There was a time, long ago now, when one could repair ones personal conveyance with little more than a screw driver, a crescent wrench, and a gutsy feeling about how things probably worked. This is now far from the case. My wife's five year old car died yesterday. Original battery coupled with sub-zero (F) temps killed it.
It is parked, nose first, in a carport by the side door. No possible way to get jumper cables to it. It is keyless, computer controlled and locked in park, so sitting there like a slab of granite, a very cold slap of granite. When you look under the hood - nothing but a collection of black boxes of various sizes and shapes - identifying the battery was not trivial. Got it right on the second try. Volt meter reads 0.00.
Switching batteries used to be simple. Not now. Started the old fashion way - two hours later, with frozen hands, finally got the tie down strap off but still could not shift it. Finally resorted to looking at repair manuals on-line (the horror!) It seems that I have to disassembly the windshield wipers, fluid reservoir, upper engine cowling, lower engine cowling, battery rear cover (ah hah!), then I can remove the battery. In addition to a few tools I do have, I will need a clutch head screwdriver and two metric socket sizes I don't have (they'll be here Saturday from amazon).
Rooting around in my neighbors garage we did find one of the sockets so I got the wipers off - but then darkness fell and the wind picked up. There was now hoarfrost in my beard.
This morning talked to automotive supply - they have had a serious run on batteries - they'll have one for us by Saturday morning (they hope).
Apparently yesterday was our "warm" day - so may have to wait until Monday (it should then be a balmy 25 F - think I'll wear shorts ) in order to work. In the meantime this has cut into my painting time - which is tragic! :)
I have a gadget on my car that talks to my phone and it tells me lots of things including that the battery is failing.
It did so last summer and a man in a van came and replaced the battery inside 40 minutes.
If only - I understand such amenities are available in the more civilized portions of the first world. :)
Life is cruel, Bill. If only we could know what obstacles lie ahead - what were "small jobs" in the past, nowadays just seem to grow arms and legs! Pity you threw out that Palantir because if you had known what was ahead, you could have ordered longer (or another set of) jump leads and simply driven the car along to your local dealer. #-o Good luck on Saturday!
Jim, my gob is smacked. I don't know what gadgets I've got on my car or my phone. For all I know, they could be saying all sorts of disparaging things about me behind my back! :-\
I take it you'll be reversing into the carport in future then... :D
Oh, the joys of not being a driver. :D
On the bright side, if she rode a horse, it would be dead.
You just had a battery issue, and a really good excuse to stay inside until it warms up outside! LOL
Good luck to you!!
I got rid of my car three years ago and now use Merseytravel (trains and buses free), English bus services (free) and UK rail pass for the elderly (which i don't feel) which gets me 33% off rail fares beyond Merseytravel., eg I booked a return to Greenwich from Liverpool Lime Street which I took last September. It cost me £33 return - but then in the US such social responsibility towards those who've paid their way in their working life is simply regarded as communism - ha, ha suckers! No passeran!
My wife is 5' 2" The dropoff on the other side of the narrow carport is 5' .
If it were a dead, frozen horse then I would have to find my chainsaw and then try to get it working!
Oh yeah! I'll have you know I get a senior discount at MacDonalds. So there!
I do appreciate all the support in this matter - it warms the cockles of my heart (not sure what those are but they are idiomatically warmed)
:)
MacDonald's uses frozen horses?! :o
If either of our cars' batteries goes.....I do the same as Jim, and get a man with a van to come out and change it. (The AA in our case)
Von's Land Rover is so old it's still got a cassette player in it.....Mine's a tad more modern ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D......It has a CD player.
We don't 'do' modern mobile phones. The PC's bad enough !!
Sympathies, Bill.
Cheers - Phil
Quote from: jimduncanuk on 04 January 2018, 04:09:41 PM
I have a gadget on my car that talks to my phone and it tells me lots of things including that the battery is failing.
I have a speaker in my car roof, and when my wife calls me i hear her voice everywhere around me. Now that's horror right there. ;D
I took my son's new Merc out for a spin during the hols. A warning light flashed on the dash- couldn't read it without reading specs. Pulled onto hard shoulder - got out specs
warning (sic) light advised me that that there was "no malfunction" .
Only a Germanic mind would need to know that. 8)
Ah! Wasn't that NO malfunction, as in "nitric oxide"?
NO is a product of internal combustion engienes. The NO warning could be that it exceeding pollution limits?
Either that, or did you notice a bottle of nitic acid maybe dripping onto mercury - perhaps a freak thermometer accident?
... or was your commanding parent voice failing to have the desired effect?
... or did you get Amy Winehouse to rehab?
... or were you being followed by a wobbly sinister Eurasian character with a scar and a doctorate?
... or, and I find this most likely, the back seats were filled by illiterate and not very skilled Japanese thespians?
Last time (about six months ago) a strange warning light came on......I had to look it up the 'the net'.....We didn't get a manual when we got the wee car.
"What the fekk does that mean ? " thought I. "Pants...better take it down to the local garage." (They are REALLY good, and not rip-off merchants.0
Matey plugged some diagnostic 'wossname' into the car.....booted it up.
