Intrepid revival

[unixronin]

The Intrepid has a new battery now.  It wouldn't start at all on the start cart;¹ the 150A the cart puts out isn't enough, and the battery was putting out zilch.  We successfully jumpstarted it from the Mercedes on the third try (on the first, the starter wouldn't engage; on the second, it caught, but died ten seconds ater we disconnected the jumper cables).  I limped the car to Brake & Go in Hudson with the charging system warning light glaring bright red, the ABS inoperative, and all the electronic displays on the instrument panel flickering on and off the whole way.  About an hour later (rather than the promised 20-30 minutes), we had a new battery installed and tested, and the electrical system checked for other issues (none found).  Net cost to us: $43 in labor, battery replaced free even though it was technically a month out of warranty.  We have two working cars again.

I have no problem whatsoever recommending these guys.  They stand behind their work, and they won't bullshit you if they don't have the tools to do something right, they'll send you somewhere that can.

[1]  Note to self:  Need a better/more powerful start cart.  This one will start a motorcycle unassisted, but not a car.

Comments

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

When I had my 1986 Kawasaki Vulcan 750 (which my brother now has), I had a battery fail so bad that the engine would immediately quit once the jumper cables were removed. The battery was apparently shorted through (possibly due to physical collapse of one or more lead plates) and would suck so much juice that the alternator simply didn't have enough left over to power the ignition system.

[tomatoe333.livejournal.com]

Note 2: The expected life of a car battery is usually about a month longer than its warranty. :-)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's the first time I've ever had one fail this quickly, though. (Except for a motorcycle battery which was my fault -- I didn't realize until too late that even when OFF, the alarm on the bike was drawing so much current it was draining the battery hard.)

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

You have reminded me I need to get my system checked. I've noticed the dome light dimming when starting. It's been so damned reliable...

Oh, here:
http://www.liftmyrod.com/PortablePowerSourcesFromBoosterPac.asp

Expensive but they seem like good stuff.

If I had a garage I'd just have a Shumacher trickle/75Amp capable boost charger with a standard 12V car battery kept on trickle to prevent sulfation. It would have to be one that fit both vehicles but it's easy to swap the battery out or use it to jump start with. Plus those batteries are excellent to use with a high intensity flood when the power is out.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those look like they might work. Another option would be to see if I can get a bigger Exide cart with an internal battery to back up the charger.