In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Graham Harrison wrote:
The battery on my car gave up last week. I'm used to the idea that
when the battery is dying things like lights get weak and the car gets
difficult to start.

Not this one.

The first clue (which I missed) was that the radio failed. Car was due
for a service soonish so I just put up with it. Except that one day,
driving along, the radio came on of it's own accord but didn't work.
Then the glowplug light stayed on after the car was running. Finally
it failed to start but the lights still worked.

I was still not tuned to the idea that the battery had failed.

When I had the battery replaced I asked a few questions about why I'd
missed the clues. I was told that modern cars "load shed" so when the
battery starts to play up unimportant things (like the radio) are
deemed not worthy of needing power and are "disconnected".

I've learned something!

Odd - given modern alternators can cope with the total load at very low
engine speeds.

My C5 (replaced 7 years ago) did some form of load shedding if the battery
wss getting flat. Parked up for a week and the remote unlocking didn't. The
was a relevant message on the car's display screen.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle