Car battery.

Yes. ECP appear to have different walk in pricing, their own site pricing, and when they sell via Ebay. I've no objection to a regular trade customer with an account getting their best price, but I really can't be bothered with their very odd retail pricing. Sad really, as they once were a very decent firm.

It hasn't always been that way. If you look how Oxo cubes came about it was because meat was an unused and wasted by-product of producing leather.

Says 48 hours. I expect it Tuesday, this being the weekend.

It's not so urgent not being my everyday car. But Halfords don't seem to list a suitable battery. And I'm not going to pay double at ECP for the sake of a couple of days.

At one time they sent the acid in a separate bottle and you filled it yourself. I assume a modern battery is spill proof enough to take the journey.

Being an injection engine (but before catalytic convertors) it already produces fewer nasties than many diesel vehicles that were fiddled to pass the type approval tests. And there are millions of recent vehicles like that on the roads.

ISTR reading that cows from normal farming may have damaged hides not suitable for the finest upholstery.

I'm also not impressed with them for batteries. Last August my battery needed replacing urgently - the car was stuck on the drive with one window open, the boot locked, but loaded and accessible from inside the car and the car unlocked. I borrowed another car to get to Eurocarparts (not the closest as that is not open on a Sunday). Bought a battery, got it home and returned the borrowed car.

I put the new battery on and still couldn't do anything. I checked and the battery was stone dead - less than 2V!

With hindsight, I should have suspected something, as the "new" battery was very dusty and had no protective covers on the terminals, so I suspect that it was a faulty return that had then stood around and got mixed up with their stock.

I phoned them, explained that my car was stuck open to thieves and weather, they'd supplied me with a duff battery and the borrowed car was now out shopping.

Their response was that I was out of area for them to deliver and would have to contact the local branch the next day. Not very helpful.

I had to wait until I could borrow a car again and use it to provide power to close the window and lock the doors.

Next day the battery was swapped by the local branch.

Again a Sunday, again the car was unlocked and again the window was down. This time I had a second car immediately available and tried to jump start it. The voltage was continuing to drop, despite being hooked up to another, running car.

It was just starting to rain, so I rushed off to Halfords for a battery and fitted that, as I already had my trailer hooked up and full of rubbish for the tip and it was getting too late to get to ECP.

I did manage to get a refund on the ECP battery.

It may just have been bad luck, but I find it a bit odd that they managed to sell me a branded battery that was totally dead and a replacement for that that died within 6 months.

I don't think you can buy them like that now - it has become a problem for motorbike batteries that were often sold that way. All part of restricting acid sales to prevent people using it as a weapon.

My 1970 2a Land Rover used to fail the emissions test at MOT time even with a new engine, new ignition system and brand new Weber carburettor I always had to tweak the carb mixture too weak so it ran like a bag of s*it at MOT time to pass and then turned the carb mixture screw back aftewards so it would run properly again.

In the good old days simply slackening off the timing would allow for a weaker mixture at tickover. More volume, so less dilution.

OOI I'll ask at the shop if *they* still get batteries that way (even if they can't (officially) pass them to us that way), or if the one they got for me (not that long ago) could have been old stock from the supplier (I think it was a Yuasa)?

Understood.

Cheers, T i m

Um, how did that work? Changing ignition timing changes neither volume or dilution.

Tim

It was said that before refrigeration on the USA it was impossible to make any use of the carcass the hide was taken from.

This is an article of a South American version:

Found this:

By a combination of retarding the ignition and increasing the idle volume in tandem meant you kept the revs at a 'normal' level. Sorry, should have clearer.

One reason idle mixtures tend to be on the rich side is to prevent misfiring. It was said to be down to dilution with retained exhaust gases. The more volume, the less the dilution.

But there was overseas. Can't you read?

A company was set up in London in 1865 named the Liebeg Extract of Meat Company, with a share issue of 150,000 pounds to build a purpose designed meat plant..

Prior to this, the cattle in Argentina and Uruguay were slaughtered only for the skins, as there was no refrigeration to transport the beef.

Changing mixture changes the burn speed.

I'm not sure he has it the right way around though...

Andy

You're getting your dates mixed. The article I gave you said, "THE OXO CUBE CELEBRATED ITS 100 YEARS BIRTHDAY in 2008".

The article mentions: "Prior to this, the cattle in Argentina and Uruguay were slaughtered only for the skins, as there was no refrigeration to transport the beef.

From 800 kilos per month initially, the company was producing 500 tons a month by 1878. "

If you think 1878 is after 1908 then fair doos. Then best keep of the grog.

Not sure what that has to do with Oxo, and some idiot claiming it was made by "byproduct of scraping the remaining meat off the hide".

I think he means that by retarding the timing a weaker mix could be tolerated

Another admission for another lost argument

Which is what I have said, with evidence by way of links, all along.

Rather than being abusive you could have done some homework, or asked for more information, or clarification, in a pleasant manner.