- 13,827
- Down under
...is not your friend 
Yesterday morning my car had trouble starting. It ws turning over, but only "caught" after 3 -4 seconds. So I get in my car to drive home, and *silence*. Mr. Ventilation Fan has called it a day and refuses to work. This means my aircon is also out of commission. Feeling grumpy about it all I stopped off at the closest Toyota dealer on the way home and asked him what was what.
He called some reticent looking mechanic over and he poked around with a volt meter in the engine bay. He stripped away the insulation on a clump of wires and.......showed me where my 🤬 leaking battery had corroded the wires
Yep, my battery is leaking, and has made a royal mess of the wires in that part of the engine.
I drove home in silence and investigated things with my dad. He wanted to find the source of the starting issues. He wiggled the battery earth lead.... and that popped off in this hand Luckily he had a spare (although too long) for his car. He fitted that (using Bicarbonate of soda to get rid of all the acid that had accumulated seemily everywhere) pretty easily. Then came the fan electrics. The offending wire runs all the way diagonally across the engine bay, so the break could have been anywhere. The solution was to run a new wire - piggy backing the original - from the battery to the firewall. It worked, and with insulation tape doesnt look too bad.
Basically I am going to have to go to an auto-electrician to have it sorted out. I cant have other wires breaking, as i need my car for work. I wonder how much that will cost 👎
Lousy bastige battery.
Yesterday morning my car had trouble starting. It ws turning over, but only "caught" after 3 -4 seconds. So I get in my car to drive home, and *silence*. Mr. Ventilation Fan has called it a day and refuses to work. This means my aircon is also out of commission. Feeling grumpy about it all I stopped off at the closest Toyota dealer on the way home and asked him what was what.
He called some reticent looking mechanic over and he poked around with a volt meter in the engine bay. He stripped away the insulation on a clump of wires and.......showed me where my 🤬 leaking battery had corroded the wires
Yep, my battery is leaking, and has made a royal mess of the wires in that part of the engine.I drove home in silence and investigated things with my dad. He wanted to find the source of the starting issues. He wiggled the battery earth lead.... and that popped off in this hand
Luckily he had a spare (although too long) for his car. He fitted that (using Bicarbonate of soda to get rid of all the acid that had accumulated seemily everywhere) pretty easily. Then came the fan electrics. The offending wire runs all the way diagonally across the engine bay, so the break could have been anywhere. The solution was to run a new wire - piggy backing the original - from the battery to the firewall. It worked, and with insulation tape doesnt look too bad.Basically I am going to have to go to an auto-electrician to have it sorted out. I cant have other wires breaking, as i need my car for work.
I wonder how much that will cost 👎Lousy bastige battery.
. I will put more bicarb on visible areas in the engine when i get home, until I replace the battery. Should limit the damage.
