1101 Aerio Battery

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Today's task was to get the Aerio battery charged so I can take the car in for service tomorrow.

Last Saturday, when the Hairless Hunk was here to help me get the lug nuts off the van's flat, he asked me to start the Aerio and move it out a bit, so he could look in the wheel well, where the strange noise was coming from. It wouldn't start. R-er-er-er.

I couldn't simply jump start the Aerio, because I can't drive it to recharge it until on the way to service, and it would be too late to find out that a jump won't work on Friday morning. So today I went looking for Jay's old charger. I finally found it in the packed-solid totally disorganized garage. Of course, there were no instructions, and it looked pretty primitive. Mother was not happy.

I decided to go to the store where I'd forgotten the sweaters last night, and I'd stop at an automotive store and see if I could find a charger I could be more comfortable with. I ended up buying one that figures everything out itself. It will even determine if the battery has become "sulfated", such that it can't take a normal charge, and will "desulfate" it. Whatever that is.

So with the new charger, all I have to worry about is battery acid, exploding gases, and electrocution. It worries me that the booklet says to remove all metal from your body, including earrings, before hooking things up.

I located and dragged out several heavy-duty extension cords. The Aerio is parked on the lawn, quite a distance from any outlets. I got a nightlight and checked the porch outlet. It works.

I wished there were someone within screaming distance while I'm doing this.

I screwed up my courage and ... decided to try starting the Aerio first. After all, it's above freezing today, almost 20 degrees warmer than Saturday.

It started on the second try.

I moved it closer to the porch, and decided to try letting it run for a while, maybe it'll charge itself. (Durn those daytime running lights! I don't know how to turn them off, and they're drawing power.) I stuck my head out the door every so often to make sure it didn't rev too high, and every fifteen minutes I went out to check the temp and gas gauges. It sat there and purred quietly to itself for 90 minutes, with occasional louder fan purrs, when I figured that HAD to be enough. (The new charger has a tester, and can tell me the % charge, but I'm not going to mess with it if I don't have to.)

Now the van and the Aerio are snuggling nose to nose, so if the van has to do CPR before the Aerio's trip to the doctor tomorrow morning, it'll be easy.
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