"Hmmm...don't know exactly what's causing that," said he....I'll have a look around, under the bonnet.
"Here we go....a chewed wire."
£15 for his time.....That was it.
Cheers - Phil
Quote from: Techno on 05 January 2018, 01:35:55 PM
"Here we go....a chewed wire."
.... did Nobby run out of coats?
I hope not, Westie.
I've almost certainly blown the real culprit's brains out with a little piece of lead.....Either that, or caught the little sod in a snap trap.
You know....One of the snap traps that b*ggered my thumb nail. :'( :'(
Cheers - Phil
Looks like you need a puss tat, should relive that problem.
Apparently you lot have a rent-a-cat app available:
http://www.theweek.co.uk/63501/rent-a-cat-app-lets-londoners-borrow-rodent-catching-moggie
Quote from: ianrs54 on 05 January 2018, 04:17:48 PM
Looks like you need a puss tat, should relive that problem.
Need a what now?
I guess thats another British jargon that doesn't translate as intended when you get across the pond?
Or is it?
(https://i.imgflip.com/2i5ru.jpg)
Quote from: ianrs54 on 05 January 2018, 04:17:48 PM
Looks like you need a puss tat, should relive that problem.
When we used to have lots of cats, they used to get virtually all of the smaller ones. (Along with a lot of the wildlife we wished they hadn't gone after.)
The bigger ones were a different matter. The cats wouldn't take those on.
The Labradors catch the odd one of those, as does the little collie.
The rest I usually have to use the pop gun on. ;)
The bigger vermin are real neophobes, and won't go near snap traps, unfortunately.
Cheers - Phil
Quote from: d_Guy on 05 January 2018, 08:56:48 PM
Apparently you lot have a rent-a-cat app available:
http://www.theweek.co.uk/63501/rent-a-cat-app-lets-londoners-borrow-rodent-catching-moggie
No longer in business. Maybe too many weren't coming back from Chinese customers.
Beg, borrow, steal or buy more jumper cables and join them together; garbage bags are good insulators for the joins. Had to resort to that once, long, long ago.
Actually a very good idea, SV25. Had not considered that, got to focused on beating the machine into submission. ;)
Have just gotten the new battery. Way to cold to work - maybe tomorrow or Monday. Since we have my old run-about - not to critical.
On a completely separate thing, SV52, I'm now working on Flodden and enjoyed looking at your work on your blog. :-bd
Was warm enough Monday (28 F) that I was able to fix the car. On-line manuals and YouTube be blessed!
I enjoyed the funny comments here ;D
Yesterday evening - Windows 10 updated (it has been flawless since early Nov.) - now have "blue screen of death".
I shan't recount all the things I've done to try to recover. MS is trying to add a security layer for the "Meltdown/et. al" Intel architecture exploit.
I have 2010 machine with AMD chipset - which is now not compatible with Windows 10 - what was a perfectly good machine yesterday is now door stop. I'm going to put an old SCO-UNIX on it and use it as a local server (maybe). modern times!
I still get CERT alerts - but no longer read them - If I had done - I could have avoided this - my bad!
It's not going well on the modern tech front!
There is a known issue with AMD win10 and the patches for the latest processor issues. Didn't pay too much attention as I no longer have any AMD kit. Unix sounds a good idea.
I had a 'tech' problem yesterday, too. :'( :'( :'( :'(
Popped a few CDs onto iTunes on the PC....Plugged the iPod in, to transfer them....all seemed to work as normal....Then found EVERY single song on the iPod had been deleted.
"There is a fault (on the iPod)" said the PC...."Would you like to fix it ?"
Yes please......Fault says it's been repaired....."Format iPod".....(OK)
Plug iPod back into PC.....The PC tells me there's a fault on the iPod, again.
Went through the same process....and then again, two more times, before deciding the iPod had died.
I'll get a new one on the Argos card.......Have to save some pennies to get the dead iPod checked over by a repair centre I've used before.....And if it's worth repairing, I'll get it fixed.
Sympathies, Bill !
Cheers - Phil.
Dear Techno.
The 2010's are calling.
The iPod is sooo last decade! Before diving into an iPod, I'd look at other options - perhaps an iPad or a Kindle. They can play music and do so much more.
The Kindle will read books to you whilst you putty about.
Quote from: d_Guy on 06 January 2018, 04:48:46 PM
Actually a very good idea, SV25. Had not considered that, got to focused on beating the machine into submission. ;)
Have just gotten the new battery. Way to cold to work - maybe tomorrow or Monday. Since we have my old run-about - not to critical.
On a completely separate thing, SV52, I'm now working on Flodden and enjoyed looking at your work on your blog. :-bd
Enjoy yourself with Flodden. The bit I liked most was the research. The new additions to the Renaissance ranges will result in much better looking armies. One difficulty I had was choosing a figure ratio which looked reasonable for the disparity in numbers without having to paint too many Scots pikemen. Take care which Surrey banner you choose as the one carried at Flodden was different to that after, since Henry VIII awarded an 'augmentation' to the arms following Surrey's victory. If memory serves it consisted of a small rampant lion with an arrow in its mouth placed on the upper portion of the white bend. Sadly I lost all my heraldic records and flags in a disk crash ~X(
There's a guy called Ray Rousell did a lot of work on Flodden as well, his blog is at http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/
@Fred - my wife is looking into NFS apps for our iPads - if that gets sorted, a Unix server for file storage will work.
