Flat batty

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12)
06/22/2019 at 00:47 • Filed to: None

Last week I left the boot open while unloading the car after camping. Light on, dead MR2.

Remove spare tyre from frunk to access battery. Hook up handy jump starter pack. Alarm goes off but starter gives me nothing. Not even a peep. Not good. Fear of calling friends and buying a battery.

Charge up starter pack to full. Two more attempts, both with a brief crank but nothing remotely resembling a start. Starts on the third try.

Thanks jump starter. You’re a legend.

Just the one shitty pic

DISCUSSION (20)

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Nauraushaun
06/22/2019 at 01:09

Push-start?

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Nauraushaun
06/22/2019 at 01:29

Whoa, Flat Batty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Flat Batty (Bam-ba-Lam)

That Batty ran a light (Bam-ba-Lam)
The damn thing gone wild (Bam-ba-Lam)
She said, “I’m runnin ’ outta charge ” (Bam-ba-Lam)
The damn thing gone flat (Bam-ba-Lam)
I said “Oh, Flat Batty ” (Bam-ba-Lam)

Whoa, Flat Batty (Bam-ba-Lam)

Svend > Nauraushaun
06/22/2019 at 02:48

My grand father had an old abused Rover and he kept a starter-pack on the back seat.

He bought new batteries but they kept dying and he couldn't be arsed finding out why.

Nauraushaun > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
06/22/2019 at 03:22

Would need a few hot burly men to roll her out of the car port and get it moving. I’ve got jumper leads so in that case we’d probably just jump it off their car.

But yes! It is an option.

Nauraushaun > Svend
06/22/2019 at 03:24

Haha. So valid. I have mine because the MR2 drained itself mysteriously a few times. Old car with unknown battery, don’t think it needs replacing. So the jumper purchase made sense.

I haven't used it much but I used it to help a friend once. Guys tried to steal his stereo and left the battery drained. Was nice to help :)

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Nauraushaun
06/22/2019 at 03:24

Way back in the day I used to date a chick with a Mazda 626 that ate batteries like most people eat breakfast. Alternators as well. In the couple of years she owned it multiples of both were swapped out, and more than one battery literally exploded underhood.

I wish I knew then what I know now, which is apparently more than every mechanic she ever brought it to.

Nauraushaun > beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard
06/22/2019 at 03:24

Lmao. Very nice

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
06/22/2019 at 04:26

My Rabbit GTI was like that. Once they replaced the entire engine compartment wiring harness (out of warranty on a two year old car - grrrrrr) the problems all went away. I loved that car when it was running, but those moments seemed few and far between. I dumped it shortly thereafter, and someone may have gotten a deal on a late-model car with all the bugs ironed out. Or it could have continued to deteriorate on the next sucker...

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nauraushaun
06/22/2019 at 04:29

When I saw ‘batty’ I read it as ‘butty’ and had an immediate craving for a bacon butty. Too bad I don’t have any bacon in the house...

Kinja'd!!!

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/22/2019 at 04:33

P robably the latter....

Ok, d efinitely the latter.

Was probably fun while it lasted though. Best wishes, new sucka.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
06/22/2019 at 04:42

I bought it off a guy that ran a pizza shop directly across the street from one of the biggest VW dealers in the area. I always wondered if they used him to dump lemons on unsuspecting chumps like me. This was in the days of the Westmoreland factory and before lemon laws, and I suspect, given the huge number of problems I had with that car, it should have been scrapped. But thanks to unscrupulous dealers, they found clever ways around the problem.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Nauraushaun
06/22/2019 at 04:54

Here’s a hint for next time...put the starter pack positive to battery positive but put the starter pack negative direct to earth on the chassis. Better still to earth on the starter or block. Should get an immediate hit.

Hooking it up to the battery directly means that the pack and the battery are trying to equalise...which is why it took some time to get a response in your case.

Also your battery may be cactus now...

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/22/2019 at 04:57

Typical German dealership then.

Back in ‘87 my folks bought a new 420 SEL. It was hands down the most unreliable POS our family has ever owned, and that includes the ‘99 multiple headg asket eating Deville. That benz refused to start and left us stranded and waiting for roadside assistance literally more times than I can remember. You’d park it, go buy what-have-you, and the battery would be stone dead when you returned. At random.

