I experienced a breakdown recently that represented something new in 38
years of driving; maybe it will be of interest to the group in spite of
minimal lbc content. It certainly won't interest the group for the car
directly involved; they don't admit breakdowns occur and if they do, they
care only about the name of a good dealer to fix them.
I was house-sitting for a friend, and as I approached her house on a
moderately bumpy gravel road, my 87 H**** (unenglish name deleted)
Prelude's engine stopped running. It was like turning the key off. I
checked the key, but it isn't like the Sprites's--you can't turn it off
accidentally by shifting to 3rd. (LBC hint, don't have lots of keys on a
bugeye keychain.) Letting out the clutch in 3rd would not start the
Prelude, which made sense, given that it had died while driving downhill
in 4th. I managed to coast into the drive and up to the door. The
Prelude had done this once before, about 2 yrs ago. Then, I coasted to a
stop, tried the starter, it restarted, and I gradually quit worrying about
it. This time, though, the starter had gone away, along with the engine.
At my friend's house, I had no diagnostic equipment, so had to make do.
The sunroof would barely move, which suggested a drastic drop of battery
voltage. I cleaned the battery posts and cable terminals, to no avail. I
started Kermit the frogeye and jumped the Prelude's battery, connecting
the jumper cables to the battery terminals. The 'lude started fine, so I
deduced the problem was not in a connection on the other ends of the
battery cables. The car kept running even when disconnected from the
Sprite battery. I let it run for a while, shut it off, and it would not
restart. I jump started it again, and without unhooking Kermit's battery
I turned on the headlights. Worked fine. Headlights off, disconnected
the bugeye, and turned on the headlights. Engine died. Jumped again,
turned on headlights, then disconnected bugeye. Headlights on, bright,
car kept running. I deduced that the alternator could supply the
headlights and the engine, but could not supply the headlights, engine,
and the short surge of current needed to operate the headlight motors.
I tentatively concluded that there had been a sudden internal failure of
some sort in the battery (top of the line Interstate, 3.5 yrs old). To
make life more interesting, something about the problem was intermittant,
because the car originally stopped running, whereas after a little
fiddling with the battery, the car would not start, but would keep
running. I suspected an internal failure that intermittantly became a
dead short. The car originally died after a 12 mile interstate drive
home, and the alternator was working, so the battery had not simply run
down.
Kermit the frogeye took me to work the next day, and to Sears and Robnucks
where I invested in a new DieHard (no more Interstates, thank you, no
matter what Consumer's Reports says). Sears said the voltage of the
old battery was so low that their tester could not tell if there was an
internal problem. That was a month ago, and all seems well. Does anyone
have experience with similar problems, and perhaps a better or more
detailed explanation for what might have happened to the battery?
On a different subject, the (3rd?) annual British Invasion in Stowe, VT,
will be Sept. 17-19. The car show, if memory serves (actually, my memory
can usually just barely manage to lob over the net; serving is out of the
question--but I digress) is on Saturday the 18th. There is usually a fine
turnout of lbc's. If the creeks don't rise, I and the Sprite--you can't
miss it, it may be the greenest car ever built--will be there.
Ray Gibbons
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