Dug out my old lap top (Windows-XP) fired up fine and I'll only put it on local net so MS can't get a hold of it. It has an early version of Corel photoshop (which I need for my blogs) - it can handle NFS so this all MAY work.
@Phil - thanks! I totally 2nd fsn suggestion - I use my iPhone (kindle and Amazon Music player). We have "unlimited" which means we get bunches (billions!) of albums and books as free downloads - this came about when my iPod dies two years ago. Incidently IIRC you made the jump to win10 - the win10 emergency patches MAY be the iPod problem - it came on in pieces - and some non-Microsoft peripherals became flaky. My first clue was my Verbatim external drive was no longer recognized - "out of date driver" windows said. I took that as gospel and was trying to sort it out with Verbatim when my machine went blue screen. The Verbatim works fine with the aforementioned XP machine!
@SV52 - thanks also - I had recently seen Ray's blog - lots of Flodden flags - sorry you lost your research - madding!
After strong misgivings - I am backing my stuff up on cloud (although "Meltdown" might be a BIG problem for cloud servers!)
Quote from: d_Guy on 11 January 2018, 03:17:12 PM
@Phil - thanks! I totally 2nd fsn suggestion - I use my iPhone (kindle and Amazon Music player). We have "unlimited" which means we get bunches (billions!) of albums and books as free downloads - this came about when my iPod dies two years ago. Incidently IIRC you made the jump to win10 - the win10 emergency patches MAY be the iPod problem - it came on in pieces - and some non-Microsoft peripherals became flaky. My first clue was my Verbatim external drive was no longer recognized - "out of date driver" windows said. I took that as gospel and was trying to sort it out with Verbatim when my machine went blue screen. The Verbatim works fine with the aforementioned XP machine!
Hi Bill...I had
wondered whether this 'patch' had done something ! (Having seen your post....and some reports on the net.)
I haven't let Apple update the 'pod' for a long time..(If it ain't broke, don't try and fix it.)...Until
yesterday, when one of the repairs told me that I was up to date on the iPod....I'll probably find out if that's the case when I send it off to be repaired (if it's worth it !)
I DID go to Win 10.....But only for a couple of weeks, and then paid some techy person to put it back to 8.1.....BUT I believe that 8.1 PCs are going to be 'patched'....But nothing further back than that.
Too late !!.....'Fraid I've already gone and bought another iPod....Which looks like it's got oodles of features that I'll never, ever use.....Even a camera. (Bit of a waste that, as it'll never leave the house, unless (until ?) I get another stay in hospital. ;D ;D ;D
Not going to play with the 'pod' until the weekend, when I've got more time to swear at it.....and export the thousands of songs still on the PC.
'Bout time
I backed up all my stuff onto the two externals. X_X
Cheers - Phil
Phil, NOONE with any computer skill ever ever backs anything up, they just tell other people to do it !!!
Quote from: ianrs54 on 12 January 2018, 09:30:19 AM
Phil, NOONE with any computer skill ever ever backs anything up, they just tell other people to do it !!!
Yes, Ian, but you KNOW I don't have any computer skills. ;D ;D ;D
Cheers - Phil
;D
Quote from: d_Guy on 04 January 2018, 03:17:57 PM
There was a time, long ago now, when one could repair ones personal conveyance with little more than a screw driver, a crescent wrench, and a gutsy feeling about how things probably worked. This is now far from the case. My wife's five year old car died yesterday. Original battery coupled with sub-zero (F) temps killed it.
It is parked, nose first, in a carport by the side door. No possible way to get jumper cables to it. It is keyless, computer controlled and locked in park, so sitting there like a slab of granite, a very cold slap of granite. When you look under the hood - nothing but a collection of black boxes of various sizes and shapes - identifying the battery was not trivial. Got it right on the second try. Volt meter reads 0.00.
Switching batteries used to be simple. Not now. Started the old fashion way - two hours later, with frozen hands, finally got the tie down strap off but still could not shift it. Finally resorted to looking at repair manuals on-line (the horror!) It seems that I have to disassembly the windshield wipers, fluid reservoir, upper engine cowling, lower engine cowling, battery rear cover (ah hah!), then I can remove the battery. In addition to a few tools I do have, I will need a clutch head screwdriver and two metric socket sizes I don't have (they'll be here Saturday from amazon).
Rooting around in my neighbors garage we did find one of the sockets so I got the wipers off - but then darkness fell and the wind picked up. There was now hoarfrost in my beard.
This morning talked to automotive supply - they have had a serious run on batteries - they'll have one for us by Saturday morning (they hope).
Apparently yesterday was our "warm" day - so may have to wait until Monday (it should then be a balmy 25 F - think I'll wear shorts ) in order to work. In the meantime this has cut into my painting time - which is tragic! :)