Yesterday, her car wouldn't start. Didn't surprise me as I'd planned to replace the battery but just not got around tuit. So today, as the car was on the drive and it was of course raining, I thought I'd just jump start it from my car. Fail! So I've an immobile car on the drive and a nice warm garage waiting. That was when I discovered the other benefits of modern car design. As this is an auto, you cannot get it out of park unless the engine is running! As it is electric power steering, you cannot turn the steering wheel unless the engine is running! There was a certain amount of disappointment at this turn of events. So off to buy a new battery on the basis that this was a good starting point. Tried the main dealer who said "we'll have to order a battery which you can have tomorrow". Went on line and Euro car parts have a branch locally, had stock and were £20 cheaper and could offer a choice of about 6 different batteries of the correct type. So purchased battery, retired to the wet car and looked at the replacement problem. Ah, another piece of modern car design. The battery is mounted under the windscreen fascia, which you have to remove to get the battery out. Years of bad experiences were put to good use as I removed enough bits of the car to do the job. Also fortuitously, I had a bungee cord of the correct length to hold up the fascia whilst removing the battery as I had run out of hands and hers were not considered suitable. So forced it all back together, replacing one of the screws holding the fascia together which the person who replaced the battery 7 years ago had managed to lose. Fortunately it was just the battery, as I wasn't sure that it wasn't a poor connection on the starter motor and I really didn't want to jack the car up on the drive in the rain. I've now moved on to trying to find conduit connectors for IP55 boxes for another project so life still goes on!
- posted
9 years ago