h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't need this. I'm currently within (and starving) outside #2s school for their French exchange kids to arrive. 2 hours late do far. Total uni stress. Loafs of work to do. And now my car won't start. My other car is off the road - probably permanently. I could

Mol

Hope you get it sorted. ADAC, maybe? Keeping fingers crossed for you. Make the French kid cook for you

Y.

Oh, relief! ADAC got me going again and said it is only that the battery was a bit run down and will be ok in the morning if I drive 20kms right away (so I did)


I don't need a French kid to cook for me, I have a

She's very cute and her German isn't bad. AND I get to hear #2 doing her best o explain everything in french and I'm impressed.

Have the battery tested (usually free at auto part stores). Hopefully it's just an old battery and not a problem with the charging system (alternator).

Unless, of course, you know of a reason for the battery to be flat. Did you drain it waiting?

I may have drained it by standing yakking to someone with the door open and the radio going and the lights don't go off unless the key is out of the ignition. Sigh. I'm useless at cars.

Still worth getting the battery tested. Better to replace a bad battery than get stranded again.

What BG says is good advice, especially in colder climates. You might be lucky and be able to get a jump start quickly, but you might not. A flat battery is one of the most frustrating things. You know the car's okay, you just can't get it started unless there's someone around to give you a push.

Have you had that battery for more than three years? It probably needs to be replaced.

My sympathies. It never rains, but it pours, does it. Hope the French kid works out well for the rest of the stay. Did it give the girls an incentive to tidy their rooms?

He tested the battery directly yesterday and it's fine - it's not that old though so I would have been mightily peeved if it needed replacing already.


The girls' rooms are relatively - gasp! - tidy because they have both just been painted and they haven't really put all their stuff back in (and chucked a whole LOAD away).

The French Kid (TFK) is nice, I'm actually quite impressed with her German. And so far when she's got stuck I've managed to ressurect enough of my awful French to get us out of it.

As you say: pas de panique!

If you only go for short drives and keep the radio and lights and whatnots on while the engine is not running, this is bound to happen, particularly with the cold weather we've been having, but since the battery is okay you should not have any more problems

well I don't usually drive less than 70kms at a time and it's warm now so I should be safe...

70 km's? That's a lot. How long had you been yakking to empty your battery?

turns out it was about 2 hours...

That would do it.

Oh Sho