A "different" way to jump start!

[Crossthreaded]

After reading your list of your boot I remembered I too have fuses (no bulbs as car all LED) a torch and fire ext also, what are we like. The last time I actually broke down on my bike or in the car was over 20 years ago, so motors are a lot more reliable now if you keep the service regime up to date, and that's why IMO SEAT/CUPRA give you another 12 months free breakdown with your dealer service.

My new Skoda Scala has LED dip headlights but halogen main beams, which I thought a bit strange? the rest seem to be normal bulbs but mostly of the capless variety which is why I keep spares in the car as They seem to be less common on the likes of Halford's etc shelves.

I hadn't had a breakdown for many years until the Ibiza turbo wastegate actuator rod froze up and dumped her into Limp. Luckily still in warranty so covered and a new turbo was duly fitted FOC to me - did take them more than a week to get the turbo though! Then, just a couple of years later - so well out of warranty - the gearbox -final drive bearings - thing happened, most inconveniently on the M6/M5, and a new box had to be fitted. I did get a third off both the price of the box itself and the labour cost which was quite nice but still a big wad of cash to be parting with for a car with under 30,000 miles on it's clock! No amount of tools in bags would have helped with that! So I keep my breakdown subscription running.

 

[tracktoy]

Thought I'd just mention that in beside the spare wheel I have a length of steel rod which is just the right diameter to slide into a wheel stud hole in the hub, It's about 8 inches long? When changing a wheel I put this into one of the holes in the hub where a wheel retaining bolt would fit and move the hub flange round until it's at 12 o'clock. Then I lift the wheel with one hole at 12 o'clock and slip it over the rod, thread the other bolts onto their holes just finger tight and pull the rod out of the hole so I can fit the last bolt. It makes fitting a wheel, when you're old and not so strong any more, much easier.

Yes I forgot about those as well, very useful if like me you change wheels a lot

 

[Crossthreaded]

Yes I forgot about those as well, very useful if like me you change wheels a lot

View attachment 48928

I was just about to order a set of these when I realized I have several lengths of steel rod of different diameters and one of them turns out to be an absolutely perfect sliding fit in the wheel bolt holes. (It's probably an imperial size because I've had those lengths of rod "forever") It's not threaded but is a good sliding fit. I did wonder if it might fall out too easily being as it's not threaded, so cut a suitable length and tried it - seemed ok. I first used it "in anger" when I removed all the Scala's wheels about 9 months after I bought her so I could apply anti-seize to the hubs to stop the alloy wheels corroding in place - which, to my surprise, at not even a year old, they were already starting to do! It worked very well and showed no inclination to fall out on it's own. The wee Panda, although it has steel wheels, is not going to need one, yet - maybe when I'm even older? - because, although steel, the wheels are considerably lighter than the Scala's alloys!

 

[Crossthreaded]

I haven't been on the forum for some time now, what with not actually owning a SEAT any more - or there being one in the extended "Family Fleet" However @BillyCool triggered my notifications a couple of days ago by "liking" a post I made when we were looking for a replacement for my younger boy's work estate car - He's a self employed sign-writer specialising in vehicle liveries so finds a lot of his work is carried out at his customer's premises. An estate car fills this need well and he can still use it for family trips. We'd pretty much settled on a Leon estate hence the first post in that thread. Anyway, as he ended up with an Audi A4 Avant (estate) and I hadn't updated the thread, I did so. Then just went for an extended "wander" around the forum and posts I'd made. Came across this one and thought an update might be of interest?

I'll assume someone might be interested in how I got on with my Capacitor type jump starter? So here goes. Immediately after buying it I just "messed about" with it in my workshop. I was wondering about how well it would charge from a well depleted battery and found it charged satisfactorily from the old battery I'd removed about a year previously from my older boy's Punto. This battery wouldn't crank the Fiat but did fully charge the Streetwize pack. I'm well known around our area for being someone who "knows about cars" and, in the interests of good relations, I encourage family and neighbours to ask for help and advice if they think I can. Consequently I've now jumped about 8 or 9 cars for people. The last one was a 1.4 Ibiza Toca with a battery so flat it didn't even "tickle" the solenoid. It was raining heavily and it's a car I know - belongs to my neighbour across the road - and just isn't used enough to keep the battery properly charged. I didn't bother doing battery checks first because we were getting soaked. Just tried the starter on the key, it didn't even click, so I don't know what voltage it was showing. Connected up the Streetwize and pushed the green button. it took about 2 or 3 minutes to fully charge the pack. pushed the green button again, it counted down, displayed "discharging" and we turned the key. The engine cranked very vigorously and started almost immediately. This has been my experience of using it on every vehicle I've tried it on so far, including my friend's V6 Jag (which I've now jumped twice for him) He really needs to give it to an electrician to sort out what I think is a parasitic drain. There's not been one it wouldn't charge from and starting has been almost immediate in every case. No-one has, so far, come back to me reporting any subsequent problems (which might have been an indicator the pack had caused damage to electronics etc). The biggest test it's had so far was on a 1.9 TDI Passat. I was interested to see how it would cope with the initial high current drain from the glow plugs and whether this would deplete the device to the extent that it wouldn't have enough left for cranking the engine? But none of it! spun the engine over very well and started it almost instantly. They do claim it will start up to 8litre capacity petrol and diesel engines: https://www.streetwizeaccessories.c...tarters/N-Capacitor-Jump-Starter-Green-SWPP20 I bought mine at big discount - almost half price - from Argos.

To say I'm delighted with it is an understatement. It's going to be very interesting to see how well it functions as it ages, but initial results have been beyond expectation.

