My son had a slight bump on his head last week.
He must have been playing with his kiddy chair when he fell down. My wife was busy in the kitchen and when she heard the cry, she rushed to him. There was a little bump at the back of the head and after applying some ice, the swelling went down and my son was back playing with his toys. When I came back home, I checked at noticed that there was no injuries. The bump had gone down.
But then on Sunday morning, when my mom carried my son, my son remarked that there was pain at the back of his head. So, feeling a bit worried, we took him to see the doctor. The doctor checked and informed that there is a slight bump on the head. He did a preliminary check and told us that there was nothing to be worried about.
We were relieved but decided to keep a closer watch on my son, since he can be very active at the wrong time and at the wrong place. We walked down towards the car which was parked in front of the clinic. After getting my son into the back passenger side, we sat down and was chatting on what the doctor said when I realised that I could not start the car.
My wife and I looked blank at each other for a moment. I tried to start but nothing happened. After couple of times, I started to heard clanking sound from the engine. By then, it was already 8.30 pm but luckily for us, it was not raining – so I opened the booth and double checked the battery. I was using the maintenance free battery – so I checked the indicator which still showed the color “green”. So, my first instinct was that the battery was ok and the problem must be from somewhere else.
I called my uncle on the phone who asked me to check whether the lights or the car horn was working. It did not work. My cousin was staying nearby, so I gave him a call. Within 5 minutes, he came with another cousin of mine. A quick check by them confirmed that the problem was due to the battery. It was faulty and as such we needed to change a new one. The problem was, on a Sunday night, most of the shops are closed. The solution was to look for battery at petrol stations. We managed to jump-start the car with the jumper cables and I drove the car to the nearest Petronas petrol station.
My car is using NS60 type of car battery but the station only had a NS70 type of batteries. I had switched off car and so, it was not possible to start the car without doing another jump start. We decided against it. I locked up my car and got into my cousin’s Honda Civic and we drove to the next petrol station. At the next Petronas station, we managed to get a NS60 type battery. There was both types of battery (dry cell and the normal one) – I opted for normal one which cost me RM169 (at least that gives some kind of warning before dying off). We rushed back to my car and after a quick change of the battery; I tried to start the car. This time it started without any hesitation. By then, the time was almost 10.00 pm.
My old maintenance free battery lasted for almost one and half years before calling it quit. Unfortunately it quit without any symptoms (slow start, etc). It just went death abruptly.
Del.icio.us Tag: Car
darn hate when that happens – but but normalla 1 and a half years life span
dammit, I changed to a maintenance-free battery last year. I better keep a look-out soon.
Ya, Din…it dies out when you least expected. Sigh
Bala,
How long was it supposed to last and how much does it cost you? You should make a conclusion in yr blog whether it is worth it to buy a more expensive maintenance free battery or should we buy the so called ‘normal’ battery.. I hope I don’t sound more and more like a sekolah menengah English teacher.. 🙂
Hehe Cikgu Yusof…from my experience the normal battery lasted longer than the maintenance free battery. I suspected the maintenance free battery that I had was faulty because the indicator still showed green. It should have turned black.