Thursday, February 27, 2014

Make Sure Your Door is Shut Tight!

James was in a bit of a panic this morning when he went out to his car and discovered that it would not start. Seems after his 'dumpster-diving' session last night (donuts!) he didn't get the car door shut all the way and didn't notice that the overhead light was still on and so the battery drained all night.

For a car that automagically shuts off the headlights when the car isn't running and the key isn't in the lock, you'd think they'd be bright enough to put the overhead lights on a similar drain-blocking circuit. But they didn't. How odd.

We didn't have time to look into it; we just jumped into my car and zoomed off to school. After dropping him off, I got back to the house and pulled the battery and put it in the shop on the charger. Tried to swap in my backup battery, but it was dead, too.  Tried to swap in my other backup battery, but it doesn't fit.

Doesn't fit.  Hmmm.  I haven't done any battery-swapping in a while, obviously. I'd forgotten that the Subaru and the Dodge batteries are not identical.  Not even close. Terminals completely different, dimensions completely different, CCA (cold cranking amps) completely different.  Guess I'll have to do one of those all-day battery-checking sessions, pull an inventory on my batteries and see what we've got. Wouldn't be good to be in this situation again. I need a battery for each car and at least one backup battery per type.

Oh, well. Enough excitement for one day. On to work!

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