Chevrolet Spark 2005: Starting issue

eg2505 said:
I see, so the car running fine now?

What was the charge from the garage? Expensive?
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So far, so good. Went to PE and back last night and that was 160km. My wife went the shops with it this morning and had no problem.

There is a problem with the ignition, but I'm not sure about its impact.

We are being loadshed atm and the MTN backup capacity is poor and expect to lose signal any moment.
Will post when the power is restored.

R956.00.
It includes a new battery, labour and the autolelec from a neighbouring town.
 
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Hectic said:
So far, so good. Went to PE and back last night and that was 160GB. My wife went the shops with it this morning and had no problem.

There is a problem with the ignition, but I'm not sure about its impact.

We are being loadshed atm and the MTN backup capacity is poor and expect to lose signal any moment.
Will post when the power is restored.
Click to expand...

No issues,

here in jhb bedfordview loadshed just finished......

This is slowly killing SA, cant go on like this,
What next? Water cuts?
 
That's what lead-acid batteries do. They die suddenly, often overnight. My last one started my car fine, I drove 500m to the petrol station, filled up, could not start the car.
They will show the correct voltage under zero load, but as soon as you run some current through them the voltage drops dramatically.
 
Sinbad said:
That's what lead-acid batteries do. They die suddenly, often overnight. My last one started my car fine, I drove 500m to the petrol station, filled up, could not start the car.
They will show the correct voltage under zero load, but as soon as you run some current through them the voltage drops dramatically.
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I thought they die when theres no water in them,
OP says he has one of those new ones that cant be topped up, me as well, and your storys got me a bit worried now,

Could happen to anybody?
 
eg2505 said:
I thought they die when theres no water in them,
OP says he has one of those new ones that cant be topped up, me as well, and your storys got me a bit worried now,

Could happen to anybody?
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Expected lifespan of the battery is 2-3 years. Some go a lot longer, generally they last at least that long.
Carry jumper cables.

Most of them don't need topping up, they're sealed maintenance free units.
 
Have the battery load tested, most service places will be able to do this and give you an idea of the condition of the battery. But, like Sinbad says, one day it's fine, next day dead.
 
riscbroker said:
Have the battery load tested, most service places will be able to do this and give you an idea of the condition of the battery. But, like Sinbad says, one day it's fine, next day dead.
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This being said, beware. Many places have a pissy little electronic load tester thing that is actually unable to put real load on the battery.
If it has 1mm thick cables between the handheld tester and the battery clamps, it's useless.
 
Sinbad said:
This being said, beware. Many places have a pissy little electronic load tester thing that is actually unable to put real load on the battery.
If it has 1mm thick cables between the handheld tester and the battery clamps, it's useless.
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So those ones that they connect to the alternator are worthless?

What should i look for? Ones that as thick as jumper cables?
 
eg2505 said:
So those ones that they connect to the alternator are worthless?

What should i look for? Ones that as thick as jumper cables?
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Ja. One where they can actually pull like 100 amps off the battery and measure the voltage.
 
Quick way we learned on apprenticeship, put the voltmeter on battery. Should be close to 14volt. Swing starter and check voltmeter while starter is swinging, voltage should not drop below 9,6 volt.
 
Had this happen to me with no prior signs of battery problems, drove to client and when I came out half hour later the starter motor wouldn't even try to turn over but lights etc worked. Checked the battery terminals for tightness - no problem there.

Push started the car (manual Cressida) and drove to SupaQuik just down the road where they diagnosed a "dead cell", replaced the battery and problem solved.
 
Wernerjvv said:
Quick way we learned on apprenticeship, put the voltmeter on battery. Should be close to 14volt. Swing starter and check voltmeter while starter is swinging, voltage should not drop below 9,6 volt.
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Thx, will remember this.
 
Okay, I mentioned a bit earlier that there is a slight hiccup with the ignition.

A couple of months back my daughter bought a radio for the car and a friend installed the radio.
A couple of days later my wife mentioned that the radio was on the when she got to the car. My daughter explained that the radio came on when the car started , but did not always switch off when the ignition was turned off.
I was immediately pissed off as I told the friend how I wanted the radio connected to the acc connection of the ignition.
I assumed he did not and that it was connected to a 12 V source, which was always on.

Anyways, my daughter operated the radio via the on/off switch..
Unfortunately I'm physically a bit hampered and struggled to move around freely, so I never checked the radio.

The other day I had to visit my doctor and my daughter took me.
I checked the car to see if it has an acc connection on the ignition and it did.
I checked the radio and it turned on when I moved the key to the acc position, however it did not switch off.

I played around with the ignition and saw for some reason when the key was removed the ignition did not always pop out. Not sure how to explain this, but when the key is entered, the lock moves inwards for a millimeter or two and when the key is removed, it should pop out.
I hope I explained that properly.
I noticed that once the key is removed and the radio does not switch off, that I could just tap the the ignition with my hand and it would switch off the radio.
Sometimes the radio would switch off if the key was removed.

I sprayed some silicon spray into the lock with the hope that it would solve the problem and it did work much better, but still wasn't working a 100%

Since the car came back, it is much more difficult to get the radio to switch off. We currently have to wiggle the key in the ignition several times.

If the radio doesn't switch off when the key is removed and we use the radio on/off switch to manually switch it off, could that potentially be a problem? In other words there seems to be still some power on the ignition or the acc part of it.
If it is a problem, what should I do to fix the problem?
 
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I'd look at replacing the ignition barrel thing. Yes if the radio stays on then there is a circuit staying live that shouldn't.
 
Hectic said:
Okay they replaced the battery and the car is up and running.

I find it weird that a battery with no history of giving problems, died with one turn of the key, but it is up and running.

Thank you to all of you that provided advice.
I really appreciate it.
:)
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It takes a huge amount of power off that battery to start the car so if it was slightly dodgy even and died immediately it would struggle the next time.

Add to that many tries to start it again and it probably killed it.
 
My Chev Spark has a problem -when riding it slowly or like an old woman it rides fine but give petrol too fast and it is almost as if the choke is activated or it is flooding -all the usual suspects are okay ,the choke is working fine (put it on a machine )car starts and revs without any flat spot AND if you get it up to speed it rides like a bomb -changed spark plugs and fitted a new coil pack to test if it was perhaps a spark problem -you can also say it feels like a high rev breakdown on a spark plug
 
need attention said:
My Chev Spark has a problem -when riding it slowly or like an old woman it rides fine but give petrol too fast and it is almost as if the choke is activated or it is flooding -all the usual suspects are okay ,the choke is working fine (put it on a machine )car starts and revs without any flat spot AND if you get it up to speed it rides like a bomb -changed spark plugs and fitted a new coil pack to test if it was perhaps a spark problem -you can also say it feels like a high rev breakdown on a spark plug
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And what happened after changing the coil and spark plugs, still doing the same?
 
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