billb
03-08-2004, 08:54 AM
So my buddy's getting married in a month. He lives in Iowa, and returned to the Charlotte NC area for us all to meet up with. Some friends and I from Raleigh loaded up early Saturday morning to drive to Charlotte (say what you will about SUV's, they hold a lot of stuff, five adult males very comfortably, and are a pretty decent road ride). Our first objective for the day was several hours of go-carting at Victory Lane Indoor Karting. We pull up there, and I got a phone call from the wife on the cell.
Her: "How do I get the rear seat up?"
Me: "You sit in the middle of the seat, put your hands under the front edge, and lift up. Two tabs will pop out of slots on either side of you. By the way, why do you need to do that?"
She explains what I just told her to the owner of the donor car...
Her: "The battery's dead; we need to jump it."
Me: "There's a positive terminal under the hood, near the fusebox."
Her: "Well, the guy who's going to jump it can't find it."
Me: "It's there, you hook the positive cable to the post-it should be under a cap with a red + on it."
Her: "Okay, I'll tell him"
about a minute passes...I can hear them discussing in the background
Her: "Okay, do I need to do anything else to the car before jumping?"
Me, assuming they've hooked to the booster point, NOT the battery: "Yeah, turn the lights on."
Her: "Okay. We're going to try it. I'll call you back."
Me: "Okay, be careful, and make sure you hook it up like we discussed."
Her: "Okay."
several minutes pass...then she calls...
Her: "Is it normal for the battery to spark when jumping?"
Me: "Not if you're hooked on the jump terminals under the hood, it's not!"
Her: "Well, he actually couldn't get to those since the car was parked against a curb on the left, so he just hooked to the battery directly. It did a lot of sparking when he hooked it up..."
Me: "Oh crap...sparking? Does anything still work on the car?!?"
Her: "It's running...everything looks okay...the radio's saying code."
Me: "Get it home, park it, and don't drive it for the rest of the weekend until I get home."
Yesterday, when I got home, we had a little tutorial on how to jump-start her car, including a detailed review of "The positive cable goes on THIS post, under THIS cover. The negative cable can be attached HERE, or HERE, or HERE..."
I resynched the locks, and released the radio code. It seems fine. I think she left the key in the ignition, on, for about 3 hours accidentally. I'm seeing 12.4 volts at the battery static, 14.08 volts when running. It starts and runs fine. Considering, however, that the date code is 94 on the battery (original), it may be nearing the end of its useful life...
Sparks bad...sparks very bad!
Her: "How do I get the rear seat up?"
Me: "You sit in the middle of the seat, put your hands under the front edge, and lift up. Two tabs will pop out of slots on either side of you. By the way, why do you need to do that?"
She explains what I just told her to the owner of the donor car...
Her: "The battery's dead; we need to jump it."
Me: "There's a positive terminal under the hood, near the fusebox."
Her: "Well, the guy who's going to jump it can't find it."
Me: "It's there, you hook the positive cable to the post-it should be under a cap with a red + on it."
Her: "Okay, I'll tell him"
about a minute passes...I can hear them discussing in the background
Her: "Okay, do I need to do anything else to the car before jumping?"
Me, assuming they've hooked to the booster point, NOT the battery: "Yeah, turn the lights on."
Her: "Okay. We're going to try it. I'll call you back."
Me: "Okay, be careful, and make sure you hook it up like we discussed."
Her: "Okay."
several minutes pass...then she calls...
Her: "Is it normal for the battery to spark when jumping?"
Me: "Not if you're hooked on the jump terminals under the hood, it's not!"
Her: "Well, he actually couldn't get to those since the car was parked against a curb on the left, so he just hooked to the battery directly. It did a lot of sparking when he hooked it up..."
Me: "Oh crap...sparking? Does anything still work on the car?!?"
Her: "It's running...everything looks okay...the radio's saying code."
Me: "Get it home, park it, and don't drive it for the rest of the weekend until I get home."
Yesterday, when I got home, we had a little tutorial on how to jump-start her car, including a detailed review of "The positive cable goes on THIS post, under THIS cover. The negative cable can be attached HERE, or HERE, or HERE..."
I resynched the locks, and released the radio code. It seems fine. I think she left the key in the ignition, on, for about 3 hours accidentally. I'm seeing 12.4 volts at the battery static, 14.08 volts when running. It starts and runs fine. Considering, however, that the date code is 94 on the battery (original), it may be nearing the end of its useful life...
Sparks bad...sparks very bad!