Flat battery

Some people make it worse.

You read about cases of domestic abuse, often wealthy foreign families who bring servants and treat them like slaves when they arrive here. The ?gang masters? of course who treat illegal immigrants like slaves. Husbands who send their wives out to work long hours, while they sit on their backsides are fundamentally no different.

i wouldn't lump all that together.....not the same at all....

Thanks, Rob.

I don't.

Err...

I'll play safe and post a link or 2:

Undo the clamp nut and remove the cable from the negative terminal first ... Install the new battery, fitting the hold-down clamp(s) and securing the positive cable before the negative cable

F*ck.

And I thought the Germans were good at that sort of thing?

Cheers, T i m

An update:

After eight hours charging yesterday (stopping at 7pm) the light test was OK and the engine started flawlessly. This morning a borrowed multimeter gave a reading of 14.6V, the car once again started with no problems and I left it idling for five minutes, after which the reading had dropped very slightly to 14.4V.

I have no excuse for driving the car today, so tomorrow's shopping trip will reveal if things remain good.

Excellent, sounds like you may have caught it in time.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Things to add to your Internet shopping list before *they* get in short supply. A basic multi meter (every house / car owner should have one anyway) and an intelligent battery charger (that can charge / maintain).

Not with the engine cold, though.

Total bollocks. Unless you can give an explanation as to why.

It may well be good practice to disconnect the ground terminal first as there is then less chance of shorting the battery to ground with the spanner used for the terminals. But that is zero to do with damage to the car electrical system.

That also remains good for older cars with a positive ground.

It didn't apply to every make and model with similar injection. So almost certainly a mapping funny.

I'd read about it on a one model forum for a car I owned. Never experienced it - since it's not something I'd do, with my car parked in the street. But my specialist dealer did. Left the car on their secure forecourt late one afternoon so they could service it first thing. They started it from cold, moved it into the workshop and stopped it. And couldn't get it to start afterwards. They were rather surprised when I told them it was a known funny. Routine plug changes were something like

Thanks! And for the shopping list.

So could the plugs not be cleaned or were they actually damaged in some way that prevented them being reused?

I appreciate very few garages still have those little spark plug shot blasters. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

There isn't one. A break in an electrical circuit is still a break no matter where it is (given a simple / single circuit, for the left brainers / Reay other trolls). ;-)

Quite, of, if you have just charged a big vented LA battery, away from anywhere were there could be high levels of hydrogen (like my EV), in case of a spark.

Same with the advice to not wear metal-strap watches or rings when working with all sorts of high power (current mainly) apparatus for fear of a short causing some very bad burns.

;-)

Cheers, T i m

I cited it only for the order of disconnection/connection - which was the point at issue. And your comments unhelpfully imply it doesn't matter which order you /reconnect/ the battery - despite the similar risk of shorting the battery when reconnecting the positive.

If the battery charger you have has a make and model number I suggest you first check if it is "intelligent".

The label states, "Made for Kingavon Ltd, Ipswich. Model BCH6

A quick Google throws up a couple of examples for sale second hand but no information as to its intelligence or lack of it.

If you don't tell them they won't know! Unless it has consistently not been charging properly or unless you do *very* little mileage, I would wonder if it was faulty. Going a week or even a fortnight without running should not cause a problem. Might expect problems after a month especially in very cold weather (which reduces battery capacity and makes cranking current higher).