Borrowing a battery for the day
Borrowing a battery for the day
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BobToc

Original Poster:

2,033 posts

147 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
quotequote all
I'm due to leave at 6am tomorrow morning in my 1988 911 3.2. I've just found out that the battery is probably dead. Can I take the battery from my Golf Mk5 (both batteries are 680s) and "borrow" it for the day? Trying to work out if I can avoid the faff of jumping as I was keen to get an early night, but I don't want to risk the electrics on the Golf.

Cheers!

marshalla

15,902 posts

231 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
quotequote all
Yes, probably - but why not put the 911's battery on charge overnight ?

BobToc

Original Poster:

2,033 posts

147 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
quotequote all
Because I'm a idiot and I don't know how smile

Do I need specialist equipment (a charger!) to do this?

Gingerbread Man

9,173 posts

243 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
quotequote all
Yep, you need a battery charger. If it's a regular problem, you could truckle charge it to keep it topped up.

Digitalize

2,850 posts

165 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
quotequote all
You can but your Golf will forget a few things, might need a radio code etc.

t400ble

1,804 posts

151 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
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Push start
Jump leads
Or call aa or rac

oldcynic

2,166 posts

191 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
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Jump start or AA/RAC etc may get you going the first time, but if the battery's fked then you'll be stranded at your destination. Borrowing the battery off the Golf sounds more reliable, but as stated it may need a couple of things reset.

BobToc

Original Poster:

2,033 posts

147 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
quotequote all
Hoho, went ahead and jumpstarted it, with slow but apparent success. The battery is only 18 months old, so I'm hoping its just an issue with having been left for a bit too long with a trickle drain (probably a new radio I had fitted, lesson learned). Took it for a drive this evening, fingers crossed it'll get going in the morning and I can pick up a new one from Halfords.

Appreciate this is mechanics for simpletons, but I feel unreasonably pleased with myself for accomplishing the simplest of tasks!

Thanks for all the advice at the late hour.

Gingerbread Man

9,173 posts

243 months

Saturday 12th December 2015
quotequote all
My Caterham used to run flat from the immobiliser I believe when not used for a week or two. I fitted a battery cut off switch in an easily accessible location when sat in the driver's seat but not on show. This stopped any drain on the battery.

one eyed mick

1,189 posts

191 months

Sunday 13th December 2015
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^^^^^ what he said , same thing on a freinds caterham and no doubt many more , if the radio need a memory feed a a fused link will work but blow if any one tries to hot wire it

AW10

4,683 posts

279 months

Friday 25th December 2015
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one eyed mick said:
f the radio need a memory feed a a fused link will work but blow if any one tries to hot wire it
But that defeats the purpose of using a battery cut-off switch to prevent a flat battery over a few weeks from low current trickle losses such as radios, clocks, etc...

one eyed mick

1,189 posts

191 months

Saturday 26th December 2015
quotequote all
AW10 said:
But that defeats the purpose of using a battery cut-off switch to prevent a flat battery over a few weeks from low current trickle losses such as radios, clocks, etc...
Ok I should have been clearer the caterham in question did not have a radio it was draining the battery due to the imobilliser [K series ] OMHO aradio in a seven is as much use as an ash tray on a motor bike . A cut out is classed a an anti thief device too