Let's just put it this way...I don't have a genuine Volvo battery....and my car won't start. It was near as dammit fully charged 5 days ago, and now it doesn't have the juice to crank the engine over. Pwned.

Off to buy a Bosch Silver in the morning then....like I was going to last summer! Grr.

cheers

James

And theres me thinking you had a picture of Rupert, of someone local who'd run out of petrol to go showing off Battries are annoying, my Hella was new over the summer, and now where near as good as the random named thing that Kar had in it for 4 1/2 years (and must have been second hand when the garage sold me Kar). Electronics huh, never going to last...

Ouch, I have half dead Excide battery, -15 is now too cold for it, last winter I frozed it twice and once this winter, I think that is enough, also 6 years old now.

My previous car had Varta Silver, it had warranty that if battery fails towing is free, can't remember how long that warranty was, but I think that more than 3 years.

I can't afford new battery so that one should do for next winter, maybe longer. Well soon it is summer, so np.

maybe its not the battery?

yeah, you did remember to put the carbs on?

Hadn't thought of that Simple check, do you get an electrical motor type sound when you turn the key

The battery on our 340 may be giving up. I know it's cold and often car only gets used once a week, but sometimes it's really slow turning over. The parents have been using a battery top up thing resently.

Replaced the Volvo battery on my 360GLT last month, it still had a 'March 1988' sticker on it, could this be a record ???, needless to say I replaced it with another genuine Volvo battery !!
Kevin.

Chris_C wrote:do you get an electrical motor type sound when you turn the key

Good to see you lot have a suitable level of respect for my mechanical ability! It was jumped of the neighbours car this morning, and had recharged enough on the 40 mile journey to Derby to restart this evening.

The freshly rebuilt carbs aren't leaking...but...when I went to leave Rupert's place this evening, they had to re-fill the float chambers before it would start. This isn't good... I'll investigate why tomorrow...if it starts...

cheers

James

Struggled to start again this morning, clearly having to re-fill the float chambers, and not having too much juice left in the battery by the time it did.

Turns out when I said they weren't leaking any more, that might have been a touch premature... They weren't leaking from the top covers any more, but fuel was virtually pouring out of the pump jet cover underneath. I guess I should have been more concerned about leaks and less about stripping the threads.

With the rebuilt, non-leaking carbs, it's a much nicer car to drive. Two of the pump jets are now blocked, but I'm not missing them at all...and in fact the car runs much better at part-throttle. Clearly this needs addressing properly at a later date, but in the short-term, it's actually an improvement!

I'm still on the original battery, as the Bosch place was shut by the time I got to Derby. I'll start and drive it every couple of days, and call in somewhere next Saturday to pick one up.

cheers

James

Good job mate Erm, when you say bottom seal was leaking, petrol was dripping out the car downwards? Doesn't sound good!

That's correct...two large float chambers worth emptied....twice. Rather costly error! It was only dripping slowly, so no harm done. I'll be keeping an eye on that area to make sure they don't work loose again.

In the meantime, part-throttle response is nice. Having to drive the car hard is all well and good for the first 10 miles or so, but long-term it gets very wearing.

cheers

James

My Redline came with a battery made by some company I'd never heard of. It was fitted Oct 2003. On the first really cold morning this winter, it wouldn't start for me.

Bah

I've dropped in a Bosch Silver. Hopefully, that'll be good for more than two years!

All i can say is Bosch Silver Battery's are the tits.

I've had mine since day 1 in the 740 when i bought the car due to it having a tiddly battery in it.

In the 8 years of owning the car, i've parked the car for upto 3 months at a time and had it allways start first time. (allthough i do pull the fuse for the Clock when leaving it this length of time)

Even when the battery is deeply discharged due to forgetting to pull the fuse, a slow trickle charge overnight soon brings it back to life.

Volvo batterys just arent worth the extra few points they might earn you at a BKV.

I must give Chesh full credit for putting me onto the Bosch goodness.

Hopefully the final update. Understand my frustration when I went out there tonight and the carbs had emptied ANOTHER float chamber's worth of petrol

This time I checked immediately after a run, and could hear the (very, very quiet) wheezing as the air bubbled in. It was leaking into the carb barrel somewhere, but I have no real idea where or why. I took it apart, did a few things up, and it seems to still be dry 3 hours later. Fingers crossed...

I've decided I've not been giving that poor 360 enough love of late. I had it hand-washed on Sunday, and it's gleaming. Time for some more pampering methinks. In the meantime, I'm in work in less than 7 hours, so bedtime!

cheers

James