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October 04, 2006
he's alive! sort of.
christa came over and we succeeded in jump starting spacepod! we pushed him to the end of the driveway so we could use shorter jumper cables, we connected him negative to negative, rather than grounding the negative to spacepod's body (there ain't much metal accessible in that engine compartment), and we let him charge for a while off of creampod that way. and then, with a few tries, he started!
i let him run a good long while, moved him on to the street where i can jump him pretty easily by myself, and i fiddled around trying to unclog his forward sunroof drains (to no avail, i think). and then i shut the windows and sunroof and turned him off. checked the battery and it was not fully charged and he would not start again.
so clearly something is not right in his electrical system, maybe the battery was just damaged by being deep cycled. also, something is clearly draining the battery which is compounding the problem. so a visit to MFM is still in order but i am going to let it wait til next week.
if i have to jump him to get him to nbeast, then jump him again to get him back home, then so be it.
Posted by lisa at October 04, 2006 09:00 PM
Comments
Hey Lisa -- I have a portable charger you're welcome to borrow if you can't get to your MFM quickly. Just let me know and I can drop it off at your house sometime today (Thu).
Last month I was dealing with some intermittent battery issues (which eventually required a new battery, then required I do a better job of installing said new battery.) so I feel your pain.
Posted by: Phil on October 5, 2006 02:47 AM
You could try swapping batteries between the 'pods and seeing if it makes any difference. I don't know how long Spacepod has been unused, but my understanding is that lead-acid car batteries are the opposite of, say, NiCd batteries in cordless phones: they like to stay charged.
BTW, as someone who formerly owned two cars, I can confidently say that owning two was really expensive, because one always sat neglected and then needed work. It's counterintuitive, but letting a car sit around without using it is really bad for it.
Posted by: Joseph H. Vilas on October 5, 2006 12:35 PM
phil-- thank you. i actually have a charger that has not worked to jump spacepod but i should try connecting the neg to his neg batt terminal rather than the body.
joe-- diesels and gas engine cars require different batteries, i'm not sure why. but i don't think they're interchangeable.
a friend on my LJ suggested i check the electrolytes in the battery which is a good idea! i can't believe i forgot that. so i have some distilled water now and i'll be doing that when i get home.
so far owning two has been easier to manage financially because i traded doing frequent expensive repairs to spacepod for a low car payment every month on creampod. i won't go so far as to say it's cheaper but it's not that much more expensive, and it's less financially stressful.
however, yes. letting one sit for more than a week is a bad idea, which i did know going into this. if i'd removed spacepod's hanging engine cover in a timely fashion, i wouldn't be in this boat because when he's driveable, i do tend to drive him pretty regularly.
Posted by: lisa on October 5, 2006 01:35 PM
Re: battery differences -- I wonder if it's diesels require a lot more oomph to get going (since their ignition comes from compressing the vapors hot enough that they go "bang" all their own, instead of using a spark plug.)
Posted by: Phil on October 5, 2006 11:44 PM
I didn't realize one was diesel and one not. Some diesel vehicles I've seen have multiple batteries too. I've never worked on one. Anyway, sounds like you're set, which is the important thing.
Good luck tomorrow.
Posted by: Joseph H. Vilas on October 7, 2006 04:22 PM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.