Who says it's not brain surgery??
DW and The Wondertwins and I made a discovery as we headed out to drop The Girl off for her BC trip this morning: The Mighty Intrepid was DOA (Dead On its Axles). Didn't turn over. Didn't crank. Nuthin'. Nada. Asystole. This was the same care I drove home from hockey the previous night.
So we did a quick switcheroo to Sparky The Wonder Saturn and off we trundled.
Realizing that sorting out my ride was a priority, I grabbed a new set of jumper cables on the way home after work with DW and figured we could boost the beast, if only to eliminate a source of the problem.
The first boost didn't work.
Enter my vehicularly astute Brother-in-Law via the telephone. While I'm reasonably mechanically competent, BiL is definitely no slouch when it comes to cars and he and I did some troubleshooting and problem elimination. (I like to sound these things out, ya know.) We did a slightly more direct boost from the Saturn (terminal to terminal, instead of grounding on the frame.) It starts. Turns out that my battery was toast. The water level had dropped in one of the cells so the plates were exposed and shorting out.
A relatively quick swap out and $114 (incl. PST/GST) later, and The Mighty Intrepid roared back to life all on its own.
Definitely better than having it dragged in shame to the mechanic and pay some exorbitant fee for the same result.
As BiL says, "cheap at twice the price."
4 comments:
Glad to hear it was just the battery. Anything going out sucks, but, it could have been much worse.
Yeah and thanks to Mossy and my Bro (who's a bloody genius about these things), it only cost us about $115. I can't imagine what the cost would have been had we gotten it towed and then checked out by a mechanic.
Ahem. As a mechanic's son, I can tell you it depends on the mechanic. Our mechanic (as my Dad's health no longer lends to him slipping under vehicles) would have charged simply for the shop hour, as he has to pay the shop owner for facilities used, so it would have been maybe a $50 on top of the battery fee. IF he could diagnode it over the phone or outside of the shop, a cup of coffee the next time you came around would have been enough.
Crappy Tire will test your battery for free if you take it out of the vehicle yourself and bring it in. It is about $30 if they have to take it out for you.
I have had experiences, all BAD, with Active Green and Ross so I say to avoid those rat, cheap, theiving bastards at all costs.
BTW, just for future knowledge, if the battery does not charge properly, it could be a bad alternator. Easiest way to check that item is to start the vehicle, then remove the positive battery cable from the battery post, while the vehicle is still running. If it continues to run, the alternator is fine; if it sputters and stalls, the alternator is not delivering enough juice (as the battery is only supposed to be used to start the vehicle and the alternator takes over once running).
Just an FYI, while I feel to type this morning. :)
Wishing you all the best!
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