Joined
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377 Posts
80k. Not bad for the factory battery, eh? The battery had been great up until Thursday afternoon about 5:30pm. I bought the car used in 2005.
Story time!
I came home from work Thursday and stopped by the local Chinese place for some take-out. I came out of the store, unlocked the door and jumped in. I turn the key and the dash lights went crazy! What-tha! So I do like most people and try it again, and again. ARGH! I popped the hood, inspected the battery and ground connections and all are good with no corrosion. Tried it again. No dice. So I call my Dad, who's about 10 minutes away and he's on the way.
So I'm sitting there, with my hood up and at least two guys come by, going to the Chinese restaurant and ask what's wrong and if I have jumper cables. Of course I don't have any...and I have no excuse for not having a set. So then a third guy pulls up beside me in this old compact truck, asks what's wrong, if I have cables
sigh and then proceeds to bum me for gas money!! "Sorry dude, I get paid tomorrow," I say. He says, "yeah, me too," and pulls off. geez. Gotta love people, trying to take advantage of somebody broken down.
So Dad shows up and jumps it off. I make it about 50 feet, hit the brakes and it dies right before I pull out into traffic! AAAAHH! Another jump and I'm hitting the back roads this time, away from the main traffic. I stop for nothing to keep from hitting the brakes, which I think is what had killed it before. (low idle and brake lights coming on) I make it back to my apartment and park it. I'm almost broke at this point in the month due to buying tires two weeks before, so I wait until the next morning to go after a battery.
Next day, Dad shows up to follow me, just in case it dies again. I came up to the E and instinctively hit the unlock on the key fob. Nothing! No light blink, no unlock. That was dumb. I get inside and it's almost completely dead. One jump later, it's running. Now it starts raining. You can't make this stuff up! So I'm driving down the road, in the rain, delay wipers on, no lights, afraid to hit the brakes or turn on the lights. Then a traffic light gets me. I'm really nervous by this point. I put it in neutral and keep it revved up to keep it from dying. Green light, I'm off. I flick the delay wiper to get rid of some of the water and it dies! AAAHHH!! I slowly coast into the Kmart parking lot. Thankfully, no one was pulling out, because I cruised across that part and stopped. It's raining heavily by now.
Now, up to this point, I was going to go to Walmart because they had the cheapest battery. I knew I wasn't going to make it in the pouring rain with a crapped out battery, no wipers and no lights a couple miles down the road. So, Dad jumped it off again and I told him I'm going to the closest auto parts place, O'Reillys and to heck with Walmart. I pull out on the main road again and now the windshield starts fogging up! AAAHH! I turn into a parking lot near O'Reillys to avoid another traffic light and zoom across the lot. I didn't stop and yes, I was going too fast. I whupped it into O'Reillys parking lot in the space at the front door. We go in and get a battery (Super Start 51R72, a direct drop in replacement).
It's still raining. I don't know if their policy is to replace the battery FOR you like other auto parts places, but they didn't volunteer and I wasn't in the mood to argue. I used their parts trolley and we changed the battery in the rain with only one umbrella to keep some of the rain off us. It starts thundering. We work FASTER!
Success! It's finally in and cranks no problem! We take the parts trolley back in and head back to my apartment to dry off. We are soaked to the bone.
Friday afternoon. It's working great. I'm $85.59 poorer and I'm happy about it. I took the parents out to eat to celebrate a job well done. I'm assuming that the battery had a dead cell to cause that many problems. It's a wonder it ran at all.
So, the morale to the story is to keep tabs on your oem battery if it's over 3 years old. You may end up regretting it later.;-)
</end Battery Story>
Link to battery:
http://www.oreillyauto.com/EW3/Prod...d=1249173766412&cycleCount=1520¤tPage=0
Story time!
I came home from work Thursday and stopped by the local Chinese place for some take-out. I came out of the store, unlocked the door and jumped in. I turn the key and the dash lights went crazy! What-tha! So I do like most people and try it again, and again. ARGH! I popped the hood, inspected the battery and ground connections and all are good with no corrosion. Tried it again. No dice. So I call my Dad, who's about 10 minutes away and he's on the way.
So I'm sitting there, with my hood up and at least two guys come by, going to the Chinese restaurant and ask what's wrong and if I have jumper cables. Of course I don't have any...and I have no excuse for not having a set. So then a third guy pulls up beside me in this old compact truck, asks what's wrong, if I have cables
sigh and then proceeds to bum me for gas money!! "Sorry dude, I get paid tomorrow," I say. He says, "yeah, me too," and pulls off. geez. Gotta love people, trying to take advantage of somebody broken down.So Dad shows up and jumps it off. I make it about 50 feet, hit the brakes and it dies right before I pull out into traffic! AAAAHH! Another jump and I'm hitting the back roads this time, away from the main traffic. I stop for nothing to keep from hitting the brakes, which I think is what had killed it before. (low idle and brake lights coming on) I make it back to my apartment and park it. I'm almost broke at this point in the month due to buying tires two weeks before, so I wait until the next morning to go after a battery.
Next day, Dad shows up to follow me, just in case it dies again. I came up to the E and instinctively hit the unlock on the key fob. Nothing! No light blink, no unlock. That was dumb. I get inside and it's almost completely dead. One jump later, it's running. Now it starts raining. You can't make this stuff up! So I'm driving down the road, in the rain, delay wipers on, no lights, afraid to hit the brakes or turn on the lights. Then a traffic light gets me. I'm really nervous by this point. I put it in neutral and keep it revved up to keep it from dying. Green light, I'm off. I flick the delay wiper to get rid of some of the water and it dies! AAAHHH!! I slowly coast into the Kmart parking lot. Thankfully, no one was pulling out, because I cruised across that part and stopped. It's raining heavily by now.
Now, up to this point, I was going to go to Walmart because they had the cheapest battery. I knew I wasn't going to make it in the pouring rain with a crapped out battery, no wipers and no lights a couple miles down the road. So, Dad jumped it off again and I told him I'm going to the closest auto parts place, O'Reillys and to heck with Walmart. I pull out on the main road again and now the windshield starts fogging up! AAAHH! I turn into a parking lot near O'Reillys to avoid another traffic light and zoom across the lot. I didn't stop and yes, I was going too fast. I whupped it into O'Reillys parking lot in the space at the front door. We go in and get a battery (Super Start 51R72, a direct drop in replacement).
It's still raining. I don't know if their policy is to replace the battery FOR you like other auto parts places, but they didn't volunteer and I wasn't in the mood to argue. I used their parts trolley and we changed the battery in the rain with only one umbrella to keep some of the rain off us. It starts thundering. We work FASTER!
Success! It's finally in and cranks no problem! We take the parts trolley back in and head back to my apartment to dry off. We are soaked to the bone.
Friday afternoon. It's working great. I'm $85.59 poorer and I'm happy about it. I took the parents out to eat to celebrate a job well done. I'm assuming that the battery had a dead cell to cause that many problems. It's a wonder it ran at all.
So, the morale to the story is to keep tabs on your oem battery if it's over 3 years old. You may end up regretting it later.;-)
</end Battery Story>
Link to battery:
http://www.oreillyauto.com/EW3/Prod...d=1249173766412&cycleCount=1520¤tPage=0
