Car maintenance

[Skylark]

Willard apparently make some of the best batteries.

[Uni]

Can I throw a question in here. 

How can you tell if your brakes discs need skimming or changing or anything. Seems (with exception to yesterday's visit) - my cars always need something doing to their brakes - my Juke at 30000 km they skimmed the brakes - I don't know any better - I say ok 

 

OH says I do drive rather aggressively and brake hard. Is it me? 

[Spoke101]

Can I throw a question in here. 

How can you tell if your brakes discs need skimming or changing or anything. Seems (with exception to yesterday's visit) - my cars always need something doing to their brakes - my Juke at 30000 km they skimmed the brakes - I don't know any better - I say ok 

 

OH says I do drive rather aggressively and brake hard. Is it me? 

 

Thickness is the only real way to tell. Discs should also only be skimmed once then replaced.

Easiest way to tell if they warped and need skimming/replacing is to do a hard constant controlled brake from speed and see if there is any vibration/resonance eg: 120kph-40kph.

If there is a vibration/resonance then they need to be looked at.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Spoke101

[lerouc]

Can I throw a question in here. 

How can you tell if your brakes discs need skimming or changing or anything. Seems (with exception to yesterday's visit) - my cars always need something doing to their brakes - my Juke at 30000 km they skimmed the brakes - I don't know any better - I say ok 

 

OH says I do drive rather aggressively and brake hard. Is it me? 

Never believe a car dealership when it comes to brakes. VW told me from 60k that they needed replacing, i took them to a ferobrake shop and the mechanic - after getting all the parts out to replace - told me he cannot in his right mind replace anything as none of it needs replacing anytime soon. I only ended up replacing the brakes after 120k, and yes i went back to the honest ferobrake guy!

[kosmonooit]

Even still is less than 2 years for a battery reasonable?

 

 

One factor is the number of the start / discharge cycles: Lead Acid batteries have a finite number of cycles, and are also degraded with high temps. Dead cells are the most regular problems.

 

I maintain the regular tits-up of car batteries are a plot for recurring income that we have not moved to super caps hybrids in this regard..

Edited June 28, 2016 by kosmonooit

[Stretch]

bosch make better batteries than willard. My mechanic told me that they have shortened the trap at the bottom so that the grit and grime interferes with the operation of the battery a lot sooner than they used...that is why modern batteries you will be lucky to get 2 years out of..compared to the 6 or 8 you used to get in the past. I have had two willards and they both lasted about 18 months (I only only a 12 month warranty) and now have a bosch with a 24 month warranty...time will tell

[Pure Savage]

When we bought our car the tyres were "New" plenty of tread but the shocks were worn so they were stuffed (Like a wave when you run around the tyre), new shocks and then put up with the hum for a year and a half. Lesson learnt. 

[Spoke101]

Never believe a car dealership when it comes to brakes. VW told me from 60k that they needed replacing, i took them to a ferobrake shop and the mechanic - after getting all the parts out to replace - told me he cannot in his right mind replace anything as none of it needs replacing anytime soon. I only ended up replacing the brakes after 120k, and yes i went back to the honest ferobrake guy!

I'm going on 200k and discs have only ever been skimmed. Just been for a service and they still don't need replacing.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

It sounds very short if it was a known high quality battery and was of the correct spec for the vehicle.

Often as a cost saving exercise folk replace the OEM battery with a lower spec battery, and, if you buy the car second hand and just replace like for like you will be replacing the battery continually with a lower than manufacturer spec product.

 

My suggestion would be as a start point to check the manufacturers specific requirements for the battery as regard to amp hours and ensure you have the correctly rated and sized battery installed.   

 

Then ensure you replace with a High quality batteries like Willard, Bosch, Ray-lite etc, these batteries are manufactured and held to a specification required by the manufacturer to power all the cars systems, and thus, are able to supply the current modern power hungry cars require,....... this means they will also generally last a lot longer than two years. 

 

In our business we saw lots of battery related issues, as mentioned usually due to inferior or under spec batteries, gone are the day's of a "Battery is a Battery is a Battery" it is vitally important to ensure your battery can keep up with the vehicles current requirements.

