Sorry."

It happens. Had to take mine apart and solder the cables to the clips the other day (they'd just crimped them together, with the cable inner folded back onto the insulation pressing it onto the metal of the clips!). I'm sure you can engineer a similar 'failure' as a tactful way of not helping him without the social complications of telling him to intercourse away.

[John MacLeod]

My insurance doesn't cover that, I'm afraid. Might to damage to the electronics in both your car and mine. Better ring up the garage to take out a new battery to you and sort out the electronics in your car.

[Gib Bogle]

Yeah, somehow that doesn't seems very clever to me.

I wonder how flat the battery has to be to have the same effect as being disconnected.

Surely there must be a clever way to replace a battery without disconnecting, using jumper cables. It might be tricky.

1. Run jumpers from the battery leads to the new battery.
2. Remove leads from old battery.
3. Remove old battery.
4. Install new battery.
5. Here's the tricky part - connect leads to new battery while maintaining connection between battery terminals and leads at all times. I'm not sure how this should be done.