So I spent the weekend in the cities, came up late Sunday night with the wagon filled floor to ceiling with stuff, and a fairly loaded trailer behind it. Got home at about 1am, so I didn't feel like unloading anything. pulled the one thing on the trailer that wasn't waterproof, and stuck it in the wagon, parked the rig sideways across the slab (blocking the 4runner and XT6 in), and went to bed. today (technically yesterday, but I just got off work), I had to work at 5pm. so at about 4:30, I went out, thought I'd start both cars, repark them so I could take the '6 to work, and let it idle while I had a little bit to eat. Now, the XT6 battery is almost worthless, and it'd been sitting for the weekend, so I didn't expect it to be able to start as-is, but I tried. sure enough, it cranked, but far too slow to start. so I popped the hood, and propped it open a few inches (the driver's side hinge broke last week, so I didn't want to open it all the way), and used the spare battery to jump it. get back in the car, turn the ignition, all the lights come on strong like they should, volt gauge read 12, awesome. turned the key to start, *click* of the solenoid engaging, but the engine won't turn over. wtf. tried a few more times, *click click click*. so I grab a hammer and breaker bar, and use it to shake the thing around a bit (hoping there was some crap in the brushes that I could shake loose), to no avail. so I walk back to the wagon, to get some more tools, and notice that one of my Blizzak Revo-1s, which only have about 5k miles on them, is completely flat. crap. so I grab a 22mm socket, and turn the engine over a bit, hoping it was a bad spot on the starter. didn't help. AND I dropped my socket, which did not go through to the ground. I tried feeling around for it, but only managed to get my hands and arms very greasy. Then I grabbed a chunk of heavy-gauge wire, clipped one end to the + battery terminal with the jumper cable, pulled the wire off the starter, and hot-wired it. thinking maybe it's the relay or something. same thing. so I call work, "I got no car". so the manager offers to drive and I'll work as the manager. Alright.....so they said they'd send someone to pick me up in a few minutes So I put stuff away and lock the cars. take the spare battery and go inside to put it on the charger. get to the back room in the basement where the charger is, turn the light on, and immediately notice a river of water coming down the uphill wall of the basement. Start moving stuff around so nothing gets wet, and turn the fan on HI (drainage here is not a new problem, so there's a fan nearby in case). Hook up the battery, and go into the other room to wash my hands, grab the pull-string for the light over the wash tub, and the string rips off in my hand.....no light. Then, I knew my phone was dying, so I grabbed my charger and went to wait to be picked up. When my coworker came, I left the charger on the shelf next to the front door. so my phone died half way through my shift. And, to top it off. when I counted up all the cash for the bank deposit. somehow I ended up $20 short. Sorry for the rant. it was either that, or drink. and there was only one bottle of Boston Lager in the fridge, and, being 2:30 am, there's nowhere to buy any more. So, tomorrow I'll start by unloading the wagon and filling the tire, hopefully the leak is just ice in the valve stem or something that'll fix itself (yea....right). Then I'll pull the XT6 starter (assuming I don't have a spare in these buckets of extras that came with the car....), and see how nasty the brushes are. hopefully they can just be cleaned.....
Sounds like you had quite an adventure. Just be glad you still have your health. LOL Now go have a few beers and watch American Idol or something. LOL
Hey Sounds like you have been hanging around me with my car luck. It's another day, you will get thru it. I feel for ya thou.
Thats a day gone wrong... When you get a chance have a drink or 2 on me man. Id buy you a few if you were down here! Good luck with the rest of the day.
well, today I went out, and unloaded a few things. then got the compressor going (of course, one of my 25' hoses split this winter, so I have to drag the compressor halfway out into the yard before it'll reach the parking slab), and filled up the flat tire. as soon as it was full, I could hear it leaking :emo:. I followed the sound, and sure enough, a nail or something stuck in the tire. I was sure this day was going to be a repeat. drove to the girl's house, got her bed frame unloaded, and went right back home. then called Sam's Club to ask about tire repair (I've had such awesome service there lately, and for uber cheap, and they don't care what size tires you put on what up here!), and they came through again, "Flat repair is free for members". YES. so about an hour later (and a couple questions from the techs about the car ), my tire is patched. then stopped at wal-mart, and got a new battery and terminal for the XT6. got home, and the hood hinges had arrived. So I finished unloading the wagon, and started swapping the broken hinge out. then pulled the battery....the one that Wal-Mart's little battery lookup computer told me to get is about 3 inches larger in every dimension, but it still fits, barely. Got it put in, along with the new + terminal. got in, turned the key, *click*. alright, well.....I couldn't ask for too much. oh yea, and the basement has dried up significantly. I've got about 2 hours before I have to work tonight, and the wagon is ready to go....so I'll go start pulling the starter, and see if I can't find the 22mm socket.
Ouch!! Rough couple of days. I sucks so bad when everything goes against you. I have been there a few times. I was going to recommend cleaning the terminals on the battery, I had an issue where the car would not start but I had full power to acc. and lights. It was a dirty terminal, it was just dirty/corroded enough to not start the car. Although now seeing that you have a new battery and terminal I dont know what to say. good luck on it though, when electrical stuff goes bad it means long hours to me.
pics of the rig from this morning. almost exactly as it was when I came up on Sunday: broken XT6 hinge: pulled the starter, and the brushes were filthy, so i tried cleaning them all out, which only helped a little bit. going to pull it again tomorrow and I'll take the brushes up to the local electronics shop and see if they can find me some new ones.
