Fiesta battery disconnection megaprobs

Something like this.

Little brother has just left a BeeEm dealer after four years. He can't get over how rubbish they are!

 

That would have done the trick but I was after something a bit simpler to wire in series with my DMM, but no local electrical shops had them and the nearest proper auto spares shop was around 40KM return trip.

For the "male" part, I was going to hack a fuse by soldering two wires on top.

Something has definitely being going downhill in Bavaria.

 

Stuttgart too, just not such a steep hill. At least the Mercs are mechanically sound.

 

Agreed, but the problems that the wife had with her Merc and the fact that they are long standing problems which for some reason Merc are unable or unwilling to solve makes me wonder what good German car makers are left.
I've heard good things about the Audi, so perhaps the next car will be an A4 or what ever they have by then.

 

UPDATE:

Out of curiosity, this morning decided to search on the net for prices on new and low mileage Audi's still with the manufacturers warranty.
Can confidently say that the possible purchase of an Audi won't be happening for a very looooong time.

 

That's what others have said. However, it would probably need cleverness and sheer bloody-minded tenaciousness to fight your way to justice and I'm not sure if I would have enough. I can think of a few that would, though!

 

Two fuses needed to start the engine. So-

£60 diagnostic fee which includes the fuses plus

£60 odd for a new tyre to replace the new one fitted a month ago which turns out to have a nail in it.

Sigh. Oh well, it could have been a lot worse. I think of it as stupidity tax.

 

I take that comment back. Clearly a total muppet!

 

Fault code readers have their uses, but they can also lead you completely down the wrong path.

Consider the situation I mentioned earlier with my old Helga. The fault codes that were reported told me that both the MAF and O2 sensors were dodgy. If I'd taken that at face value, I'd have probably scrapped the car, as a new MAF sensor is nearly £300, and a lambda sensor is about £160. I could change the MAF myself but I'm not touching the lambda sensor, because if it snaps off, you're looking at several hours in a contorted position with a drill and a tap and die set, and then there's still the possibility of knacking the exhaust manifold or cat, depending on where its mounted (I think its in the manifold on the 940).

Now why might the ECU report the MAF and O2 sensors? Well, the MAF is saying this much air went in, and the O2 sensor is saying there was this much air left after the burn. Loads of air coming out means the ECU would enrich the fuel mix, but wait, now the MAF says the amount of air going in for the amount of fuel going in is so far out of normal range that there must be a fault, so it reports the MAF. Then having switched to pre-sets for the air, it then tries to make adjustments based on pre-set + O2 reading. Wait, there's still loads of oxygen in the exhaust. Therefore the O2 sensor must be fault too.

Or, it could simply be that the correct mix is not burning, or that the correct mix is simply not available due to a purely mechanical (ie not electrical) fault. Helga had a worn out dizzy cap, causing poor ignition. Add to that the fact that her whole induction side was full of snot, and the thermostat in her air box had failed, leaving a valve stuck in the hot air mode, all added up to mean its a miracle she ran at all, but that there was nothing wrong with either of the reported sensors.

I suspect that although the diagnostic capabilities are invaluable (saved me a lot of pain when an ABS sensor failed on Gothilda), I suspect they are also the reason why you hear too many horror stories of very expensive repair costs on newer cars. I wonder how many people take their car in, because of a warning light or some other misbehaviour, just for a barely trained fitter to run a diagnostic and take the result at face value and replace hundreds of pounds worth of perfectly good sensors, when the actual fault is something as daft as a failed spark plug or a clogged air filter element. I've even seen dirty electrical connectors manifest as major component failures according to the diagnostic units.

 

More often than we think unfortunately.
I also suspect that dealerships don't want to change the status quo (and offer better training to staff) as it helps the bottom line.

 

If the fuses blew, that tells me there was a surge.
Almost certainly due to the battery being disconnected and reconnected without following the correct procedure.
As you say, a total muppet.

 

gud luck

 

All sorted now and the bill was £108 including the tyre. I had asked for the old (new) one to take away but they forgot to put it in the boot. Lucky I checked before driving off.

I agree that the GF guys were probably cowboys - they didn't fill me with confidence even at the time - but in a situation like that what else could I have done, given my lack of knowledge of cars?

I will give serious thought to joining the AA or RAC next time as my experience with them has been better. But the cost of joining is always more.

Many thanks for your support and sympathy, all.

 

I fell out with the AA after I was in a minor car accident. We were all ok but the car was trashed. The lad who was driving managed to limp it off the main road and onto a street. The AA insisted that the street we were on did not exist, despite the fact that I was stood looking at the street name sign, with the postal area on it, while I was talking to them on the phone. After several attempts to convince them, I gave up, and told them the name of the road we'd come off, the names of several adjoining roads, the postcode sector we were in, the name of the locality, and several major businesses that were near buy including a massive well known shopping mall. They still insisted that there was no such place, so I gave up and joined the RAC instead, right there and then, and they arrived in less than an hour.