Thanks Hanky for your response. U r there for we needy do it yourselfers who dread going to the dealership or shop to receive a thorough excise of the wallet. I leaned the hard way about being courteous when complaining.... taken to court four times. Sometimes it works but often times u have to cut your losses. I'm old and don't want to get into an argument, so I'm going to bypass PBs and go to Walmart and buy a battery. If there is any issue down the road they won't quibble and will take the battery back with a smile. By the way, when I installed this current battery I cleaned the cable ends and put grease on them. Plus I take voltage readings from the battery post and not the connector. Thanks again my friend

 

Hi Dave,
Might I suggest that you , if possible , check all connections that you can see and not limit your effort to just the battery cables.
We all have better ????? things to do with our hard earned $$$ than to share it with a dealership. Sometimes we don't have much choice, but many times just looking can produce gratifying results. Please keep us informed , thanks.

Be prepared to leave a defective battery as a core. Places are getting pretty particular these days.

 

Good suggestion, I'll do just that Hanky. That said my boy's old Taurus wouldn't start. He got me out of bed late at night to troubleshoot. I put my shoes on after grumbling a bit and gave him a jump. As soon as he put the lights on the Taurus crapped out. We started it again and I put the voltmeter on it. You won't believe this but his alternator is bad. I let him use the misses minivan....he'll get laughed at... while I ordered a rebuilt alternator for $80 bucks....love these old cars because parts are cheap. I guess when it rains it pours!

 

Called Pep Boys this morning. Said battery would not start my car and this is my second battery within a year and checked my charging voltage which is good. PBs told me there must be something wrong with my auto and to bring it in. Since I did not want to wake the misses (would not go well for me) to follow me then most likely get a lofty bill, I jumped the car and went to Walmart alone. Although, the employees were rough housing with each other, they sold me a new top of the line Maxx battery and gave me a $10 discount to boot! Although, u gents have seen a battery countless times, I thought u might like a picture of the lowly Walmart battery....bet it lasts 6 years! Thanks gents

 

I will usually use a marking crayon and write on the battery the date the new battery was installed. When looking under the hood , the reminder is always there.

 

Great idea Hanky. Marking the new battery with the install date will tell me, at a glance, how long the battery is holding up. The important thing is I won't have to worry....for awhile anyway....if the auto won't start. To me there's nothing worse than a dead battery away from home or an overheating auto. Thanks my friend and keep up the good work helping others on this site!

 

There are little gadgets that you can plug into the cigar lighter and it will tell you the current battery voltage. With your background you just might see something before it causes problems. Also as you know, you are somewhat prepared to catch a fluctuation and as long as you are ready, it won't happen.

Little things like when you replace the windshield wiper blades, stick the better one , if the same, someplace in the trunk and they do fly off once in a while, never where you can get a replacement, but it can set in the trunk if ever needed.

 

U won't believe this Hanky but during my drive for my weekly VA visit today, one of my windshield wiper blades flew off in the poring rain! Before I could shut them off the stem scratched the windshield. For the rest of the drive had to keep the wipers off and my nose against the windshield so I could see. Lesson learned......won't buy cheap plastic wipers any more and like u state always have an extra set in the trunk. Even the expensive ones are cheap especially considering I could have caused an accident due to my wipers being off. Should have read this post before I went to the VA! Thanks again my friend

 

Some things do change and some just don't.

Back in the "Old days", folks carried a spare coil, contact points , motor oil spark plugs and a host of other back up parts in the trunk because parts were harder to get and places were farther apart. Most folks did a lot of their own maintenance then. Today with a cell phone plus cars are much more reliable,,,,,,we don't usually do that anymore.
They still run out of gas, wipers still fly off and cars still quit at the worst times., You don't see many wreckers towing cars these days, they have to be carried on a flat bed trailer. They aren't all being transported for sale, they broke down !

 

I totally agree with you Hanky. Back in the day the misses was driving r Oldsmobile. She said the temperature light was on but she was hot so ran the ac anyway. She pulled into the take-out window of a burger place with r 5 (screaming) kids.....now our kids have kids of their own and are getting paid back. Well, you guessed it the old Olds died at the take out window. There were cars behind her beeping their horns and the kids were screaming. The restaurant employees came out and pushed the car away from the window. The misses with the screamers went into the restaurant and called me. Needless to say the misses was furious and never drove that car again.....we bought a well used minivan which died (transmission) in the middle of the road a few years later. Now a days, I'm grateful for only dealing with dead batteries and flying windshield wiper blades! Thanks again my friend