friday trample on the weakest, glory in their plight

Morning

[Use warm water you chicken. Sod that scraping malarkey]

Triple brr. Apparently -7 last night. At least there will be sun today.

Extra coffee and light the wood burner early will be the order of the day.

Laters

-5c here, sunny again, coffee and enjoy the view, maybe light the log burner early...

Hellacold this morning so booked some flights to Ibiza for a few days. Admitedly it's in May but the thought is there!

Truck still wouldn't start last night so may have to resort to home start, not sure if something more sinister than "it's cold" is the issue.

"There's nothing like the smell of chemo in the morning"

@pinno the ghost immobiliser goes through its procedure, all lights, radio etc working as expected. Press the ignition button and it sounds like something stuttering under the bonnet. Like a fast click and light flickering on the dash.

Glow rods will have preheated by this point, battery is around 18 months old but over the last few weeks I've only done short runs so I'm guessing a weakened battery?

I'm going to try and jump it later rather than have the embarrasment of the AA man telling me it's flat.

On another AA related note, I was reading the beeb this morning and there was an article about the cold weather and AA callouts. Some to frozen windscreen wipers, I mean really? WTF is up with some people?

Morning

Still a bit nippy here. Waiting for some friends to turn who have decided to visit, I was going to do a turbo session first thing. But at -2 in the garage I decided to wimp out. Not sure if it will happen later.

Morning Workers. Definitely chilly at -6 here so decided to go out on the graveller. 🤔🥶Definitely ice ice baby. HD is possibly a stuck starter motor and what your hearing is the solenoid clicking. Try rocking the car whilst in gear assuming it's a manual. If not oh dear. Could be low battery as Mr P said as well. Worth a try if manual gearbox.

Did jump starting it work? A battery should last more than 18 months. I've had 1 Bosch battery sent back under a 5 year warranty. It stopped working 3 months before the end of the warranty and boy did he try to argue the toss. Eventually agreed that if I send him the battery and it was a dud, he would cover my postage and give me a new one. So he did. There are not many batteries on the market with less than a 2 year warranty.

Check if yours has a warranty. AA bloke should have a proper battery tester and should have tested it. Any half decent garage should have a printable battery tester. Have them test it. The printout helps with warranty.

The clicking could be a duff ignition relay (more prone in petrol engines than diesel though) but rare to have an intermittent fault, They either work or they don't. Fords are terrible for starter relay and starter relay module problems for example.

The starter solenoid is a heavy click - little mistaking it. It could be an earth issue with the starter motor and/or solenoid. Tap it with a hammer whilst someone tries starting it. It's an old diagnostics trick. I would probably rule out immobiliser issues as the vehicle (afair) is relatively new(?). My TOAD alarm on the 944 is 16 years old and still working fine.

Before all or any of that, make sure your battery is good. If it jump starts, then there's probably no issue with the immobiliser and possibly no issues with the starter motor or solenoid.

Haha! I recall on an old MK1 Jetta I had I used to carry around a Hammer in the boot for exactly that issue! A little tap to unstick a sticky solenoid. In fact with that car I carried a fairly comprehensive tool kit in the boot. I think that applied to a few cars I had as a yoof.

@pinno How long do batteries last in your 911? My mate with a 996 if he leave it more than a couple of weeks the battery dies. He seems to go through a battery every 4 years or less.

I had similar on my 997. Get him to buy a Bosch with 5 year warranty.

Battery longevity depends on a number of factors: A new battery sitting on a shelf will last for a long time but as soon as you hook it up and electrons start flowing from cathode to anode, the thing needs re-charging.

Condition of: alternator/voltage regulator, earth points, ignition coils, ignition leads, AC units (and any consumer unit with high consumption, electric fuel pumps, sporadic use etc etc can all affect battery life. On older vehicles, a drain somewhere is common as electrical systems deteriorate also, they degrade - especially anything with electronics in them.

What you should do is take the battery out every evening and put it somewhere warm, It will last for ages! 😎

I used to remove the rotor from the distributor and hide it in the boot.