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| Thread ID: 109006 | 2010-04-20 05:26:00 | Disconnect car battery | lakewoodlady (103) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 878527 | 2010-04-20 08:34:00 | Some cars have a connection to plug in a 9 volt battery for when you have to disconnect the main battery so the ECM won't lose its profile. Personally I wouldn't bother disconnecting the battery if not being driven for 2 weeks or even more. Have been driving and owned cars for 40 odd years and a bit of a DIY on cars. :) I guess my neighbour is a little worried that he might be in hospital for a bit longer than two weeks. He is coming up 87 and is resigned to the fact that "anything could happen". He has had the battery go flat on him before. LL |
lakewoodlady (103) | ||
| 878528 | 2010-04-20 09:24:00 | A friend had his car battery go flat while it was parked at the airport for 3 weeks. It was expensive getting service at the airport on a Sunday (but only a small percentage of his parking bill). Later measurements gave a hint - the current to keep everything ticking over while turned off would flatten a brand new freshly charged battery in exactly 21 days if the temperature stayed at the ideal level. He got a MUCH bigger battery. The car ran like a sick dog while the computer re-learned it's best settings, but after 10 or 12 Km it ran better than it had before the shut-down. Maybe it had Win 95 in there and needed the 3 finger salute regularly? |
R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 878529 | 2010-04-20 10:37:00 | Vaseline prevents terminal corrosion. Have done this for years and it works. Many articles verify this, e.g. www.ehow.com LakewoodLady, if your neighbour is in hospital for a long time, or otherwise does not use the car, it is best to charge it once in awhile. A couple of weeks is OK; maybe a month or two. Long term and even a new battery will go dead and will no longer hold a charge, causing an expensive lesson that two of my friends had to learn the hard way. |
Strommer (42) | ||
| 878530 | 2010-04-20 10:50:00 | Good thought, occasional charging is even more important for places like Taupo that have nippy night temperatures approaching. | R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 878531 | 2010-04-20 12:16:00 | No to baking soda - an old (and should be 'dead') wive's tale . Same with grease, Vaseline, spit or urine --> Don't put anything between, on, around, over or under the post and/or the connectors . It's never a good idea to remove battery cables on anything newer than about 1998 or so . You lose the adaptive strategies in the RAM if the ECM goes flat . That requires some driving time behind the wheel to re-set the parameters and you lose a lot of fuel mileage and performance until the ECM can create a profile . You can lose a transmission shifting profile while it tries to regroup and get the TCC and shifting sequence all worked out again, you'll dump the radio settings and maybe destroy some other behind-the-scene adaptives . That can cost a lot to repair . It will have to resort to it's default program and until it figures things out, you pay . You MIGHT get away with it, but if you don't - --- Oh well . When batteries are removed from a modern vehicle, it is always a good idea to install a "Memory-Saver" power supply to keep all that stuff hot and not lose it all . Now ----------- I really mean it - G'nite to NZ! What piss-poor electronic engineering design work! Programming should all be held in memory that won't dump settings just because the battery goes flat . I've got programmed instrument stuff here that holds setting for months with no battery, and if it is that volatile, what's wrong with an onboard battery or supercap to hold the poor thing's hand while the battery lead is off . Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 878532 | 2010-04-20 22:24:00 | Neighbour's car is a 5 gear manual BTW. 1.6l XL? What colour? :p |
wratterus (105) | ||
| 878533 | 2010-04-20 22:45:00 | 1.6l XL? What colour? :p It's white, don't know what model though. Only done 50,000 ks, I think it's a 1.6 something. LL |
lakewoodlady (103) | ||
| 878534 | 2010-04-20 23:38:00 | My 1995 Honda Civic EXI has only done 45,000 ks, beat that. :) |
Trev (427) | ||
| 878535 | 2010-04-20 23:51:00 | And only to church on Sundays? unless you are a 7th day Adventist. | prefect (6291) | ||
| 878536 | 2010-04-20 23:59:00 | As an 8th day Adventist, my car does even less trips. | R2x1 (4628) | ||
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