And not for *THIS* driver...
Gimme a good old-fashion stick any day of the week. I don't much care for being stranded by a tranny that decides it doesn't want to shift when it's supposed to, or tries to "out-think" me. When I put it in second, I want it in second until I decide to put it someplace else, and to hell with whatever the widget that passes for "intelligence" in the gearbox thinks is right.
True. There has to be at least some tiny bit of charge left in the battery or you are SOL.
You idea has many holes in it. If you were SOMEHOW able to give enough amps to turn the car over, the battery would die out if the car started because the alternator can't charge the dead battery because the alternator belt is off.
Does the 92 civic have a single belt? If so, all of your other components won't turn either.
Not enough to cause a charge. If there WAS, then the regulator could never bring the alternator down to near-zero output.
Alternator rotors are specifically designed out of "soft" magnetic materials so that they *don't* retain residual magnetism. Go ahead- pull the field wires off your alternator and put an ammeter in series with the ouput and tell me how much current it produces.
As far as a solution, if you're really running your battery dry so often as to retrofit your car, how about a 2nd battery that takes a charge, but until you flip a switch, will not energize anything?
"Output voltage (Voc) is 16.5 VDC, output current (Isc) is 30-40 mA."
30-40 milliamps!!! He'd be better off pulling the alternator with a rope!
What about something like this?
I'm interested if anyone has any positive/negative opinions on it, since I'm thinking about getting one for a car that I don't drive very often.
John.
LOL!..... or drag his feet on the carpet and touch the battery!
The 500-750mA models listed would better suit. Even better, find out what the Hell is draining the battery and fix it and get a new battery. A battery that won't hold a charge for couple days is a bad battery. Go to your local mechanic or even some auto parts stores and have a battery "load test" done.
nb
Drive a manual transmission. You can push start those.
However, caveats:
- unburned fuel/air mixture during the first few cycles can ignite in the exhaust system where it can damage the catalytic converter. You have to weigh the cost of continuing being stranded against the cost of a new catalytic converter. If you are fleeing from a natural disaster, and your car won't start, who cares about the converter, right? :)
- the engine might not still not start due to the ECU and surrounding components being adequately powered.
You know, you could just carry an extra battery in your trunk if you're that absent-minded. Check it once in a while to make sure it's charged.
Also, a battery never completely runs "dry". What you do is turn off everything that was draining the battery (dome light, stereo, headlights). Then leave the car alone for 15, 20 minutes. Chemicals in the battery might redistribute themselves to build up enough concentration to provide enough current to start the car.
How is that going to work? You won't charge the battery from a few revolutions of the alternator. It could provide enough current to spark the engine if someone turns the ignition key at the same time. But then, the belt is off!!! How is the engine going to continue running on a dead battery, and no belt to the alternator?
I feel the same way, but the vast majority of cars sold here are automatics.
I do not care for the proliferation of worthless computer controlled gadgetry in many modern cars. For an air conditioning system, I would prefer a temperature control and an on/off switch. I do not need a $600 climate control computer. Nor do I need a system which holds on the lights for a few minutes when I exit, and dims gently when I get in the car.
The one item that I would really like would be log scale ammeter that could function with little or no current drain when the car is starting, running, or turned off. Not the easiest of tasks, perhaps, there are a number of ways to approach it.
Over the years such a unit could have saved my bacon when lights that should go off don't, when kids in the back seat turn on reading lights and leave them on, when car control systems don't shut down on their own, when any of a number of faults parasitically drain the battery, and when the starter begins to sound weak.
Was your battery actually dead, or were you just playing around?
Because if your battery is actually dead, what can happen is that the first few strokes of the engine can blow unburned fuel-air mixture into the exhaust system where it will later ignite, possibly damaging your catalytic converter.
So push-starting your car is a last-resort,in an emergency situation where it makes sense to take that damage risk.
Was your battery actually dead, or were you just playing around?
Because if your battery is actually dead, what can happen is that the first few strokes of the engine can blow unburned fuel-air mixture into the exhaust system where it will later ignite, possibly damaging your catalytic converter.
