Interesting day today. Rather mixed emotions as a result though.
My older boy and his wife managed to "park" their son with the other granny and granddad and have been away "dan souf" (down south) for an extended weekend - nearly a week in the event - visiting Oxford and doing the "Morse" thing. They seem to have had a lovely time. They got back late Monday and rang us yesterday to let us know they were home safe but also to tell me the Punto wouldn't start, "just makes a clicking noise Dad". My younger boy is also away, down in Devon, but he's got his whole "tribe" in tow. Anyway, as I've not had a chance to really get stuck into his wife's Mazda2 (2014, so one of the very last before the "new look") which became a family member back in march, With both of them living to the south of the city I chucked my big jump battery, jump leads, multimeter and a few other accoutraments in the Ibiza's boot and "installed" Mrs J in the passenger seat and we set off for my older boy's abode. Yup, flat battery - 8.7 volts open circuit. It was running fine when they went away he tells me, and the battery was new about 3 years? ago - it was a bit of a "cheapie" though. Anyway, connected up the jump battery - which is about twice the capacity of the Puntos - Positive to positive and negative on the jump to an engine earth so as not to "upset" the battery condition monitor sensor on the negative clamp. I let it sit like this for a few minutes for the two batteries to equalize to some extent and then twisted the key. She burst into life quite enthusiastically! I didn't disconnect the jump leads but checked the voltage which was 14.2 - which would indicate the alternator would seem to be charging. I let her run like this for about 10 minutes so that the car's battery and the jump battery could equalize much more, stopped the engine and then disconnected the jump leads. It's always a good idea to let the jump battery and flat battery stay connected for some time after starting, particularly if you don't intend to stop the engine before disconnecting the jump battery, to avoid a spike in alternator output when the good jump battery is disconnected. Alternators charge quite strongly even at tickover and if you disconnect the jump battery as soon as the car starts then the alternator's regulator/ecu, upon "seeing" the very low battery voltage, might force a full output state - a "spike" - which might be enough to exceed the system voltage tolerance of multiple other system electronics! Ouch, expensive! I prefer to run the two together for a while (10 to 15 minutes is enough in my experience, maybe less if it's a small battery) then turn the engine off before disconnecting the jump battery. As long as you then immediately restart the engine it will usually restart. Why? because the flat battery plates will be holding quite a good surface charge at this point. If you don't restart immediately but leave it for some time, say 10 to 15 minutes, the surface charge will disipate more deeply into the plates and it probably won't restart. However, by stopping the engine before disconnecting the jump battery, you've pretty much eliminated the possibility of the alternator "spiking" the electronics. Try it, it works.
On this particular occasion though we didn't restart the old girl as I was going to connect my "smart" charger to her and let that charge her overnight. Pos charger connection to positive battery terminal, Neg charger connection to engine earth point so that BCM (battery condition monitor) on the negative battery clamp can be kept in the game. As long as it's a quality (C-TEK in this case) smart charger I'm very happy to charge in this way without disconnecting either battery terminal and, so far, haven't had a problem on anything I've tried it on - wouldn't do it with one of the old transformer type chargers though! I let the battery sit while we had a cup of tea so the surface charge on the plates could dissipate somewhat before connecting up the multimeter and seeing a figure of 10.9 volts now indicated. Then connected up the charger and gave older boy his orders as to what to watch for and how to disconnect once a full charge is achieved.
This car has the flashing mileometer problem, which I know usually indicates the blue and me module is "stuffed". I know this fault allows a parasitic drain on the battery but it's been like this for about 18 months now and, with the car being driven almost every day, I think the alternator has been balancing this enough so he's not had a problem. Anyway, we're going to see how the car behaves once the battery is fully charged and, of course, back to it's daily journey. Probably a week of standing idle was just too much. Now his wife works from home they've been thinking of making do with just the KIA, but keeping the Punto going for as long as I can has become a bit of a matter of pride! After all, might as well, he's not going to get a lot for a 10+ year old Punto 1.4 8 valve is he? Now would have been the perfect time to have used a battery analyser (I do fancy a Topdon 200) but still haven't won Mrs J over to the idea and expense!
The above is only part of the story though. Having got the charger set up in his Punto at the kerbside - with his bright orange lawnmower extension lead so that, hopefully, noone will trip over it, We - Mrs J and I, jumped back in the Ibiza and went on out into "deepest Midlothian" where my younger boy and his family live. Noone in of course because they are also "dan souf" but I checked the house and garden, watered the plants and put out the rubbish bins - collection tomorrow, neighbour detailed to take them back in. Mrs J did a trawl through the fridge for stuff which would rot before they returned but the pickings were pretty slim. Good thing we went because they'd left the kitchen lights on!