 

[Seastormer]

I haven't been on the forum for some time now, what with not actually owning a SEAT any more - or there being one in the extended "Family Fleet" However @BillyCool triggered my notifications a couple of days ago by "liking" a post I made when we were looking for a replacement for my younger boy's work estate car - He's a self employed sign-writer specialising in vehicle liveries so finds a lot of his work is carried out at his customer's premises. An estate car fills this need well and he can still use it for family trips. We'd pretty much settled on a Leon estate hence the first post in that thread. Anyway, as he ended up with an Audi A4 Avant (estate) and I hadn't updated the thread, I did so. Then just went for an extended "wander" around the forum and posts I'd made. Came across this one and thought an update might be of interest?

I'll assume someone might be interested in how I got on with my Capacitor type jump starter? So here goes. Immediately after buying it I just "messed about" with it in my workshop. I was wondering about how well it would charge from a well depleted battery and found it charged satisfactorily from the old battery I'd removed about a year previously from my older boy's Punto. This battery wouldn't crank the Fiat but did fully charge the Streetwize pack. I'm well known around our area for being someone who "knows about cars" and, in the interests of good relations, I encourage family and neighbours to ask for help and advice if they think I can. Consequently I've now jumped about 8 or 9 cars for people. The last one was a 1.4 Ibiza Toca with a battery so flat it didn't even "tickle" the solenoid. It was raining heavily and it's a car I know - belongs to my neighbour across the road - and just isn't used enough to keep the battery properly charged. I didn't bother doing battery checks first because we were getting soaked. Just tried the starter on the key, it didn't even click, so I don't know what voltage it was showing. Connected up the Streetwize and pushed the green button. it took about 2 or 3 minutes to fully charge the pack. pushed the green button again, it counted down, displayed "discharging" and we turned the key. The engine cranked very vigorously and started almost immediately. This has been my experience of using it on every vehicle I've tried it on so far, including my friend's V6 Jag (which I've now jumped twice for him) He really needs to give it to an electrician to sort out what I think is a parasitic drain. There's not been one it wouldn't charge from and starting has been almost immediate in every case. No-one has, so far, come back to me reporting any subsequent problems (which might have been an indicator the pack had caused damage to electronics etc). The biggest test it's had so far was on a 1.9 TDI Passat. I was interested to see how it would cope with the initial high current drain from the glow plugs and whether this would deplete the device to the extent that it wouldn't have enough left for cranking the engine? But none of it! spun the engine over very well and started it almost instantly. They do claim it will start up to 8litre capacity petrol and diesel engines: https://www.streetwizeaccessories.c...tarters/N-Capacitor-Jump-Starter-Green-SWPP20 I bought mine at big discount - almost half price - from Argos.

To say I'm delighted with it is an understatement. It's going to be very interesting to see how well it functions as it ages, but initial results have been beyond expectation.

Wish there were more people like you about willing to give a helping hand, I being retired now and taken on the Greeenkeepers duties at my local bowling club, offer my services for cuttiing grass, hedges, bushes etc to a lot of the windowed woman near to where I live as well as bowling club members that need help and I get a lot of enjoyment doing it too.

 

[Crossthreaded]

Wish there were more people like you about willing to give a helping hand, I being retired now and taken on the Greeenkeepers duties at my local bowling club, offer my services for cuttiing grass, hedges, bushes etc to a lot of the windowed woman near to where I live as well as bowling club members that need help and I get a lot of enjoyment doing it too.

Have to admit I enjoy doing it or I probably wouldn't. As I have a nice big compressor I also help the older folk with tyre inflation, checking levels, etc. Maybe even changing a wiper blade or light bulb (although you have to be careful with some as changing some bulbs is just a "silly" exercise involving stuff like removing the front bumper etc which is just ridiculous in my view) What it has done though is helped to bring a lot of us in the street together. It's a very nice place to live with us all looking out for one another and the kids knowing they can knock on neighbour's doors if in need of help. I rarely go out without having a conversation with someone I pass in the street. I do draw the line at doing "serious" repairs to neighbours or others vehicles as I just don't want the legal responsibility this brings and also, if things don't work out well, I've found, from my time in the motor trade, that it's a good way to make people unhappy with you.

For many years I've been very interested in elderly horticultural machinery. Stuff like cultivators, mowing machines, hedge trimmers, brush cutters, leaf blowers etc - the older the better. For instance I've just rebuilt a 1950s Merry Tiller which involved welding up a cracked chassis and generally refurbishing mechanical parts - I then used it to till a flower bed in my younger boy's garden before selling it to a chap who collects them. Current project is a Ransomes Minor 14" cut cylinder mower with a Villiers Midget 2 stroke motor which I think needs an ignition coil but may respond to cleaning up the points if I'm lucky - it has no spark. I think it was manufactured in the 1940s and I'm looking for a grass box for it. As you might imagine fixing newer petrol engined machines, where parts are readily available, is a bit of a doddle for me and fixing/servicing friends and relatives machines has made me more friends - probably because I don't charge for doing it just ask them to pay for parts. A big plus is I can do this in my nice, relatively warm and dry, garage - unlike the cars which mean often lying in a puddle outside which is getting harder as I'll be turning 80 next year! The most interesting "near miss" I've had was when I heard of a chap about 30 miles away down in the Borders - where I grew up - who had a completely dismantled Douglas Dragonfly motor cycle he wanted to sell. The whole thing was in several large cardboard boxes but did look all there. I made an offer which I think he was seriously considering but later learned that someone else offered around three times what I had. So that was that!

Edit. Got my eye on an Allen Scythe now as a possible future project.