Last weekend, SWMBO took the D3 up to Holwick in Teesdale to provide back-up support to a group of her scouts while they were doing an expedition.
Sunday morning, she rang me to say she'd had trouble with the car. When she tried to start it, nothing happened. She said the car unlocked as normal but the interior light was very dim and when she turned the key in the ignition, none of the normal lights cam on in the display and the engine would not crank. After much 'fiddling and button pressing/knob twirling' (don't ask ) she gave up and was on her way across the field to a phone when a group of Scottish bikers who were camping in the same field came to her rescue.
Using a set of jump leads, they got the engine started so after that she just left it running all day ( ) cos she still had to follow the scouts round to some isolated locations and didn't dare switch off for fear it wouldn't start again.
She had an electric cool box in the back connected to the aux socket but these sockets are not supposed to be live with the ignition off are they. Are they?
Now I know that normally they are not live but, I have a little speed camera location device plugged into the front aux socket (next to fag lighter) and that will switch off when the ignition is switched off. Strangely though, late last year, I got into the car one day and noticed that the speed camera device was live, even though I hadn't even put the key in the ignition. It stayed like this for a couple of weeks i.e. the aux socket was still supplying power, even though the ignition was off before reverting to normal one day
I'm sure many of you will say this is impossible but honestly, it happened. Very weird! Has anybody else ever experienced this 'phenomenon' . Now I'm wondering if the same thing happened to SWMBO and as a result, the cool box fan was running all night and eventually drained the battery enough to prevent the car from starting.
The car has been fine since Sunday though I'm going to get the battery checked out. It's over 3 years old now so may need replacing and the condition indicator on the top was showing black last night though when it does show green, it can be very difficult to see.Now an ex-D3 owner after 7 happy years. Miss the car but not the big bills
14th Jul 2009 10:59 am
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That's exactly the reason I had an Aux battery, to stop the main one from running flat on these type of activities. The 'coolboxes' are notorious for draining juice from batteries.
Not sure about the sockets being live when they shouldn't, not experienced that (so far)Bodsys Brake Bible
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) she gave up and was on her way across the field to a phone when a group of Scottish bikers who were camping in the same field came to her rescue.