[Cappi]

Thats where the battery is sitting at the moment

load test only takes a few minutes. Also have the cars charge rate check. The alternator might not be charging upto spec.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Can I throw a question in here. 

How can you tell if your brakes discs need skimming or changing or anything. Seems (with exception to yesterday's visit) - my cars always need something doing to their brakes - my Juke at 30000 km they skimmed the brakes - I don't know any better - I say ok 

 

OH says I do drive rather aggressively and brake hard. Is it me? 

You will most likely find they replaced the disc pads at 30.000kms as well, generally the reason they skim the discs as well is to ensure the new pads seat and do not squeal, this is simply been proactive by the dealer and they are not trying to cheat you.

 

No doubt this was done by Nissan and as the manufacturers representative they have an obligation to ensure the job is done to manufacturers specs, which will include skimming at a pad change, all the major motor-plans cover brake disc skimming at a pad change for this very reason. 

 

One can argue its not necessary, but thats not the point here, a manufacturer's agent is obliged to stick to manufacturers standards,... of course you can refuse it and they wont do it, but then they probably wont warrant the job either.

[Pure Savage]

load test only takes a few minutes. Also have the cars charge rate check. The alternator might not be charging upto spec.

 

They had to charge the battery up first as it was flat flat flat. 

 

They checked it now and all A ok. 

 

I am having the stupid tracker removed on Monday, that should help.

 

Also I only do "short trips" apparently, like to work is 14 minutes. Then clients is maybe 5 min to each one, 4 times and then a 2 min shop trip. 

 

The auto electrician suggested I drive to Knysna in the car Great adivce, will go on Friday

[GrumpyOldGuy]

bosch make better batteries than willard. My mechanic told me that they have shortened the trap at the bottom so that the grit and grime interferes with the operation of the battery a lot sooner than they used...that is why modern batteries you will be lucky to get 2 years out of..compared to the 6 or 8 you used to get in the past. I have had two willards and they both lasted about 18 months (I only only a 12 month warranty) and now have a bosch with a 24 month warranty...time will tell

I think your mechanic is just making a general statement stretch, 6-8 years ago cars also didn't have such sophisticated electronics and most batteries were simple lead alloy grid batteries, as you no doubt remember the type you could just pop the caps off, test the electrolyte, adjust and charge.

 

Today cars require a lot more current to operate all the electronics and most batteries in modern cars are completely sealed silver calcium grid batteries which as an example, have a much greater resistance to temperature fluctuations (remember how you battled to start your old car on cold mornings) discharge slower, and obviously they also last a lot longer.    

[GrumpyOldGuy]

They had to charge the battery up first as it was flat flat flat. 

 

They checked it now and all A ok. 

 

I am having the stupid tracker removed on Monday, that should help.

 

Also I only do "short trips" apparently, like to work is 14 minutes. Then clients is maybe 5 min to each one, 4 times and then a 2 min shop trip. 

 

The auto electrician suggested I drive to Knysna in the car Great adivce, will go on Friday

Sorry, that should be more than enough to keep a good quality correctly speced battery fully charged, its not necessary to take a car on a long drive to charge the battery anymore, this is an old fallacy from the days when cars had generators and not alternators.

 

A fully functional and charged battery of the correct spec, and a correctly functioning alternator will keep a battery fully charged by just idling it for 10 minutes in the morning, if the car struggles to start in the morning there is a fault, by all means go on a trip to Knysna, its beautiful and it will be good for your soul, but it wont be necessary for the battery. 

[Skylark]

Apparently one thing that significantly shortens a batteries lifespan is totally flattening it, like lights or radio left on over night, something like 10-15% life erased per flattened battery.

[Mike Bike]

Sabat also give a 25 month warranty now.

 

Trackers with stuffed batteries have caused many many problems. Always one of the first places to look. Easiest test is to remove one battery terminal, put a test light in line between battery terminal and cable terminal. If the lamp glows at all there is a draw which shouldn't be there.