Reg

I hope whoever took this fence out was OK. Looking at the condition of the grill and the fence I'd guess the car concerned isn't.

Yup, all good, clean, uncorroded and secure. The verdict is unanimous - the battery is toast.

Yes indeed, it's probably pining for the fjords.

Incidentally, I did get the Noco Boost to work by pressing its 'override' button which the manual says is for batteries with a voltage below 2v. Why that was necessary when the battery was showing over 12v is anyone's guess.

Thanks JP and Jonathan. Fluid levels are fine. I could indeed charge it and it may then work normally but I'll never trust it again, particularly in that it appears the Noco jump pack won't get me out of trouble if it recurs. It's sounding to me like it's time for a new battery unless anyone can suggest some other fault that is causing this behaviour? Cheers Reg

Thanks for the quick response Jonathan At rest, engine off, no load - 12.70v Cranking (except it doesn't actually crank) lowest recorded value - 1.88v At 3,000rpm - 14.00v It took a bit of effort to get the last reading as a fully charged Noco Boost jump pack had no effect whatsoever. I have a spare battery kicking around so I successfully jumped it off that. Which begs the rhetorical question what's the point of the Noco Boost if it won't jump a car with a battery showing 12.7v. Cheers Reg

I have a year 2000 1800 K-series Roadsport which has spent the winter resting attached to an Optimate 2 battery conditioner. It has a nearly 5 year old standard Banner 530034 with correct fluid levels and has never been flattened. As usual, after an extended period of no use, I disconnected the HT feed to the distributor and cranked to get oil pressure. The engine cranked vigorously for several turns. I did some work on the car during the course of which I started it several times. Then I drove it 300 metres to my MoT tester. When I came to pick it up (it passed!) I got what I initially thought was the 'click of death' except the engine wasn't hot. A jump pack got it started and I took it home. I plugged it into an Optimate 6 ('cos I figured that might do a better job of checking the battery than the much older Optimate 2). Within a couple of hours the Optimate indicated that the battery is fine and dandy and it is indeed showing well over 12.5v. So I tried turning the LED headlights on - initially nothing, then a flicker and then full power. I then pulled the HT lead and, with a voltmeter on the battery, I tried to spin the engine - the voltage plummeted to below 2v for as long as I held the red button down and didn't spin, just clicked. When I released the red button the voltage rapidly climbed back up to over 12v. Then I turned the headlights on and measured the voltage - it dropped to 9.8v. Is this simply a failed battery or is something more sinister afoot? It just seems strange that neither battery conditioner has identified that the battery's knackered and that it went from fully functional to utterly useless in the space of a couple of starts. Opinions gratefully received. Cheers Reg

Test

Isn't the "Active post" tab the same thing? It appears to show content from all forums.

Well, Darren has sent me a replacement unit and it seems to me that the threads must be very poorly cut - the thread on this one binds too just like the first but not quite so severely so with this one I can screw it all the way in by hand. Perhaps the first one would have been OK if I'd applied sufficient force but I wasn't about to find out. I was figuring that Adam's explanation was the most likely but it appears that Piers had the right answer - they're just plain badly made. Top marks to Darren and Caterham spares for swapping the units so quickly and with no grumbling.

Serves me right I suppose - I chose the electrical sensor option because it would be less hassle I might have known what would happen 😬

Thanks chaps. Ian - no, believe me I've examined the threads in microscopic detail and am now a leading expert in metric thread sizes. It looks absolutely fine and, as I say, a wheel nut screws onto both it and the old sensor with no resistance whatsoever Jonathan - it's the post-98 one for a K-series. The new one and the old one both have identical identification marks on them (which include reference to the M12 thread size). The old one fits back on absolutely fine, I've put it on alternating with the new one so many times now, trying to see what's different. Bob - I don't think there's any foreign matter in there. I gave it a good clean before removing the old one and have since given the female thread a good seeing to with some paper towel. Also, if there were, the old one wouldn't screw back in, which it does. The sensor fits extremely closely to the casting it screws into. There's almost no clearance at all and I wonder if there's some tiny difference in the size or shape of the new one that's not allowing the thread to engage correctly.

As the last sender had lasted 14 years I opted to replace it with another one rather than go mechanical. When I attempted to fit the new one the thread would not engage. It's a model year 2000, 1800 K-series Roadsport so has an M12x1.5 thread. That's the same as the wheel nuts so I tried screwing a wheel nut onto both the old and new sensors - that worked fine, so the thread on the new one is good. But every time I attempt to fit the new sensor it feels as though it's cross threading and stiffens up with half a turn of the thread feeling as though it's engaged. What on earth is wrong? (apart from the fact I should be replacing it with a mechanical gauge 😬)

Thanks Barry, the issue with my situation is that I only ever use Blatchat from one PC using one browser (Internet Explorer 9) so, from your description, it should operate consistently but it doesn't.

Oooer, that's bit weird - I assumed that this area was only visible to Barry as there were no posts in it. Must be new, I guess As for cookies, all the other sites I frequent remember me so I don't think my cookies are being eaten.