Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[phi-dan]

Bank holiday weekends, rain all the way through when I wanted to be outside doing DIY, sunshine now I'm back in the office.

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[garynortheast]

Taken my daughters and a friend of theirs to a trampoline place, Jump In, in Shrewsbury. Great big echoey hanger of a place, with the obligatory pop music blasting out and excited kids voices rattling off every surface. They're enjoying themselves which is great but the noise just does my head in.

[Sir Trev]

The garage called to say my sick car has been mended and is ready for collection. Turns out the RAC fitted the wrong battery when it died a month ago and it's not been charging right since then. As it was a new battery it lasted reasonably well but as it was not charging properly it gave out again. I will be calling the RAC tomorrow and demanding a refund which is not going to be fun.

[admin]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

The garage called to say my sick car has been mended and is ready for collection. Turns out the RAC fitted the wrong battery when it died a month ago and it's not been charging right since then. As it was a new battery it lasted reasonably well but as it was not charging properly it gave out again. I will be calling the RAC tomorrow and demanding a refund which is not going to be fun.

I'm intrigued. What battery types are we talking about here? I know lithium batteries needs special treatment. Was it a traction battery as fitted to mobility scooters?

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by admin

I'm intrigued. What battery types are we talking about here? I know lithium batteries needs special treatment. Was it a traction battery as fitted to mobility scooters?

Intrigued as well, is there a 'wrong' type of lead acid battery (as you say leisure, mobility scooter or golf cart batteries are designed for long slow discharge and deep cycling, with fewer but thicker plates) I don't think RAC would carry one of those around in their van.

[Sir Trev]

The RAC in my case wandered off to a nearby depot to collect a battery, despite me ordering it online earlier in the day - their reason is that it is not always the battery at fault so they run diagnostics first. Fair enough, although it added well over an hour to the time I was stranded on my driveway, and the tech showed me his results showing that there was no drain (electrical leak) and the alternator was putting out the right charging current. Unfortunately it went downhill from there. The muppet brought back a 65Ah battery instead of a 60Ah and, according to my Ford garage, the alternator could not charge it fully so after six weeks it died again.

My phone call went badly, as expected. They claimed I have invalidated my warranty by not getting them to check it first, yeah right. Not being clairvoyant I got it to the dealer as I expected it was something else, after all, it was a new battery so why would that be the problem? They found the wrong battery and as I wanted the car back pronto I said go ahead and put the right one in. RAC are saying that was the wrong thing to do and they should have dispatched a tech to the dealer to see for themselves... Pile of rubbish.

They have supplied me with the the wrong battery which was not fit for purpose so they owe me a refund. Their warranty wording does not come above the Sale and Supply of Goods Act or the Consumer Rights Act so they owe me a refund end of. If I have to complain to the credit card company and/or the Small Claims Court then I will. I will also be cancelling my 30 years of membership with them come renewal as well as this has left a nasty taste.

[admin]

Ah. Thanks just curious. I can see why you're annoyed.

[admin]

My GotD is TV producers. I could go on about this for hours but I won't bore you all.
I enjoy watching the Bakeoff but the last two episodes kept referring to "frosting". For god's sake this is a British programme and no one says frosting. I know they'll sell the series to the US but that's no excuse, they don't do the same for us.

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

The RAC in my case wandered off to a nearby depot to collect a battery, despite me ordering it online earlier in the day - their reason is that it is not always the battery at fault so they run diagnostics first. Fair enough, although it added well over an hour to the time I was stranded on my driveway, and the tech showed me his results showing that there was no drain (electrical leak) and the alternator was putting out the right charging current. Unfortunately it went downhill from there. The muppet brought back a 65Ah battery instead of a 60Ah and, according to my Ford garage, the alternator could not charge it fully so after six weeks it died again.

My phone call went badly, as expected. They claimed I have invalidated my warranty by not getting them to check it first, yeah right. Not being clairvoyant I got it to the dealer as I expected it was something else, after all, it was a new battery so why would that be the problem? They found the wrong battery and as I wanted the car back pronto I said go ahead and put the right one in. RAC are saying that was the wrong thing to do and they should have dispatched a tech to the dealer to see for themselves... Pile of rubbish.

They have supplied me with the the wrong battery which was not fit for purpose so they owe me a refund. Their warranty wording does not come above the Sale and Supply of Goods Act or the Consumer Rights Act so they owe me a refund end of. If I have to complain to the credit card company and/or the Small Claims Court then I will. I will also be cancelling my 30 years of membership with them come renewal as well as this has left a nasty taste.

Looking at Ford forums it seems that their 'smart charge' system will only work properly with a silver calcium chemistry battery and many problems have been caused by fitting normal chemistry batteries. I suspect it is not the fact that the battery is 5 A/H larger but it is the wrong battery type, the battery on the car now is most probably FUBAR due to too much charging voltage, and the wrong chemistry has been confusing the smart charging system.

https://www.yuasa.co.uk/info/technic...ium-batteries/

http://www.valeoservice.com/data/mas...E6E8714173.pdf

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forum...ead-batteries/


Seems it is dodgy to try and jump start from a running vehicle as well, as this can damage the charging system.

Seems that the smart charging system uses square waveform which it varies to suit, and will charge a cold battery harder at a higher voltage (this can damage a normal lead acid battery) and will reduce charge rate as ambient temperature rises.

[TicklinJock]

You are not alone with this issue. Audi dealer refused to work on the car, an A1 with start/stop system, until they were given the go ahead to change out the battery the RAC technician fitted two weeks earlier. Audi dealer said that they could not get the ECU to talk to the RAC battery. RAC refunded the cost - several hundred pounds.
Unfortunately the Technician was frustrated that he had done everything he could to get the correct battery, and that this situation would recur.