Hello faithful readers and welcome to this week’s adventures from the KAM team. With more and more of you gifting us with your car gremlins we have been as busy as ever as we strive to be your number 1-car repair specialists. You can leave your comments, questions and queries on our twitter account at www.twitter.com/dr_kev
This week’s column takes place within the realm our Long Eaton depot where we received a visit from our very glamorous customer Miss E. Miss E has been a customer of ours for over 4 years and as the owner of her own salon knows the pressures of running a business. As she entered the reception she was met by Cool Hand Luke, to whom she regaled her Mini Cooper’s failures. ‘It’s ridiculous Luke I’ve had two new batteries fitted in my car in the last 6 months’ she said visibly frustrated. As Miss E continued it so transpired that her car’s battery had been flat and after taking it to her local garage they ensured her that a new battery was all that was needed. However the battery went flat again after 3 months and the garage gave her the same reason and no further exploration was undertaken. We at KAM do not recommend this way of treating cars and will make thorough checks to ensure all problems are fixed. ‘You see Luke I can’t go back there so they can just do half a job, I need you to fix it, plus I’ve got clients waiting’ continued Miss E. When all the details had been given we dispatched her off in one of our courtesy cars, as we did not want to further disrupt her day, she like us had people depending on her for those hair disasters.
We got to work straight away as Superman Sundeep undertook the task assisted by Strong Arm Steve. After two minutes Sundeep yelled across the workshop ‘I’ve found the problem’. It turned out that due to negligence by the previous garage the wrong battery had been fitted in the car. The Mini Cooper has a smart charge battery, but the garage had fitted a normal budget battery. After replacing this with the right one the boys were happy, yet I was not convinced. The solution was too easily found. Was there an underlying cause to the battery draining out so quickly? I needed an answer.
Superman Sundeep armed with his multiimeters prepared to do a drain test. This is to see whether there is any current running from the battery to a component in the car that maybe left on. ‘Kev you were right’ said Sundeep as the results of the drain test showed the drain to be excessive. The battery was giving off excessive current but where to? We scanned the car’s history and the problem became quickly apparent. It appeared that approximately 6 months ago Miss E had had a new stereo fitted into her car, the same time that the problem had presented itself. In conclusion we found that the stereo would stay on even when the car was off and so had persisted to drain the battery. The stereo had been wired wrong so the live feed was always on. Strong Arm Steve rewired the stereo system resulting in the battery drain parameters returning to normal and the car back to its best. Mystery Solved. We then carried out all the necessary checks to ensure no car gremlins were lurking and after a wash from Dynamo Dhillan the car was ready for collection.
I did still wonder about the stereo and asked Miss E who had fitted it for her as they had failed to do a professional job. First she showed her gratitude for our team doing such a great job then started to laugh. ‘It was my dad Kev, he bought me a stereo for my birthday and fitted it as a surprise, I’ll tell him to leave it to the experts next time hey’.
Remember faithful reader, our team of dedicated and hard working staff at the branches in Sutton and Long Eaton, along with our bodywork shop are open ever day of the week, EXCLUDING Sunday’s, while the lads at our Sawley and Heanor workshops and Sutton car sales are at your service seven days a week, keeping your car where it belongs. ON THE ROAD.
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