Misadventures of Clyde the Chev and Little Red Thing

[spacebug]

On Sunday night, I got a call from s4 at work. As I'm not allowed to answer my cell phone at work, he called two or three times before I thought it might be important enough to throw caution to the wind and see what was up. It was overcast in the morning, when we both drove to work, and he informed me that he left the lights on in my car, and that it wouldn't start. I ragged him a little, said I'd try to leave early and come down in our borrowed ride for the week, star5's Little Red Thing, and either get him a jump, or, failing that, call my ever-handy AAA, and get a jump that way. So I borrow jumper cables from a co-worker, and get into Little Red Thing to realize that either I also left the lights on all day, or it just won't start. Feeling quite amused (and glad I didn't rag too hard on s4 for doing something stupid), I got one of my co-workers to attmept a jump start for me. Which failed. So, I got a ride down to Southdale to meet s4 and called AAA, and we got Clyde the Chev going in no time. As it was getting late and Little Red Thing was parked perfectly legally not far from home, we left her there to be dealt with later.

The next morning, we jumped Little Red Thing with newly-energized Clyde the Chev, and it started right up. So I let it run a few minutes, thanked s4 for the ride and the jump, turned off the car, and went to work. Though, our joy at the now-running car was tempered by the $100 ticket on my windsheild because star5's front license plate was in the window, having fallen off the front of the car.(sigh) (also note, that this is the second time I've gotten a ticket for that while driving a car that does not belong to me. If you lend me your car, apparently it best be havin' all its plates in the right spots.) The other high spot of my morning was stepping in dog shit and tracking it into the back office at work. (sigh) I found the whole scenario, save the ticket, more amusing than anything, though, so that's good...

After work, as I feared might happen, Little Red Thing did not want to start again. I figured that I hadn't let it run long enough for the battery to charge up. So I got another jump from a different co-worker, and decided to take a bit of a drive to make sure the battery got a good charge. I drove to Bloomington to visit my Mom, 'cause it's Mom, and besides, it was close to s4's work. So I hang out with Mom for 45 minutes, and then plan to meet s4 after work, at which time Little Red Thing does not want to start again. (sigh) So s4 came over, and we pushed Little Red Thing into my Mom's garage, handily equipped with a battery charger! We hook up the battery, fast sucking a charge, and then go get something to eat, as both of us had had no dinner. We return and attempt to start Little Red Thing with no luck. Then we turn the charger to the "jumpstart" setting and try again, with no luck. Then s4 takes the connections off the battery posts and cleans all the massive amounts of corrosion off. Then it starts up no problem, and we park Little Red Thing back at its home docking station.

Hopefully, cleaning the corrosion was enough to get it to take a charge, and it will start up again today when we go feed the kitties.

Sorry, star5, this is a little more adventure than I was planning on this week.

Comments

[vaxjo.livejournal.com]

<Technician mode="on">
I've had very similar experiences and it often turns out to be a shot alternator. A garage should be able to do a fairly straightforward load test to see if it's running at optimum efficiency.
It's also equally possible that the battery is simply old and not capable of holding much of a charge. Again this is something a garage could tell you (or star5, as it's apparently her car) after a little test.
</Technician mode="on">

Of course, s4 probably already knows all this, but at least now I feel helpful...

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

I'd put my money on the battery being the problem- it had big bubbles of corrosion on both of the posts, as well as leaking out the top, which it's really not supposed to do.

[sarendipatree.livejournal.com]

...at least while remaining operational. Its within the design specs. Just not as part of its useful life. =%>

[star5.livejournal.com]

eeek! i'm so sorry. that's not at all what i wanted when i offered my car to you. it got corroded last winter i think. i'll pay for half of the ticket, if you think that's fair. plus i'll buy you guys dinner tomorrow night for taking care of kitties (since the car turned out not to be that great of a reward).

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

The good news is that it started again today. Yay! And splitting the ticket sounds fine.