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Dec. 11th, 2005
Uh-oh...
I wonder if this is why my car won't start? Generally, I think, one wants to see considerably less bleeding from a brand-new battery.
UPDATE: The guys at the garage tell me that this is actually an anti-corrosion spray that they put on when they installed the new battery. (2005-12-12 8:38am)
What my car and my nose have in common
Dec. 11th, 2005 08:40 pmThey're running.
The guy who came to jump-start the car swears that the red pools of blech surrounding each terminal are perfectly normal corrosion. On a brand-new battery. He also says that the little overhead light is capable of draining the battery in an hour.
Further, he says that I should let the car run with the lights and the heat on, because this will cause the battery to charge faster. (His rationale is that it will force the alternator to spin constantly.) If the alternator produces more electric power than these devices need, I suppose it could be the case. But I'd guess that headlights alone would make it keep spinning, and the heat is just slowing the charge.
Ah well. I'm going to take the car to the garage as soon as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tregoweth returns so he can tail me and give me a ride back. I'll let Olin Mott's techs give me the straight dope. Maybe I just got a defective battery. Maybe there's an underlying problem.
And maybe AAA should have gotten someone out here within an hour like they promised, and not 1h50m after my call. But that's the contractor's fault, not theirs.
The guy who came to jump-start the car swears that the red pools of blech surrounding each terminal are perfectly normal corrosion. On a brand-new battery. He also says that the little overhead light is capable of draining the battery in an hour.
Further, he says that I should let the car run with the lights and the heat on, because this will cause the battery to charge faster. (His rationale is that it will force the alternator to spin constantly.) If the alternator produces more electric power than these devices need, I suppose it could be the case. But I'd guess that headlights alone would make it keep spinning, and the heat is just slowing the charge.
Ah well. I'm going to take the car to the garage as soon as
tregoweth returns so he can tail me and give me a ride back. I'll let Olin Mott's techs give me the straight dope. Maybe I just got a defective battery. Maybe there's an underlying problem.And maybe AAA should have gotten someone out here within an hour like they promised, and not 1h50m after my call. But that's the contractor's fault, not theirs.
After half an hour or letting the car run, I tried to put it in gear and turn on the radio to help the alternator run. The car stopped and the lights dimmed.
Then I turned everything off and tried to start it again. The engine started, but I heard a hissing (spraying?) noise, and some sort of vapor or smoke began to come out from under the hood. So I put it back into park and called AAA again, this time for a tow.
I get the first five miles free, and the trip shouldn't be much longer than that. So even at $3/mile, it's not too bad.
Then I turned everything off and tried to start it again. The engine started, but I heard a hissing (spraying?) noise, and some sort of vapor or smoke began to come out from under the hood. So I put it back into park and called AAA again, this time for a tow.
I get the first five miles free, and the trip shouldn't be much longer than that. So even at $3/mile, it's not too bad.
