Yesterday, her car wouldn't start. Didn't surprise me as I'd planned to
replace the battery but just not got around tuit. So today, as the car
was on the drive and it was of course raining, I thought I'd just jump
start it from my car. Fail! So I've an immobile car on the drive and a
nice warm garage waiting. That was when I discovered the other benefits
of modern car design. As this is an auto, you cannot get it out of park
unless the engine is running! As it is electric power steering, you
cannot turn the steering wheel unless the engine is running! There was a
certain amount of disappointment at this turn of events. So off to buy a
new battery on the basis that this was a good starting point. Tried the
main dealer who said "we'll have to order a battery which you can have
tomorrow". Went on line and Euro car parts have a branch locally, had
stock and were £20 cheaper and could offer a choice of about 6 different
batteries of the correct type. So purchased battery, retired to the wet
car and looked at the replacement problem. Ah, another piece of modern
car design. The battery is mounted under the windscreen fascia, which
you have to remove to get the battery out. Years of bad experiences were
put to good use as I removed enough bits of the car to do the job. Also
fortuitously, I had a bungee cord of the correct length to hold up the
fascia whilst removing the battery as I had run out of hands and hers
were not considered suitable. So forced it all back together, replacing
one of the screws holding the fascia together which the person who
replaced the battery 7 years ago had managed to lose. Fortunately it was
just the battery, as I wasn't sure that it wasn't a poor connection on
the starter motor and I really didn't want to jack the car up on the
drive in the rain. I've now moved on to trying to find conduit
connectors for IP55 boxes for another project so life still goes on!