"what did your last car die of?"
Discussion
New car might be nervous. This is what happened to old car.
It was old enough to be looking at it suspiciously every MOT, anyway. Failure of alternator or charge control, fortunately leaving me enough warning and charge in the battery to get off the motorway and park up before the everything stopped. Uneconomic to repair, especially when the tyres need changing at the same time.
I suspect I killed it trying to jump-start someone else, it's about 6 weeks later so maybe I slightly cooked something and running the heaters for winter finished it off? Either that or it's a funny coincidence.
His car: a diesel, battery was hosed due to persistent discharge to 6V. By hosed I mean it charged to ~12V fairly quickly but was barely capable of running the headlights. Boring details omitted, let me know if you want more detail, we'll see what I remember.
My battery: 60Ah (lack of detail - reasons much later). My jump leads were a lucky purchase of clearance stock, slightly over-sized for a car, probably limited by contact surface with battery terminals. Plain jump with revving my engine produced only a clicking starter.
We succeeded in starting it using my previous car (engine idling due to lack of spare feet) plus his Halfords Li-ion magic jump-start pack together. This required trickery because it will only give its one mighty push (250A max?) when triggered by voltage profile, and he probably needed 400A.
First I let his glow plugs warm up (30A draw for a few seconds, seen by my current clamp meter reading off the jump cable), then when he pressed the starter I took the jump +ve off his battery for a moment so the Li-ion could see that voltage dip and decide to join in.
Possibly inadvisable risks taken: generating a spark that close to his battery. Putting his car on the road when it's that hard to get moving. But he got it to the garage, I gave him a lift back, they fixed it.
...story prompted by discussing drawing a heavy load which isn't in the OEM spec. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
It was old enough to be looking at it suspiciously every MOT, anyway. Failure of alternator or charge control, fortunately leaving me enough warning and charge in the battery to get off the motorway and park up before the everything stopped. Uneconomic to repair, especially when the tyres need changing at the same time.
I suspect I killed it trying to jump-start someone else, it's about 6 weeks later so maybe I slightly cooked something and running the heaters for winter finished it off? Either that or it's a funny coincidence.
His car: a diesel, battery was hosed due to persistent discharge to 6V. By hosed I mean it charged to ~12V fairly quickly but was barely capable of running the headlights. Boring details omitted, let me know if you want more detail, we'll see what I remember.
My battery: 60Ah (lack of detail - reasons much later). My jump leads were a lucky purchase of clearance stock, slightly over-sized for a car, probably limited by contact surface with battery terminals. Plain jump with revving my engine produced only a clicking starter.
We succeeded in starting it using my previous car (engine idling due to lack of spare feet) plus his Halfords Li-ion magic jump-start pack together. This required trickery because it will only give its one mighty push (250A max?) when triggered by voltage profile, and he probably needed 400A.
First I let his glow plugs warm up (30A draw for a few seconds, seen by my current clamp meter reading off the jump cable), then when he pressed the starter I took the jump +ve off his battery for a moment so the Li-ion could see that voltage dip and decide to join in.
Possibly inadvisable risks taken: generating a spark that close to his battery. Putting his car on the road when it's that hard to get moving. But he got it to the garage, I gave him a lift back, they fixed it.
...story prompted by discussing drawing a heavy load which isn't in the OEM spec. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
An old duffer in a Kia killed it:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Bought it back and fixed it on the cheap but never felt the same. Think its now doing stellar service in Poland....
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Bought it back and fixed it on the cheap but never felt the same. Think its now doing stellar service in Poland....
Last two cars:-
Saab 9-3 7 (155K miles) years ago written off whilst parked behind a camper van, mad driver lost control of her car, hit the camper van which hit me, writing the car off. She was insured with Tesco's so was I, and the bloke who owned the camper van worked for Tesco's!!!
Saab 9-5 about 3 years before that, climate control flap broke at 220K miles, making passenger side permanently hot, ran it for the winter but it got too hot in late Spring, traded it in at 233K miles for the above Saab 9-3
Saab 9-3 7 (155K miles) years ago written off whilst parked behind a camper van, mad driver lost control of her car, hit the camper van which hit me, writing the car off. She was insured with Tesco's so was I, and the bloke who owned the camper van worked for Tesco's!!!
Saab 9-5 about 3 years before that, climate control flap broke at 220K miles, making passenger side permanently hot, ran it for the winter but it got too hot in late Spring, traded it in at 233K miles for the above Saab 9-3
electronpusher said:
New car might be nervous. This is what happened to old car.
It was old enough to be looking at it suspiciously every MOT, anyway. Failure of alternator or charge control, fortunately leaving me enough warning and charge in the battery to get off the motorway and park up before the everything stopped. Uneconomic to repair, especially when the tyres need changing at the same time.
I suspect I killed it trying to jump-start someone else, it's about 6 weeks later so maybe I slightly cooked something and running the heaters for winter finished it off? Either that or it's a funny coincidence.
His car: a diesel, battery was hosed due to persistent discharge to 6V. By hosed I mean it charged to ~12V fairly quickly but was barely capable of running the headlights. Boring details omitted, let me know if you want more detail, we'll see what I remember.
My battery: 60Ah (lack of detail - reasons much later). My jump leads were a lucky purchase of clearance stock, slightly over-sized for a car, probably limited by contact surface with battery terminals. Plain jump with revving my engine produced only a clicking starter.
We succeeded in starting it using my previous car (engine idling due to lack of spare feet) plus his Halfords Li-ion magic jump-start pack together. This required trickery because it will only give its one mighty push (250A max?) when triggered by voltage profile, and he probably needed 400A.
First I let his glow plugs warm up (30A draw for a few seconds, seen by my current clamp meter reading off the jump cable), then when he pressed the starter I took the jump +ve off his battery for a moment so the Li-ion could see that voltage dip and decide to join in.
Possibly inadvisable risks taken: generating a spark that close to his battery. Putting his car on the road when it's that hard to get moving. But he got it to the garage, I gave him a lift back, they fixed it.
...story prompted by discussing drawing a heavy load which isn't in the OEM spec. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Do you talk like that in real life? It was old enough to be looking at it suspiciously every MOT, anyway. Failure of alternator or charge control, fortunately leaving me enough warning and charge in the battery to get off the motorway and park up before the everything stopped. Uneconomic to repair, especially when the tyres need changing at the same time.
I suspect I killed it trying to jump-start someone else, it's about 6 weeks later so maybe I slightly cooked something and running the heaters for winter finished it off? Either that or it's a funny coincidence.
His car: a diesel, battery was hosed due to persistent discharge to 6V. By hosed I mean it charged to ~12V fairly quickly but was barely capable of running the headlights. Boring details omitted, let me know if you want more detail, we'll see what I remember.
My battery: 60Ah (lack of detail - reasons much later). My jump leads were a lucky purchase of clearance stock, slightly over-sized for a car, probably limited by contact surface with battery terminals. Plain jump with revving my engine produced only a clicking starter.
We succeeded in starting it using my previous car (engine idling due to lack of spare feet) plus his Halfords Li-ion magic jump-start pack together. This required trickery because it will only give its one mighty push (250A max?) when triggered by voltage profile, and he probably needed 400A.
First I let his glow plugs warm up (30A draw for a few seconds, seen by my current clamp meter reading off the jump cable), then when he pressed the starter I took the jump +ve off his battery for a moment so the Li-ion could see that voltage dip and decide to join in.
Possibly inadvisable risks taken: generating a spark that close to his battery. Putting his car on the road when it's that hard to get moving. But he got it to the garage, I gave him a lift back, they fixed it.
...story prompted by discussing drawing a heavy load which isn't in the OEM spec. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I understand you think you might have destroyed you battery by jumpstarting a car, but blimey! That was hard work.
The car needed and alternator and new tyres so it was scrap? How expensive were the tyres and alternator?
I would never factor the tyres into that decision. Most used cars you find will not have brand new tyres and they're not a part you last forever.
When I have a cheap car that I know to be mostly healthy, it has a greater value to me than an unknown one as I have more confidence in the car
I would never factor the tyres into that decision. Most used cars you find will not have brand new tyres and they're not a part you last forever.
When I have a cheap car that I know to be mostly healthy, it has a greater value to me than an unknown one as I have more confidence in the car
Tyre Smoke said:
Do you talk like that in real life?
It is a bit 'cool story bro' although as likely a coincidence as anything else if tiw as 6 weeks not instant.Gary C said:
My cars have only ever 'died' by impact !
This is how my first two passed from my hands, third I decided to sell as it was becoming unenjoyable to daily (20yo, tired, window regs gone and prohibitive, aftermarket cats failing biennially) but decided to sell it tool late for the MOT and paid £450 to get a pass to then sell it for £500!Daniel
Got rid of my last car as it had a major leak into the cabin - Was fed up of paddling to work, and the electrical gremlins it introduced, including the central locking and windows opening when left alone. Therefore if I had not got rid of it, I'm sure someone would have decided they needed it more than I did.
When I was washing it to sell it on (Got to make an effort) found out where the water leak was (Rear door quarter light seal).
Should have kept it, and fixed the issues with it - The replacement needed a new engine at 5 years old (a year after I bought it!) so would have been cheaper to keep the old one. Fortunately, Skoda stumped up for a significant portion of the costs of the engine, but still left me with a significant bill to pay.
When I was washing it to sell it on (Got to make an effort) found out where the water leak was (Rear door quarter light seal).
Should have kept it, and fixed the issues with it - The replacement needed a new engine at 5 years old (a year after I bought it!) so would have been cheaper to keep the old one. Fortunately, Skoda stumped up for a significant portion of the costs of the engine, but still left me with a significant bill to pay.
My MG ZS died of rust. My RX8 hasn't been MOT'd since 2017 so I assume the engine died. My 350z which I traded in for the M3 obviously had an interesting year after me, covering 21,000 miles and racking up the impressive failure list below
So I wasn't expecting to see it again, but it passed a subsequent test so I assume it is still living.
So I wasn't expecting to see it again, but it passed a subsequent test so I assume it is still living.
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