do rac/aa do instant cover? my batterys dead

welshboy

welshboy

welshboy

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If I join online is it instant?

My car battery is dead, currently at a mates house as he left the lights on.
Anyway, if I join online is it instant cover.

tried jump starting the car but didnt work.
 
They do, but it ain't cheap. Time to introduce yourself to the neighbours :p
 
Surely a better/cheaper option is to get a lift from your mate to go buy a battery charger then pop it on charge? The AA wont be able to do anything you can't do yourself except tow you to an expensive garage! ;)
 
I started a 2.5L Volvo off a 1.5L 1983 Golf.

Your doing it wrong if it doesn't work.

Try again.

Edit: Or if it really doesn't work you have issues elsewhere.

Connect it up, negative first, start the jump car, Hold it at 2/2.5k for 5 mins, then get your mate to try and turn your car over.

If I can do it single handed, two of you it must be easy as :p
 
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saitrix said:
Or just use jump leads?
Click to expand...
Apparently it didn't work :confused:

On a side-note I observed this chav trying to jump start his riced up 106 off of his Dad's clapped out cavalier.

For a start his Dad switched the Cav's engine off...
They then connected the jump leads +ve to -ve and vice versa. Cue a pretty showering of sparks!

After he started his Saxo he sat in the car park bouncing off of the limiter for around 5 mins. I really do mean the limiter, not just revving it highly!
Of course he had all his lights switched on, stereo etc.

His Dad then struggled to start the Cav but it did just about start.

By this point a group of lads were pointing and laughing at him so the Chav did a wheel spin out of the petrol station car park.
 
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When you say jump start didn't work, do you mean his battery didn't have enough power to start your engine?
If so, just leave the jump leads on there for 5-10 minutes (preferably with his engine on), it'll charge your battery and will then start the car. I've done this with a motorbike battery before, so even a weedy car battery will do it :p
 
Concorde Rules said:
I started a 2.5L Volvo off a 1.5L 1983 Golf.

Your doing it wrong if it doesn't work.

Try again.

Edit: Or if it really doesn't work you have issues elsewhere.

Connect it up, negative first, start the jump car, Hold it at 2/2.5k for 5 mins, then get your mate to try and turn your car over.

If I can do it single handed, two of you it must be easy as :p
Click to expand...

Agreed, the trick is to start the good car first and leave it for a few minutes. Although if the dud car is smaller you can usualy get away without doing this.

I've started a 2.8 litre diesel van using a Xantia this way. Or get your mates to give you a push down a hill. Once you've got some speed up bung it in second and bring the clutch up. Jobs a good 'un.
 
We had the jump leads on for a good 20mins, and it did power up the lights. Then a neighbour came out with a booster which managed to work my stereo but still no go. then the power all went out of the windows etc.
 
Is your mate a member of a recovery service? On some policies if he's a 'passenger' you may be covered.

If you don't need the car in a massive hurry then grabbing a charger is the best bet.
 
If you couldn't even get the stereo working off his battery, something's going wrong somewhere. Although I would've thought the lights draw more power than the stereo, unless you don't mean headlights.
 
In France recently I left a 12V fridge plugged into the Golf. Battery was totally flat in the morning, not even lights on the dash.

The campsite owner tried jumping it off his Landcruiser with brand new (dual) batteries and good quality leads. It just didn't want to know. Even after 15 mins revving and so on, the most we could get was the clock working and lights on the dash.

Took the battery off and charged it for 45 mins and it fired no problem. Sometimes if you take a car battery to it's very bottom it just doesn't seem to accept charge through jump leads.
 
Lopéz said:
In France recently I left a 12V fridge plugged into the Golf. Battery was totally flat in the morning, not even lights on the dash.

The campsite owner tried jumping it off his Landcruiser with brand new (dual) batteries and good quality leads. It just didn't want to know. Even after 15 mins revving and so on, the most we could get was the clock working and lights on the dash.

Took the battery off and charged it for 45 mins and it fired no problem. Sometimes if you take a car battery to it's very bottom it just doesn't seem to accept charge through jump leads.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Would you not get the same effect from plugging it into the landy for that amount of time? Although they might not want to sit there for 45 minutes burning fuel.

As for charging car batteries - I happen to have a 12V adaptor for an external hard drive that went to caddie heaven. Supposing I plugged in my car battery to the 12V adaptor, apart from taking a really long time, is there any reason that wouldn't charge? (Wondering because I have a motorbike battery as a spare but I obviously can't keep jump-starting off it without charging it, but can't be bothered with the hassle of charging from the car battery unless it can't be avoided. Trying to keep costs to a minimum, no dedicated car battery charger available.)
 
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