alternator or battery or am i seeing things?

Synchros shot? Weird noises while shifting? Not sure what needs to be replaced?
Rope-Pusher
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Re: alternator or battery or am i seeing things?

Post by Rope-Pusher »

I remembah back when I still had muh teef and Ben Franklin hadn't invented electricity yet. We had to go catch some lightning bugs and put them inside the headlights EVERY night (never did figgur out what to feed them so they'd stay alive).

Oh, and back then, the alternator hadn't been invented by Walter P. Chrysler yet and batteries were groupings of cannons.
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Re: alternator or battery or am i seeing things?

Post by fa22raptorf22 »

wannabe wrote:the dimness thingy was turned.

such a blonde.
Classic blondie mistake! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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theholycow
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Re: alternator or battery or am i seeing things?

Post by theholycow »

paul34 wrote:Older Veedubs and Audis don't even have a parking light setting. Just off and on.
...and newer ones too, like my 2008. Well, the US-market ones...they put a different switch in the European market car, and if I wanted to spend $60 I could have one too.

If you don't want to spend $60, here's what you do:
Turn on headlights.
Turn off car.
Walk away, not noticing that you left anything on because the headlights aren't on anymore...but the parking lights are.
Come back 8 hours later to a dead battery that doesn't act like a dead battery at all.

This is what a 2008 Volkswagen does if the battery is dead. This is not while attempting to start the car or operate anything; this just the car sitting there parked. There is no way to open the hatch because it doesn't have a manual latch handle. There is no operating the locks. Whether the key is in the ignition or out has no effect on this weirdness.

Note: Seeing the dust in this video really makes it look awful. If it looked like that in person I'd have cleaned it. I think I'll clean it now, that's icky.

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watkins wrote:Humans have rear-biased AWD. Cows have 4WD
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theholycow
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Re: alternator or battery or am i seeing things?

Post by theholycow »

That is my car in the video. I have never smoked in it, and I got it brand new. I am not a smoker. The dust is just from never wiping the dash. As I said, if it looked like that in person I would not tolerate it...but seeing it in the video is icky enough and I'll wipe it soon.

It would not have been a big deal for me to jump start it. I could not have bump started without another car to pull/push, since it was slightly downhill to the parking curb; I'd have to push it uphill to get it away from the curb.

The big deal, however, was that I totally did not expect that it was a dead battery. I figured it was the type of electronic weirdness failure that VWs are known for. Since I have never experienced a dead battery causing those symptoms it didn't even occur to me to try.
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watkins wrote:Humans have rear-biased AWD. Cows have 4WD
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Re: alternator or battery or am i seeing things?

Post by theholycow »

Yes, I drive with the windows down as much as possible. In the spring my interiors turn yellow with pollen. :?
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watkins wrote:Humans have rear-biased AWD. Cows have 4WD
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Re: alternator or battery or am i seeing things?

Post by theholycow »

Well, yes, my four stomachs handle the pollen well enough, but it still is ugly on my vehicles' interiors and causes some respiratory/ocular allergy symptoms too...
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watkins wrote:Humans have rear-biased AWD. Cows have 4WD
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Re: alternator or battery or am i seeing things?

Post by theholycow »

:lol: So when I got in the car to go home today I thought about the smoking thing and remembered working on people's computers who were heavy smokers when I did repairs at a store. They had worse dust than anyone else's, including people with multiple pets and people who keep the computer on the floor in the garage or basement. When you turned on the computer it would stink up the whole area.
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watkins wrote:Humans have rear-biased AWD. Cows have 4WD
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