Cars We Drive!

[VaderDave]

Thinned the herd a bit: sold the E30 and the Range Rover Classic this week. My wife is happy.

 

[UnFacconable]

Welp, went to jump in my Jeep to pick up the kids from school for sports and ... it wouldn't start. Well it wouldn't even unlock. Batteries (main 12v + auxiliary) were completely dead.

Tried to jump it with a dude who was kind enough to help but wouldn't even register. Tow truck came with a jump box and it got close but no dice.

I eventually realized that we had left my wife's key in the center console so it must have caused the car to never really sleep and drained the batteries.

To add insult to injury the two batteries are located under the driver and front passenger seats, so they will be pretty annoying to replace.

My wife wanted a new car for reliability but the car it "replaced" (which is still in our stable), will start right up after months of sitting because there ain't nothing to parasitic drain on it.

 

[Oswald Cornelius]

Battery costs are loads of fun these days.

 

[otc]

Battery costs are loads of fun these days.

I now have two Weize AGM batteries from seeing them pop up on Slickdeals.

Weize Platinum AGM BCI Group 47-12v 60ah H5 Size 47 Automotive Battery $108 & More + Free Shipping

Weize has select Automotive Batteries on sale for prices listed below after applying discount code Review&Share10 at checkout. Shipping is free. Thanks to Community Member BabyBubba for finding ...

slickdeals.net

The AGM prices get quite low on sale and people have had good luck with them. Looks like right now an H6/Group 48 is $123 and there's a 5% promo code that brings it down to $117 with free shipping

Costco can otherwise be pretty good, but the Weize AGM prices are still well below even costco's basic lead acid.

If you need to warranty it...yeah...probably a hassle. But Costco has switched to a prorated warranty, and given the price savings you can probably afford the risk that the battery will fail early.

That said, hopefully @UnFacconable doesn't really need to replace them? That car's pretty new, right? Either some time with a good charger or an attempt at a warranty claim (even leaving the keys in the car shouldn't tank 2 batteries in a short time...manufacturers have been doing keyless long enough to figure this out).

 

[UnFacconable]

Yeah, we'll see! I have both a trickle charger and a portable jump starter arriving today. In a perfect world, I get it to turn over, drive it a few blocks home and then trickle charge it over night.

If that happens and it continues to struggle, I warranty it.

There are a quote a few conflating annoyances. Like first, the closest dealer is ~20 miles away, so it's an extra cost tow. Second, the guy claimed he couldn't get it on his flat bed unless we could start it up since it needs to be in neutral. He told me to call the dealer. Third, the freaking batteries are under the seats, so not that easy to get to.

If I can't get it resolved just by charging it and/or the warranty claim is denied, this seems like it will be $1k+ which is ludicrous.

 

[HRoi]

How long did it sit between starts? Completely killing a battery just through parasitic drain in, say, less than a week doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[double00]

Thinned the herd a bit: sold the E30 and the Range Rover Classic this week. My wife is happy.

private sale or ? did you do ok ? I haven't really been keeping up with auto prices ...

 

[VaderDave]

private sale or ? did you do ok ? I haven't really been keeping up with auto prices ...

Yeah, both private sale. I was happy with what I got for each of them.

 

[brokencycle]

Yeah, both private sale. I was happy with what I got for each of them.

If you weren't, you shouldn't have sold.

 

[UnFacconable]

How long did it sit between starts? Completely killing a battery just through parasitic drain in, say, less than a week doesn’t make sense to me.

Just under a month.

 

[VaderDave]

If you weren't, you shouldn't have sold.

I sold both for several thousand dollars more than I paid for them. If I conveniently forget repairs, maintenance, gas, and insurance costs, I actually made money!

 

[UnFacconable]

Just under a month.

Update - jump start booster arrive and I got the car to fire up, but the warnings lit up like a christmas tree and it made it seem like every system on the car is failing. It died after a minute or so. In particular, it felt like some kind of relay in the transmission shifter was turning on and off repeatedly and I wasn't confident enough to put 'er in drive becauuse I'm afraid it will die on me in the middle of the street and/or really screw something up if it dies while in drive.

Really need to find a way to trickle charge the battery enough to get it going so I can get it to my house where I can trickle charge for a day or two.

What a ******* ordeal.

 

[brokencycle]

I sold both for several thousand dollars more than I paid for them. If I conveniently forget repairs, maintenance, gas, and insurance costs, I actually made money!

Sounds like home ownership as an investment.

 

[jbarwick]

How long did it sit between starts? Completely killing a battery just through parasitic drain in, say, less than a week doesn’t make sense to me.

My Outback had an ECU issue where the battery would drain in a week of sitting. Subaru drug their feet FOR YEARS before finally figuring it out and fixing it. So many dead batteries.

 

[HRoi]

Just under a month.

🤔

Well the lighting up like a Christmas tree seems logical to me because the electrical system is still getting low voltage from the uncharged battery. I also believe that a lead acid battery can be discharged to the point that it’s dead forever.

Wonder if there’s a way you could trial a new battery in the car with the option not to actually buy it yet? IME just replacing the battery immediately fixes a whole lot of these knock-on effects of a battery discharge

My Outback had an ECU issue where the battery would drain in a week of sitting. Subaru drug their feet FOR YEARS before finally figuring it out and fixing it. So many dead batteries.

Did your Outback ever get stranded out back of an Outback Steakhouse? 😄

But yeah, I think we’re making the same point. Id always suspect some additional issue beyond normal parasitic drain in those cases