Returning home after three weeks away I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find the battery (the one I have previously spoken of in the Back room, 10 plus? years old) on my Volvo apparently flat, the starter would barely turn over, certainly not fast enough to start the engine, lights dimming in sympathy as expected.
No problem, I used my portable starter, which has been on permanent stand-by in the rear for a couple of years, to get going; however I was surprised that a seven mile run did not seem to charge the battery up at all, so I decided it was time to accept the inevitable and applied the starter again and headed for Halfords (Sat pm, so the local factors was closed) As usual they were ridiculously expensive so I walked across the road and bought one from the supermarket; this meant of course I had to fit it myself and take my old one home.
Over the next couple of weeks everything was fine, though a few sluggish starts prompted me to check charging and clean up the connections yesterday. When it was time to come off the ramp the starter motor had died (proved by use of meter & a sharp tap on the solenoid) so after checking the price at the factors (!) it was round to the scrapyard for a new old one.
Needless to say, once the recycled motor was fitted, the engine started easily on the old battery this despite having been dumped outside for two weeks in a semi-discharged condition. I know the sensible thing would have been to retain the new battery, but there are greater emotions in play here than common sense!
It occurred to me that the most remarkable thing is that my elderly 740 not only gave me ample warning of the impending failure but had the decency to finally fail completely in my driveway, truly a veritable gentleman of a car.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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What an utterly charming and intelligent post Steptoe.
And just think, you've got a nearly new battery for when you need it (or one of your nearest and dearest does, if it fits).
Your final sentence is the nicest thing any civilian has ever said about a Volvo. Congratulations.
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Might be worth keeping the new 'un on a trickle or even better on a conditioner charger thing.
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Lidl sometimes do conditioner chargers for about a tenner, much cheaper and just as good as the fancy branded ones at £50.
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Seven miles is nowhere near enough to put a decent bit of charge back into a flat battery, especially a battery that needs to crank over a big volvo engine. A run of thirty miles may have been wiser to get the old battery back on its feet. If it was me though and I have a new battery sitting on the garage floor and the old (ten years old) battery working again, I would use the new battery rather than the old one. There is little point having a brand new battery wasting away when you could be using it, they don't last forever and if you let it keep going flat over a long period it will knacker it up eventually. You had might as well put it on the car and use it now that you have bought it.
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Yes Simon, of course you are right, yours is the voice of reason.
However I have this quirky sense of eccentricity which needs to be able to say my 21 year old car is still running on probably the original battery (branded Volvo, made in Sweden) even though I have to have a portable starter on permanent standby
I will probably find a home for the supermarket battery in the Rover when I haul that out of winter hibernation, so it won't be wasted, wouldn't be surprised though if it expires before the Volvo one does -:)
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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Have you thought to amend your will? It's going to outlive you at this rate!
JH
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Have you thought to amend your will? It's going to outlive you at this rate!
Just remember there's a charge for that and not a trickle one !
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