Idling an engine

[Griffith4ever]

1Steve68 said:

732NM said:

Buy a set of jump leads and use that to extend it.

Would that be safe to do? clamp longer cables onto the shorter cable clamps of the booster/jump starter then clamp the longer cables to the dead battery and earth point of the car? I've never done any tinkering or mechanics on vehicles but that sounds like a botch it spanner monkey idea?

FYI the short red cable reaches the battery terminal just fine. It's just the black one that's useless.

It'll be fine with jumper leads - they are very thick / heavy duty. They are deisgned for high current. The jump pack has skinny short leads as they don't need to be much more (thicker, or longer) so adding the jump leads to the equation makes little to no odds.

The trick with this arrangement is not touching the jump lead clips together where they meet the jump pack (accidentally). What I do on this situation is I loop back the positive (red) jump lead a bit and clamp it to it's own cable - then attach the jump pack red clip to the jump lead clip . This way you are basically shortening the positive (red) cable a bit, and therefore seperating the clips so they can't easily short out on each other. You never want red to touch black.

And regarding "designated earth points" - pretty much any substantial piece of unpainted metal on the chassis, engine, alternator bracket, anywhere - will do......

[Griffith4ever]

732NM said:

Cheers, no wonder cars are so stupidly expensive now. Talk about engineering in more complex crap.

Not really - that's a one way bearing - simple, cheap and very, very common , in all sorts of machinery. A clutch it aint.

[1Steve68]

FiF said:

The other option has already been covered by another poster, jump start cables connected to another battery that's operating in another car owned by someone willing to help you get a jump start.

Unfortunately I don't know anyone here I could ask.

FiF said:

Honestly if you already have a jump pack with short cables I'd just connect it across the existing battery terminals assuming they are physically accessible.

I could do that if it's safe clamping clamps on to clamps and then clamping them to the car to use the jumper? But I'd have to buy a new battery for that. Is that the same as clamping to someone else's car? Don't want to waste money.

FiF said:

By the way have you actually tried to start it and confirmed the battery is flat and it won't start as is?

Actually no I haven't but I tried to open the doors using the remote fob last week and couldn't get in the car that way. I will have to physically use the key entry in the passenger door lock just to get in but I'm scared to do that at the moment in case something else goes wrong and I can't lock the car again.

[FiF]

Ok I'm close to bowing out of this thread.

What have you actually got, jump leads or a jump pack? The latter involves a smallish rechargeable Li-ion battery pack into which you connect two shortish leads the ends of which have clamps to fit onto the dead battery terminals. If it's one of those jump packs you don't need to buy another battery.

If your original battery is beggared you are going to have to replace it anyway ultimately.

Failing all that, or extending the short leads as another poster has suggested just ask a local garage to come out and give you a jump start.

Beyond that I'm out.

[732NM]

1Steve68 said:

Would that be safe to do?

Perfectly, just don't let the + and - leads touch each other.

[1Steve68]

FiF said:

Ok I'm close to bowing out of this thread.

What have you actually got, jump leads or a jump pack? The latter involves a smallish rechargeable Li-ion battery pack into which you connect two shortish leads the ends of which have clamps to fit onto the dead battery terminals. If it's one of those jump packs you don't need to buy another battery.

If your original battery is beggared you are going to have to replace it anyway ultimately.

Failing all that, or extending the short leads as another poster has suggested just ask a local garage to come out and give you a jump start.

Beyond that I'm out.

Your time has been appreciated and I've made my decisions now.

1) I bought a booster/jump starter device but the black cable wouldn't fit on a late model Citroen C3 battery as it was too short to reach the negative terminal and wouldn't reach the earth point on this model car either.

2) I've now bought long jumper cables that I'm going to clamp to the short booster cables so I can reach the earth point on this model of car.

3) If I can't start the car with the booster I've also priced up having a new battery fitted at home by either RAC or AA.

4) Booking my MOT as soon as the car starts normally again either by use of a new battery or by charging the dead battery with a covert 30 minute drive around my local area doing my best to avoid being spotted by Police ANPR.

Thanks to all for your helpful input.

[732NM]

1Steve68 said:

4) with a covert 30 minute drive around my local area doing my best to avoid being spotted by Police ANPR.

That's crazy.

[1Steve68]

732NM said:

That's crazy.

I know but a man's got to do what a man needs to do (as the old saying goes).

[E-bmw]

1Steve68 said:

FiF said:

This IS more difficult than you suggest but perhaps you can explain this issue if your daughter has got a new/late model C3. Look at the screenshot from the manual below and note that the positive terminal is on the battery itself but the negative terminal is on the total opposite side of the engine, about 1.5 metres away from the battery.

The problem I've got now with trying to jump start the battery myself with the booster is that the jump start cables are very short and there is no chance that the black cable will reach the other side of the engine as per the instructions for where the earth point is. It's only about 30cm long and clearly designed to be attached directly to the battery itself (like the red one) but the manual says "" The battery's negative terminal is not accessible. A remote earth point is placed on the structure of the front wing"".

So how the hell do I jump this battery if I can't even attach the black cable to the battery OR reach the earth point?
This is turning into a headache. Big time!

If that is like your engine bay in the screenshot you attached, the negative terminal is actually visible at the rear of the battery, so I have no idea what the reason for saying it isn't accessible would be.

If it is not, then ANY un-painted bolt/nut/metal that looks like it is connected directly to the engine or body will do.

[FiF]

1Steve68 said:

Your time has been appreciated and I've made my decisions now.

1) I bought a booster/jump starter device but the black cable wouldn't fit on a late model Citroen C3 battery as it was too short to reach the negative terminal and wouldn't reach the earth point on this model car either.

2) I've now bought long jumper cables that I'm going to clamp to the short booster cables so I can reach the earth point on this model of car.

3) If I can't start the car with the booster I've also priced up having a new battery fitted at home by either RAC or AA.

4) Booking my MOT as soon as the car starts normally again either by use of a new battery or by charging the dead battery with a covert 30 minute drive around my local area doing my best to avoid being spotted by Police ANPR.

Thanks to all for your helpful input.

Ok you're welcome, let all know how you get on.

One thing to come from this is that I will check my daughter's C3 and the cables that come with my jump pack to see if they are sufficiently long to make the connection if ever needed.

Good luck.

[1Steve68]

E-bmw said:

If that is like your engine bay in the screenshot you attached, the negative terminal is actually visible at the rear of the battery, so I have no idea what the reason for saying it isn't accessible would be.

If it is not, then ANY un-painted bolt/nut/metal that looks like it is connected directly to the engine or body will do.

The screenshot is indeed straight from the manual for the make/model/year of this car so I don't know what the hell is going on. Maybe a misprint of wording or a design flaw in these cars. Who knows!
As soon as the long cables arrive tomorrow I'll be going out to have a look under the bonnet and get this sorted once and for all one way or another. It's doing my head in now. Hopefully the booster cranks the engine up so I can just idle the car for a few hours this week to put enough charge in the battery for the short drive to the MOT centre and after that I can take it for a long blast down the motorway without needing to pay for having a new battery fitted.