After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeks
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by something.
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeks
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by something.
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeks
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new >battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by something.
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
Thanks
Dave R
--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64
On 30/04/2025 16:52, tony sayer wrote:
In article <m7es8hFe9nuU3@mid.individual.net>, David
<wibble@btinternet.com> scribeth thus
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start twoA 2016 batt would be well past it, but check the fan belt or whichever
weeks ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new
battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a
reliable jump start pack.
Thanks
belt drives the alternator to see if its properly tensioned and
therefore charging as well as it ought!..
Dave R
--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64
I bought one of these from Amazon about 6 years ago in a flash sale at a large discount.
It still works well and has started various cars and diesel vans.
The largest car engine was a 6.3l Ferrari FF with a totally sulphated battery. It did struggle with that but eventually started it.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016UG6PWE
NOCO Boost HD GB70 2000A UltraSafe Car Jump Starter, Jump Starter Power
Pack, 12V Battery Booster, Portable Powerbank Charger, and Jump Leads
for up to 8.0-Liter Petrol and 6.0-Liter Diesel Engines
John
On 30/04/2025 16:00, David wrote:
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeksBad battery connection or failed alternator
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new
battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
I assume it wont crank.
On charge battery voltage should be around 13.5-14V .
Make sure the terminals are screwed down tight as starting current is a couple of hundred amps and it doesn't take much to block that completely
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.Well the motor home will have a leisure battery built in.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
If you really must get something with good reevews from Amazon
it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by something.
Thanks.
NOCO seems to be highly rated on various sites.
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:09:48 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 30/04/2025 16:00, David wrote:
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeksBad battery connection or failed alternator
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new
battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
I assume it wont crank.
On charge battery voltage should be around 13.5-14V .
Make sure the terminals are screwed down tight as starting current is a
couple of hundred amps and it doesn't take much to block that completely
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.Well the motor home will have a leisure battery built in.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
If you really must get something with good reevews from Amazon
It cranks, but the displayed voltage on the voltmeter rapidly drops below
12V and the cranking stops.
Presumably a safety measure.
The voltmeter shows it charging at 14V when driving.
The car is in the garage for other work, and fortunately (?) showed the failure when they tried to move it.
So under investigation.
The interesting thing is that this failure was diagnosed as an old battery
so there is now a brand new battery in the car, fitted by the garage.
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:09:48 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 30/04/2025 16:00, David wrote:
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeksBad battery connection or failed alternator
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new
battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
I assume it wont crank.
On charge battery voltage should be around 13.5-14V .
Make sure the terminals are screwed down tight as starting current is a
couple of hundred amps and it doesn't take much to block that completely
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.Well the motor home will have a leisure battery built in.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
If you really must get something with good reevews from Amazon
It cranks, but the displayed voltage on the voltmeter rapidly drops below
12V and the cranking stops.
Presumably a safety measure.
The voltmeter shows it charging at 14V when driving.
The car is in the garage for other work, and fortunately (?) showed the failure when they tried to move it.
So under investigation.
The interesting thing is that this failure was diagnosed as an old battery
so there is now a brand new battery in the car, fitted by the garage.
I am wondering if the alternator is not running at full output, but
wondering how that would generally manifest.
It is delivering 14V.
The battery (as shown via the voltmeter) has less charge now than when it
was fitted.
Testing across the battery terminals is difficult because the battery is under the passenger seat and you have to remove the seat to get at it.
On 01/05/2025 09:51, David wrote:
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:09:48 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:Probably not relevant here, but when I had a similar problem many years
On 30/04/2025 16:00, David wrote:It cranks, but the displayed voltage on the voltmeter rapidly drops
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start twoBad battery connection or failed alternator
weeks ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand
new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
I assume it wont crank.
On charge battery voltage should be around 13.5-14V .
Make sure the terminals are screwed down tight as starting current is
a couple of hundred amps and it doesn't take much to block that
completely
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.Well the motor home will have a leisure battery built in.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that
it could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a
reliable jump start pack.
If you really must get something with good reevews from Amazon
below 12V and the cranking stops.
Presumably a safety measure.
The voltmeter shows it charging at 14V when driving.
The car is in the garage for other work, and fortunately (?) showed the
failure when they tried to move it.
So under investigation.
The interesting thing is that this failure was diagnosed as an old
battery so there is now a brand new battery in the car, fitted by the
garage.
I am wondering if the alternator is not running at full output, but
wondering how that would generally manifest.
It is delivering 14V.
The battery (as shown via the voltmeter) has less charge now than when
it was fitted.
Testing across the battery terminals is difficult because the battery
is under the passenger seat and you have to remove the seat to get at
it.
back - I replaced the battery but that didn't solve the problem - I eventually discovered that the earth strap between the engine and the
car body had degraded to the point where there was only a tiny number of strands left intact.
That meant the alternator couldn't put any charge into the battery due
to the high resistance path.
A nice problem to have, on Christmas day, when travelling 200 miles to
get home.
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeks
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
David wrote:
it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by something.
To track down which fuse the parasitic load is on, a set of these
multimeter leads can be handy (beware the miniature size fuses).
<https://cpc.farnell.com/gunson/77068/automotive-fuse-adaptor-test- leads/dp/IN06332>
On Thu, 01 May 2025 20:29:34 +0100, Sam Plusnet wrote:
On 01/05/2025 09:51, David wrote:
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:09:48 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:Probably not relevant here, but when I had a similar problem many years
On 30/04/2025 16:00, David wrote:It cranks, but the displayed voltage on the voltmeter rapidly drops
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start twoBad battery connection or failed alternator
weeks ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand
new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
I assume it wont crank.
On charge battery voltage should be around 13.5-14V .
Make sure the terminals are screwed down tight as starting current is
a couple of hundred amps and it doesn't take much to block that
completely
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.Well the motor home will have a leisure battery built in.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that
it could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a
reliable jump start pack.
If you really must get something with good reevews from Amazon
below 12V and the cranking stops.
Presumably a safety measure.
The voltmeter shows it charging at 14V when driving.
The car is in the garage for other work, and fortunately (?) showed the
failure when they tried to move it.
So under investigation.
The interesting thing is that this failure was diagnosed as an old
battery so there is now a brand new battery in the car, fitted by the
garage.
I am wondering if the alternator is not running at full output, but
wondering how that would generally manifest.
It is delivering 14V.
The battery (as shown via the voltmeter) has less charge now than when
it was fitted.
Testing across the battery terminals is difficult because the battery
is under the passenger seat and you have to remove the seat to get at
it.
back - I replaced the battery but that didn't solve the problem - I
eventually discovered that the earth strap between the engine and the
car body had degraded to the point where there was only a tiny number of
strands left intact.
That meant the alternator couldn't put any charge into the battery due
to the high resistance path.
A nice problem to have, on Christmas day, when travelling 200 miles to
get home.
Garage diagnosed a faulty crank sensor, which they think could have
stopped it cranking over before it could get going.
We shall see.
Now on long term charge in the drive with a smart(?) charger.
I don't think it chucks out a vast amount of charge, but is very good for maintaining battery condition.
I will have to dig around in the store of motoring related things to see
if there is a more powerful charger to get it up near fully charged in a shorter time.
I am still not 100% sure that there isn't another fault hanging around in there somewhere.
How do you diagnose an under performing earth strap apart from by
inspection?
Cheers
Dave R
I haven't read the manual yet, but the picture on the front says 10W USB A out, and 60W USB C in.
It looks as though it needs a USB C charger capable of chucking out 60W if you want to be able to use it twice without waiting a long time for it to charge.
I do have one fast charger, but as it is for a Realme Pro phone I don't
think it uses the ususal fast charging protocol.
David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
I haven't read the manual yet, but the picture on the front says 10W
USB A out, and 60W USB C in.
It looks as though it needs a USB C charger capable of chucking out 60W
if you want to be able to use it twice without waiting a long time for
it to charge.
I do have one fast charger, but as it is for a Realme Pro phone I don't
think it uses the ususal fast charging protocol.
It's possible it wants to charge from 20V (60W = 20V @ 3A) which might
mean it won't charge at all from a phone charger. Depends whether the internal charging circuit can step up the voltage or just step down.
Theo
On Thu, 01 May 2025 20:29:34 +0100, Sam Plusnet wrote:
On 01/05/2025 09:51, David wrote:
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:09:48 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:Probably not relevant here, but when I had a similar problem many
On 30/04/2025 16:00, David wrote:It cranks, but the displayed voltage on the voltmeter rapidly drops
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start twoBad battery connection or failed alternator
weeks ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a
brand new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
I assume it wont crank.
