Three Pinocchios

[birdfan]

Trickle charger do seem to work well. I have all my occasionally used cars on them. Since the cars are in my own garage the chargers are on them all the time. For the retro I took the trunk light bulb out and just leave the trunk open - but of course that would not work for outside or a public garage.

As a side story about the effectiveness of trickle chargers, one of my other cars has had a charger on it for years, but last year the starting was getting slow and at first start this spring it was pretty weak and at the next try the battery was finally stone cold dead. Upon removing the battery I looked at the date code and said, "that can't be right", so I got the purchase receipt out of the glove box and the date WAS correct - April 2000. Yup, 22 years! If I was told this I would think it was a tall tale and would not have believed it. But I saw it myself.

Now, don't misunderstand, I am not claiming a trickle charger will make all batteries last that long, but it does demonstrate they do work (at least to me). P.S. - this is a much older car with NO computers.

[ambitio]

To close the loop on this one ...

I connected a trickle charger yesterday and bought a portable battery booster for good measure. With the battery charged everything, from misbehaving windows to the engine running rough, went back to normal. The booster proved unnecessary. The fuel guage still works. Looks like there was a silver lining to this experience after all !

[birdfan]

Thanks for following up so we know what resolved the problems. It is always good to know what has worked for others.

[Alamobird]

As an expert with an incredible grasp of the obvious, batteries are good til they’re bad. Most Die Hard’s and other batteries die easy.

Answer is to start or drive the car at least weekly. Don’t know if a trickle charger gives some notice of a bad battery. Best indicator of a declining battery, short of a stress test, is a labored crank when the battery should be fully charged.

Time to change the battery before it gets really expensive. I learned the hard way. Nothing but Motorcraft’s, but they all went bad on their own different schedules.

Last time, the car wouldn’t start or jump. My bad, as I had not driven it in months and don’t own a trickle charger. Battery was not that old.

As we know, the cars do weird things when the battery is going out. In my case, trying to jump a totally dead battery apparently did not sit well with the FEM AND REM. New battery did not solve the problems.. Many $$$ later to a mechanic I trust implicitly, the car is alive and well.

In perfect 20/20 hindsight, batteries are cheap. Don’t tempt fate.

[vinnie]

How about you just drive it for 10 minutes or so every week or 10 days, road conditions permitting? Try sitting in your garage for days being ignored with alligator clips attached to your scrotum and see how you like it!

V.

[007Cruiser]

Ouch!

[merlot4]

Vinnie, you have a way with words.....!

[ambitio]

I sometimes wonder about parallels between human anatomy and that of a car. Glad we have that covered ;-)

Having said that, the car seems to like the alligator clips (different species and all). Starts and runs without a problem since !