Long story a bit shorter, my old man ended up selling it to his boss. Shortly thereafter his boss goes apeshit because my dad didn’t disclose that the car had been in a major accident. Funny part was it had never suffered so much as a door ding while in o ur posession. Turns out they managed to literally drop it off of the truck when it was initially delivered, repaired it poorly, and sent it without saying a word. Dad’s bosses mechanic found the evidence, part of which was a fuse box that was supposedly re- installed “ backwards”

Trust no one. (Except Oppos, of course.)

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/22/2019 at 08:47

Hmm, no bacon in the house? That's always a bad deal. You should rectify that.

Nauraushaun > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
06/22/2019 at 09:00

That makes sense. I think. For a while the pack was detecting that it was Fucked. Too smart for its own good.

Maybe it is. But I'll keep using it until that becomes evident.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
06/22/2019 at 09:25

German dealership horror stories, eh?

Not as bad as yours, but still slimy. Dad was buying a new 525i in a particular color combination he wanted. They found it halfway across the country and was having it trucked in. They were insistant that his 528e was worth less in trade-in value because it had been repainted, but it had never had a single accident or had a bit of bodywork in all the time he owned it, and he’d been the only owner.

Well, his new car was damaged in transit by brake fluid leaking from the car above it. “No problem”, said the dealer, “we’ll fully repaint it before delivery”. So they want to give him less money for his trade-in because it was allegedly repainted before delivery, AND they want to sell him a new car that will be repainted prior to delivery at full price? Umm, no. They found him another one in the color combo he wanted, but it was the last time he bought from that dealer and the last BMW he ever bought.

Next car was an E-class Mercedes. The first sign of trouble was that the front tires wore out in 6,000 miles. The dealer said it was due to overly aggressive driving, which, if you knew my dad, you’d know that this was impossible (I got my lead foot from mom). Move forward 12,000 miles when the mechanics at the dealership discover a failed steering rack. Hmm - you think that might have caused those front tires to keep wearing out?

He kept that POS for 18 years until the number of parts failing became too much to bear. It looked perfect because, well, that’s how my dad treats his cars, cosmetically and mechanically. He just couldn’t justify the cost of replacing myriad sensors and other parts that failed at random intervals, especially now that he was retired. He dumped it on his mechanic for $2,000 and leased a Chevy Volt instead. He powers the Volt from solar panels on the roof, and in the year he has owned it has put a total of 12 gallons of gasoline in it. Well, 8 gallons actually - I put 4 gallons in it when I borrowed it for a day last year and put 250 miles on it whilst visiting friends and running a few errands.

I remember when the climate control in mom’s E-class failed and she took it to the dealer for warranty repair. They insisted that it was fine and that she just didn’t know how to use it. My mom - smart as a whip, with multiple degrees, even going back in her forties to get a degree in organic chemistry and worked as a researcher for years - couldn’t operate the climate control. They relented when she explained that her husband owned an E-class of the same vintage and therefore she knew exactly how it was supposed to work. She still has her E and it hasn’t disintegrated as much as his did, but like his, dumb stuff broke early and often. Mercedes-Benz in that time period was undergoing a serious decline in quality and both of these cars showed it. That’s about the time I stopped buying German cars and bought my first Japanese car, the Mazda I still drive today. It had a failed motor mount that was covered under warranty, and that’s been the only problem I’ve had in seven years of ownership. Considering how much I spent to keep my Germans alive, I wish I’d made the switch earlier. This whole reliability thing, a new concept to me, is pretty nice.

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/22/2019 at 12:56

After my 740, I don’t think I’ll b e buying German again. I love to drive it but the upkeep isn’t worth the hassle and expense. It needs or has needed a new everything, s ometimes multiples. In contrast our Infiniti has something like 277,000k on it and essentially required nothing more than gas and oil in the 2 years we’ve owned it. I’m no genius , but...

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
06/22/2019 at 14:00

Exactly. My Mazda gives me 95% of the driving pleasure I got from the Germans at a considerably lower cost of entry and maintenance. Maybe after I win the lottery I'll buy another German car or two, but I'll still have my Mazda so I have something reliable for when the others are in for their inevitable repairs.

Nauraushaun > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/30/2019 at 01:51

What is a... Butty

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nauraushaun
06/30/2019 at 02:03

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=butty

Sounds a little weird, but it’s just a simple sandwich.

Or am I missing something..?