On charge battery voltage should be around 13.5-14V .
Make sure the terminals are screwed down tight as starting
current is a couple of hundred amps and it doesn't take much to
block that completely
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.Well the motor home will have a leisure battery built in.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests
that it could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a
reliable jump start pack.
If you really must get something with good reevews from Amazon
below 12V and the cranking stops.
Presumably a safety measure.
The voltmeter shows it charging at 14V when driving.
The car is in the garage for other work, and fortunately (?)
showed the failure when they tried to move it.
So under investigation.
The interesting thing is that this failure was diagnosed as an old
battery so there is now a brand new battery in the car, fitted by
the garage.
I am wondering if the alternator is not running at full output, but
wondering how that would generally manifest.
It is delivering 14V.
The battery (as shown via the voltmeter) has less charge now than
when it was fitted.
Testing across the battery terminals is difficult because the
battery is under the passenger seat and you have to remove the
seat to get at it.
years back - I replaced the battery but that didn't solve the
problem - I eventually discovered that the earth strap between the
engine and the car body had degraded to the point where there was
only a tiny number of strands left intact.
That meant the alternator couldn't put any charge into the battery
due to the high resistance path.
A nice problem to have, on Christmas day, when travelling 200 miles
to get home.
Garage diagnosed a faulty crank sensor, which they think could have
stopped it cranking over before it could get going.
We shall see.
Now on long term charge in the drive with a smart(?) charger.
I don't think it chucks out a vast amount of charge, but is very good
for maintaining battery condition.
I will have to dig around in the store of motoring related things to
see if there is a more powerful charger to get it up near fully
charged in a shorter time.
I am still not 100% sure that there isn't another fault hanging
around in there somewhere.
How do you diagnose an under performing earth strap apart from by
inspection?
On Thu, 01 May 2025 20:29:34 +0100, Sam Plusnet wrote:
On 01/05/2025 09:51, David wrote:
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:09:48 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:Probably not relevant here, but when I had a similar problem many years
On 30/04/2025 16:00, David wrote:It cranks, but the displayed voltage on the voltmeter rapidly drops
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start twoBad battery connection or failed alternator
weeks ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand
new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
I assume it wont crank.
On charge battery voltage should be around 13.5-14V .
Make sure the terminals are screwed down tight as starting current is
a couple of hundred amps and it doesn't take much to block that
completely
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.Well the motor home will have a leisure battery built in.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that
it could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a
reliable jump start pack.
If you really must get something with good reevews from Amazon
below 12V and the cranking stops.
Presumably a safety measure.
The voltmeter shows it charging at 14V when driving.
The car is in the garage for other work, and fortunately (?) showed
the failure when they tried to move it.
So under investigation.
The interesting thing is that this failure was diagnosed as an old
battery so there is now a brand new battery in the car, fitted by the
garage.
I am wondering if the alternator is not running at full output, but
wondering how that would generally manifest.
It is delivering 14V.
The battery (as shown via the voltmeter) has less charge now than when
it was fitted.
Testing across the battery terminals is difficult because the battery
is under the passenger seat and you have to remove the seat to get at
it.
back - I replaced the battery but that didn't solve the problem - I
eventually discovered that the earth strap between the engine and the
car body had degraded to the point where there was only a tiny number
of strands left intact.
That meant the alternator couldn't put any charge into the battery due
to the high resistance path.
A nice problem to have, on Christmas day, when travelling 200 miles to
get home.
Garage diagnosed a faulty crank sensor, which they think could have
stopped it cranking over before it could get going.
We shall see.
Now on long term charge in the drive with a smart(?) charger.
I don't think it chucks out a vast amount of charge, but is very good
for maintaining battery condition.
I will have to dig around in the store of motoring related things to see
if there is a more powerful charger to get it up near fully charged in a shorter time.
I am still not 100% sure that there isn't another fault hanging around
in there somewhere.
How do you diagnose an under performing earth strap apart from by
inspection?
Dug out my old (allegedly) 8A charger (old is well pre metrication, AFAIK). It still works, but is only reporting 4A charging.
My dodgy arithmetic suggests that at 4A per hour it is putting in 4 Amp
Hours of charge.
