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Jump starters


VinceW
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Just had to use my cheap Suaoki Battery to start my C-HR - I don't think I left anything on overnight, car unlocked but when I pressed start button a few lights flashed then nothing. Tried a few times with slightly different lights and noticed brake pedal sometimes soft, guess power going to pressurise system instead of getting system going. Attached jump-start Battery which got system started immediately then took longer than usual route to shops to give 12v Battery chance to charge (and turned off heated seats)

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3 hours ago, aCactus said:

Just had to use my cheap Suaoki battery to start my C-HR - I don't think I left anything on overnight, car unlocked but when I pressed start button a few lights flashed then nothing. Tried a few times with slightly different lights and noticed brake pedal sometimes soft, guess power going to pressurise system instead of getting system going. Attached jump-start battery which got system started immediately then took longer than usual route to shops to give 12v battery chance to charge (and turned off heated seats)

They can be a life-saver! When I first tried my one using the fuse box jump terminal I thought it wasn't going to work. However a bit of fiddling with the -ve earth clamp and the connector at the jump Battery did the trick.

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3 hours ago, aCactus said:

Just had to use my cheap Suaoki battery to start my C-HR ...

 

22 minutes ago, delbois said:

They can be a life-saver! ...

They've also got a lot smaller.  My RAVPower 500A/12000mAh unit comes in a neat case which holds the jump leads, a 12V charging cable and mains charger.  It fits nicely in the seat-back pocket so it's handy if I can't open the boot.

Before that I had an old fashionedlead-acid Battery jump starter, bought in 2004 for my Gen 1 Prius. It was very large and heavy so had to live in the boot.  (Fortunately, the Gen 1 Prius was a saloon and the boot could be opened with the key or a cable release beside the driver's seat, alongside a fuel cap release lever.)

It was more frequently required as the Gen 1 had a higher current drain than later models, and a 35ah Battery.  Some members of another group used an ammeter to measure the drain, but we never fully understood why the drain was so high, given the car only had basic remote central locking and no key-less start.  In fact, just leaving the key in the ignition in the off position increased the drain quite a bit.  Leaving it in ACCesssory position would flatten it in  a few hours.

A Gen 1 with a perfect 12V Battery, fully charged, and with everything switched off, would be lucky to survive much more than 3 weeks in an airport car park, even when locked manually to ensure the alarm wasn't active.

Since the battery drain wasn't fully understood in those days, the 12V battery was often already damaged by the time the car was sold, having been flattened during the voyage from Japan, and at least once at the dealer while waiting to be sold.  Only about 1,500 Gen 1s were sold in the UK from 2000-2004, only 60 dealers could handle them, and they were never actively marketed, so they sold very slowly, mostly to people (like me) with a keen interest in such technology.

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Silly me!  Yesterday I was transferring cd's to the hard drive (within the sat nav unit) on my Prius Gen3.  Transferred  (takes less then 10 minutes each) but when I started the 10th a message displayed telling me the cars system was shutting down to preserve Battery.  Early last night I was going out, all the dashboard lit up EXCEPT for the READY light.  I pinched the wifes keys and went out in the Auris hybrid.   

I had bought this off Amazon couple months ago https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suaoki-Starter-Booster-Intelligent-Flashlight/dp/B071JNQM3B/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1517603137&sr=8-3&keywords=lithium+battery+car+charger+suaoki&tag=autoclubinte-21    and funnily enough had just charged it up (top up) on Wednesday.  I leave the jumper cable in the car, but the Battery unit stays in the house where it is warm. This morning I got into the car easily, got to the small Battery in the boot, connected up the Suaoki to the battery thro the leads, walked to the driver cockpit, turned on, dashboard lit up INCLUDING the READY light.  Bingo, I was away, took the car for a few mile drive and we going out shopping today.

That teaches me a lesson.....  dont transfer CD's to the hard drive whilst I am stationary on the drive. Lesson learnt.  

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17 minutes ago, Catlover said:

... dont transfer CD's to the hard drive whilst I am stationary on the drive...

or if you do, have the car in READY mode.

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My Auris is being repaired today.

The technician diagnosed the problem as a faulty body ECU which wasn’t what we expected. The part had to be ordered.

Apparently although my Auris was registered in June 2014 it was manufactured in the same month thus not one of the cars in the period concerning the Hazard Light switch.

I’ll wait until my car is back home before I celebrate!

By the way Joe it’s best to keep your small Battery pack in the boot not in the house. Cold won’t affect it as the current needed is relatively small for the Hybrid mode compared to a starter motor on a normal car. It’s not just CD’s that can flatten a Battery! And it may help a friend one day.

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2 minutes ago, ColinCK said:

... it’s best to keep your small battery pack in the boot...

or if, like mine, it's small enough to go in the seat-back pocket, inside the car.

If the Battery gets flat enough the central locking won't work, you won't be able to access the boot from the outside.  Plus, if that car is deadlocked, you won't be able to open any passenger doors either, so accessing the boot from the driver's seat will be something of a challenge!

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Thats what I like about this forum, members willing to share just little tips which are very beneficial. Thanks Pete and Colin, and every other contributor too.

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Pete, I always deadlock my car and yet when my Battery went flat and I mean dead flat I used the physical key, the central locking obviously didn’t work but I managed to open a rear door. That shouldn’t have happened!

Now I’m going to have to check my deadlocks when my car comes back.

You have a very good point about not leaving the Battery pack in the boot.

Thank you!

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2 hours ago, ColinCK said:

... I always deadlock my car and yet when my battery went flat and I mean dead flat I used the physical key, the central locking obviously didn’t work but I managed to open a rear door. That shouldn’t have happened!...

I actually had the opposite problem on a Vauxhall in the 1980s - the rear door behind the driver's door stopped unlocking and was deadlocked when the car was a couple of months old.  Obviously, the dealer got it working again, I guess they had to dismantle the interior trim unless they knew a trick of the trade to get it to open.

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5 hours ago, Catlover said:

... dont transfer CD's to the hard drive whilst I am stationary on the drive...

 

4 hours ago, PeteB said:

or if you do, have the car in READY mode.

This is doubly important if doing a map/infotainment update from a USB stick (2012 face-lift Prius onwards and other Hybrids with the same system).

At least one person reported having they system shutdown half way through, and lost the use of both systems until the dealer had the car for a day or two and sorted it.

I haven't bothered updating for over three years as the fiddly process didn't seem to be justified by the still poor maps after the update.  Plus, on the Gen 4 Prius, some early updaters reported problems playing USB music afterwards,

My Gen 4 Prius will be two years old in June, and I may well do an update before the three years of free updates runs out, provided I hear enough feedback that it won't mess up the USB music playing.

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