While Mrs J was "tidying" I found the Mazda keys and went out to check it over for the drive back into town. Apart from a visual inspection and a quick run up the road when she bought the vehicle back in March, this car is an unknown to me. Tyres looking good and passed the "kick" test (which is a waste of time I know) Coolant level bang on, as was the brake fluid. Engine oil 3/4 of the way towards "full" so that's Ok too. Started the engine which made no nasty rattles etc but the radio was turned up so loud it nearly deafened me - what a fright! My boy told me the car has failed to start a couple of times lately. Never at the house, so not on a cold start, but when at the supermarket when leaving for home. So warm/hot starts? seen this before with failing crank position sensors, but he then went on to say, since she put petrol in it's been fine. Oh, how empty was it son? On empty with the red light on Dad. I despair. Suppose we'll just have to monitor it if it doesn't misbehave while I've got it.
When Mrs J had finished "doing stuff" in the house - tidying the kitchen, straightening living room cushions and rugs, etc, etc. we set off in convoy, her in the Ibiza and me in the Mazda for the 3/4 hour drive back home. Hmm, clutch feels a bit heavy to me? maybe they're like that though? I'll ask around. But, Oh dear, The town is chaos with diversions all over the place for King Charles. So we turned right and skirted round, down "the Wisp", to Portobello/Seafield and back home along the northern shore through Leith. Worked well, no real hold ups, must be all in the centre of town.
Mixed impression of the Mazda - 2014 Mazda 2 (did I say?) Brakes feel really good although I know the pads are low and the discs don't look brilliant. If the weather's nice tomorrow I'm going to take a look at them first - hope the rear drums don't "fight" me too much. With just 57,300 miles on the clock I'm betting the discs and pads are original? maybe just replace the lot? we'll see. Would hope the rear shoes won't need doing yet unless there's a badly leaking cylinder. Engine ran like a wee Swiss watch and is quiet even with the bonnet open, about all you can hear is the injectors clicking - brilliant! Steering wheel very slightly askew to the O/S and a very very slight pull to the right, you've got to be looking for it to notice though. I see it's last MOT called for a bottom ball joint. Either that's not been done, or done but not had the toe reset, (where my money is at this time) It'll be interesting to have a good look. Engine oil and filter were done by the selling garage and with only about 3,000 miles covered since look exactly as I'd expect, nice shiny filter and slightly dark coloured oil. so I'm sure they did that. Spark plugs are long life, apparently miles 67,000 or 7 years? with her low mileage maybe they're originals too? Looks as if gaining access is going to be entertaining as the air filter - which I want to take a look at anyway - is in unit with the main engine ECU:
The straight ribbed bit to the right - not the air duct at the front right - is the ECU and to it's left is the air filter box (with the writing on top) It's all one unit. If you look closely you can see, at the front, one of the securing bolts. There's another just visible at the back left and there's one right behind the casing which you can't see (and is going to be a wee bit awkward to get at. If these three are removed and the air duct removed (it's a simple push fit) then if you release the intake trunking (rubber hose hidden under all this) the whole unit will lift off and then you can spring the clips - look carefully, they're standard finger type clips, you can see one in the middle and one on the left - and the bottom of the filter casing will drop off revealing the filter element. One problem though. I suspect, and have seen You tube videos, that the ECU multiplugs need to be released to allow the filter/ECU unit to be lifted off and they - two of them - are "hiding" under here:
The problem is compounded by the fact that those round headed fixings are not rivets, they are the heads of shear nuts:
You can see the threaded portion on the underside with a mirror.
Have to say I'd rather not undo the multiplugs anyway so I'll see if I can gently lift the case far enough to release the filter. Don't know what I'm going to do about the plugs yet because they are under all that lot, hiding down deep holes! At 47,000 miles they are way under maximum mileage recommendation but considerably over the age recommendation so I'd like to pull them for a look see. I suspect a wee clean up of the insulators and reinstall might be Ok. Just depends on what the business ends and gaps look like.
Anyway, got the car for another week so plenty of time to get to really know her and all her dirty little secrets? Just need the weather to hold up.
Edit. Think I've confused things regarding the mileage? at first I stated it had done 57,300 and then talked about 47,000 later on. Well, it's 47,000 in fact.