That doesn't sound a lot for a large battery that cranks a 3 litre diesel.
Unreliable lookup suggests around 77 Ah capacity for the battery.
Call it 80 Ah just to simplify the arithmetic.
Assuming 80% charge it would need 80 - (80X.8) = 16 Ah to fully charge.
That doesn't look too bad.
Charged from 80% in 4 hours, I think.
However: <https://www.screwfix.com/c/auto-cleaning/car-battery-chargers/cat12010001? sort_by=price>
seems to offer much more powerful chargers.
There is also a very confusing maximum engine size, where for example a 6A charger shows maximum size 1.6l.
The same reported charging rate (such as 6A) also shows as 1.6l, 3l, etc.
So I am wondering if my ancient charger is suitable, or if I need
something beefier.
Compared to Screwfix, Amazon is very cheap <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Automatic-Temperature-Compensation-Motorcycle- Batteries-Red/dp/B094VQ88X2/>
However I don't recognise the brand.
Bottom line, is it time to invest in a new charger?
On Fri, 02 May 2025 13:49:54 +0100, Theo wrote:
David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
I haven't read the manual yet, but the picture on the front says 10W
USB A out, and 60W USB C in.
It looks as though it needs a USB C charger capable of chucking out
60W if you want to be able to use it twice without waiting a long time
for it to charge.
I do have one fast charger, but as it is for a Realme Pro phone I
don't think it uses the ususal fast charging protocol.
It's possible it wants to charge from 20V (60W = 20V @ 3A) which might
mean it won't charge at all from a phone charger. Depends whether the
internal charging circuit can step up the voltage or just step down.
Theo
Charged OK from whatever is in the 13A + USB A sockets installed 12-13
years ago.
I am currently in a minefield trying to establish which of my many
devices are compatible.
I have Anker and uGreen cigar lighter socket chargers which claim to be
fast chargers.
A bit coy on which variants of signalling they support.
Mention compatible cables - but my raft of USB cables don't seem to have
that information on them.
Now looking at a Dell Laptop which has a USB C port which accepts
charging from a Power Delivery charger, but doesn.t say if the supplied charger supports Power Delivery.
I am hoping that most/all charger support the basic Power Delivery
standards and I just need to make sure I have the correct USB cable.
Then label it clearly.
David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:<snip>
I switched to a modern charger (Lidl's 'Ultimate Speed' 4A, about £15)<snip>
and it's much better - I can select a setting for AGM and leave it, eventually it'll complete and end up in float charge. Looks like this
(this one's 5A):
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267229577307
It's not very quick - needs leaving on about 24h to charge from empty to
full (~50Ah battery) but you pay a lot more money for a much faster
charger.
David wrote:dp/IN06332>
it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by something.
To track down which fuse the parasitic load is on, a set of these
multimeter leads can be handy (beware the miniature size fuses).
<https://cpc.farnell.com/gunson/77068/automotive-fuse-adaptor-test-leads/
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeks
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
<snip>Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.Well the motor home will have a leisure battery built in.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 15:00:33 +0000, David wrote:
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeks
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new
battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by
something.
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be
sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
Bought a NOCO GBX45 off Amazon.
Interesting looking bit of kit.
It came mostly charged.
It doesn't come with a charger.
I haven't read the manual yet, but the picture on the front says 10W USB A out, and 60W USB C in.
It looks as though it needs a USB C charger capable of chucking out 60W if you want to be able to use it twice without waiting a long time for it to charge.
No manual - need to look on line.
After behaving faultlessly for years, our car failed to start two weeks
ago.
Away from home in a car park.
RAC called, and after about a 2 hour wait they turned up.
At which point the bl**dy thing started.
Anyway, battery was well old (bought car late 2016) so had a brand new battery fitted.
Today, it started fine.
Drove for about 45 minutes.
Stood for a couple of hours.
Started fine.
Drove back for 45 minutes.
Now it won't start any I can see the 12V being dragged down by something.
Until this is resolved it seems risky to use the car.
It is on charge, but the random nature of the failure suggests that it
could happen at any time.
For safety and lack of worry, I think a jump start pack would be sensible.
We have 2 vehicles; 3.0l diesel car and 2.3l diesel motor home.
I am now looking for suggestions (borne from experience) for a reliable
jump start pack.
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