baskie
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2005
- Messages
- 250
Started the 3 hour drive from Belfast to Donegal last night at about 5pm, in really thick fog.
At the end of a motorway section I pulled into a garage and all the warning lights came on, I turned the engine off, tried to start it but the batt had dead. Previously we'd had everything switched on: fog lights, headlights, heater, CD player and aircon.
Eventually bump started it, left it running and tried the batt again, totally flat, not taking or holding charge. I thought maybe the batt was just fecked, it was extremely cold last night.
So, bumped it again and started the 20 mile trip back to Belfast, once the engine was running everything was OK to start with then it all started to go wrong. Eventually we had no electrical power at all, just a bit of light out the front and rear headlights, no dashboard lights or indicators or anything. I can tell you, driving on a motorway in thick fog with little in the way of lights is very scary!
Once in Belfast and in traffic I found that when sitting at lights and revving the engine hard I had a bit of light, but at normal revving speed (ie driving along at 30pmh ish) we had nothing.
The engine sounded like a bag of spanners so I'm guessing all the engine management systems were dead also. All I can is thank god diesels don't need elelctrics to run else we'd have been totally screwed on the hard shoulder of a fast moving motorway in thick fog with no lights, that don't even bear thinking about.
So, what is the problem? I'm thinking alternator, or might it just be a dead battery?
BTW- It's a 2003 2.7TDi.
Ta.
Oh ya, also I was curious if we did the right thing in the eyes of the law (ie- driving on a motorway with little in the way of headlights or tail lights in thick fog as opposed to parking up on the hard shoulder and preying no one decided to use the same bit of hard shoulder and didn't see the lightless car until it was too late) so I asked a traffic cop friend. He said it's a 50/50 situation and each cop would have used their own judgement, but in general he agreed, better to limp the car off the motorway even if the lights were low than leave it in total darkness on the hard shoulder just waiting to cause a pile up. So there you go!
At the end of a motorway section I pulled into a garage and all the warning lights came on, I turned the engine off, tried to start it but the batt had dead. Previously we'd had everything switched on: fog lights, headlights, heater, CD player and aircon.
Eventually bump started it, left it running and tried the batt again, totally flat, not taking or holding charge. I thought maybe the batt was just fecked, it was extremely cold last night.
So, bumped it again and started the 20 mile trip back to Belfast, once the engine was running everything was OK to start with then it all started to go wrong. Eventually we had no electrical power at all, just a bit of light out the front and rear headlights, no dashboard lights or indicators or anything. I can tell you, driving on a motorway in thick fog with little in the way of lights is very scary!
Once in Belfast and in traffic I found that when sitting at lights and revving the engine hard I had a bit of light, but at normal revving speed (ie driving along at 30pmh ish) we had nothing.
The engine sounded like a bag of spanners so I'm guessing all the engine management systems were dead also. All I can is thank god diesels don't need elelctrics to run else we'd have been totally screwed on the hard shoulder of a fast moving motorway in thick fog with no lights, that don't even bear thinking about.
So, what is the problem? I'm thinking alternator, or might it just be a dead battery?
BTW- It's a 2003 2.7TDi.
Ta.
Oh ya, also I was curious if we did the right thing in the eyes of the law (ie- driving on a motorway with little in the way of headlights or tail lights in thick fog as opposed to parking up on the hard shoulder and preying no one decided to use the same bit of hard shoulder and didn't see the lightless car until it was too late) so I asked a traffic cop friend. He said it's a 50/50 situation and each cop would have used their own judgement, but in general he agreed, better to limp the car off the motorway even if the lights were low than leave it in total darkness on the hard shoulder just waiting to cause a pile up. So there you go!