So push-starting your car is a last-resort,in an emergency situation where it makes sense to take that damage risk.
Oh, good GRIEF!!
Catcons are *not* that delicate. No way in God's green earth that a few cylinder-fulls of raw fuel/air mix is going to hurt a catcon. No way, no how, AINT GONNA HAPPEN. If it did, we could never have had 16 years of CARBURETED cars (1975 until the last carbureted Mazda pickup in 1991) with perfectly functional catalytic convertors, now could we?
Running 20 miles with two spark plug wires disconnected- now THAT will heat up a catcon to a nice cherry red and do some damage... but just starting an engine? Nope.
Or the *ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT* cat on my carbed '82 Mazda 626 which, due to an uncooperative electrical fault that took the better part of a year of on and off hunting to finally pin down and cure for good, got push-started on a fairly regular basis - Sometimes as often as 4-5 times in an hour during a 4-8 hour shift when it was earning its keep as a pizza-mobile. On November 30th of last year, it went through California smog testing showing less than 1/3 of the allowed emissions for its testing category - *ACROSS THE BOARD* - and WITHOUT needing to resort to any of the "fool the machine" tricks or gimmicks to make it happen.
Needless to say, I ain't sweating even a little bit over zapping the cat with a push start, regardless of the dire warnings that folks like Kaz keep tossing out.
Absolutely. Continuously dumping raw fuel-charge into a cat is gonna turn its innards into a heap of fused slag in short order. That would be one of those things that fall into the "unquestionable fact" category. The few snorts of fuel-mix it gets from performing a proper (IE, key on, get to speed, then dump the clutch in second or third) push-start on an otherwise healthy engine don't amount to a half-assed fart in a hurricane.
Why would anyone care? CCs are useless, enviroterrorist pieces of shit.
************************* Dave
I just gave you several.
Anyway, a search on line reveals that a 4-cylinder Toyota typically draws 130-150 amps during starting. Say it draws 150 amps for 15 seconds; that's 37 amp-minutes. The smallest Toyota alternator has an output of 40 amps. Even assuming a miserable 50% charge efficiency (70% is more typical) and 10amps to run the accessories, it'll have the battery topped off within 3 minutes. That's a fast 8 miles...
No, it won't, not on a modern car. Because your electrically-actuated injectors won't fire and your electric fuel pump won't run.
"John 'Shaggy' Kolesar"
If for some reason this device, or other similar devices, disconnects the power regularly it will reset the vehicle's computer, the clock and stereo memory/passwords, especially when using this device with a remote control. The symptom when the ECU resets is an increase in fuel consumption as the computer relearns your driving habits. On some vehicles, the tailpipe will puff smoke, the car will pitch and rock before the computer settles down and fine tune its fuel map.
Let's compare two products.
PriorityStart! 85USD Inventor unknown, has four issued US patents and multiple International patents, is a small, computer chip driven, electro mechanical device with a bi-directional motor and 10 gear system that delivers 243 to 1 gear drive ratio and closes with 80 pounds of linear force.
Battery Brain with or without remote. 40-70USD. Battery Brain is invented in Israel and with personnel working with a manufacturing team in China. Manufactured and assembled in China and Italy. Electrical contacts comprise of of a conductor that operates in an oxygen-free environment and can tolerate high currents.
Battery Buddy. Unknown price. Distributed by Crown Motors Enterprises Pte Ltd. has a push reset button.
Simpler, cheaper alternative: Common sense. Turn off the stereo and headlights, and shut the door so the dome light is turned off when the engine isn't running. Cost: US$0.00. Not encumbered by any patents issued by any jurisdiction. Available anywhere you happen to be standing. Installation takes approximately 1.5 seconds or less, and can be performed by anyone with the intelligence and coordination required to operate a motor vehicle, using no tools, and with no technical know-how or mechanical experience required. No moving parts to wear out, break, or otherwise fail. No electronic parts to be zapped by surges, lightning strikes, or other misadventures. No resetting of stereo presets/passwords or ECU data. No remote to lose/malfunction.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.