Meanwhile MrGrumpy was especially grumpy this morning when he went out to leave for work and the Mustang just clicked instead of starting... Just what he needed... He was lucky that a local (who shell now be known as MrBobTheSavior) was just leaving, he stopped and had jump leads (which MrGrumpy has back in the UK, but that is not very helpful).
Once started he headed to work and started looking for places to replace the battery (not many places open in the US before 10 or 11am).
At lunchtime he headed out to the carpark, did the car start, nope... almost, but then the click of death...
While he was looking he found the negative terminal was pretty loose (it was padded with something, which instantly disappeared when MrGrumpy checked the terminal).
So even better, he now had a flat battery, no leads and a loose terminal...
It was a little while but he did find someone with some leads, meanwhile he got some copper tape from one of the HW engineers, he put it around the terminal and pushed the connector back on, it was not a good fit, but better than before.
Now with a little better connection and some leads he got the mustang running again... off to find a fix.
He first tried the local Jiffy Lube - but they did not change or fix battery terminals, so without turning off the engine, he continued.
While looking for a AutoZone or something, he saw a small garage/workshop on El Camino, "Worth a try" he thought.
Again without stopping the engine he went in a asked if they could assist, MrMechico said to bring the car in, he would look.
The fix involved not changing the connecter but a cap that fitted over the terminal and then banging on the connector followed by trying to remove the socket that he had needed to ram on the worn head of the bolt.
The moment of truth, would the car start or would it need a jump (and still a new battery)?
Wow, it started... MrGrumpy was happier, now how much? MrMechico said $5, my Grumpy only had a $20 so said to make it $10, he was pleased with that...
Now will the car be able to re-charge the battery?
He checked the voltage and it was 13.8V, that suggested it was at least trying to charge it.
Back at the office, he decided to leave work before there would be nobody about to give him a lift. He got in the car and it started...
Next issue, it was now dark, he did not have half a tank of gas and he was not wearing sunglasses... No seriously, he was on fumes and it was dark, now he needed to get some gas.
He drove in the slow commuter traffic back towards home, all the time the gauge was sitting on 'E', he had read that this is a fuel low light (he does not remember ever seeing one and this was not the time to test it). At the Shell station, he pulled up to the pump, left the engine running, turned off the lights and went to fill up... Just as you would expect, something went wrong.
This time it was the Pump, not accepting debit cards, his is waiting for the payment to go though on his credit card (so that is useless), off to the kiosk to pre-pay for fuel (car is still sitting there running).
Anyway he managed to put $50 in and the station did not explode or anything else dramatic.
The big question, will it start tomorrow????
To Finish off - here is Beer of the Day
Sones Double Bastard Ale
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| 1Pt 6Oz of 11.2% Ale (yes that is US pints and Oz - so 1.2 UK Pints |
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