I thought Ittigen was being sarcastic. mirfield is pretty far up there on the funny meter

OP- I know it's too late now, but have a look at your car insurance policy. You may find that you already have the equivalent of TCS coverage- I do and it's so cheap I can't imagine not having it. The one time I used it it was actually a TCS guy who came out- they must work together.

On the subject of jump starting- have men traded handbags* for basic DIY skills?! I've jump started or been jump started 10 times or so in the last couple of years. Most of those was me jump starting someone stranded with a dead battery, every time a dude, and every time they had no freakin clue what to do with their end of the cable and regarded me as some kind of magical beer gutted wizard. The mere fact that I had a set of cables seemed to already have them mystified. What happened to us?!


*Not a poke at you DB, I'm sure if you ever learned how to drive you would be diligent enough to learn simple roadside emergency skills~!

I'd say around the midway point:

Gosh, this thread went on and on. I ended up just asking at an architecture firm's office in the building, and a nice guy gave me a jump. Silly to be so worried about it, since anywhere but Switzerland I'd have felt fine just knocking on doors until I found someone to help. Here I was worried that such a disturbance would be some kind of sin, or at least weird because of how the Swiss don't like to get their hands dirty touching their own cars, but it didn't seem odd to them at all.

"I've even managed to jumpstart a car myself before now - in an underground car park. Open door - push car jump in - clutch in - 2nd gear - clutch out - throttle - pray - dip clutch."

Yes, I've used this method before -- In high school the starter on my '87 Supra went, so I just parked facing downhill until the new part arrived. You can do it with any manual transmission car - the car should start right up if you can get it rolling 8kph or so. I explored the possibility this time, but my garage is not big enough inside to get the required speed, and it sits at the very bottom of a cul-de-sac that is too steep to push the car up.

Well, if this is an example of your humour, he's way funnier than you.

Actually, if the battery is too run down you wont be able to bump start most modern vehicles, as they need are certain amount of battery voltage to run the electronics, injectors, and fuel pump.

Tom

Probably depends on how fast you're going when you pop the clutch. Fast enough and the engine will turn and power the alternator. But if it doesn't work you better be ready to use a whole lot of force on the brakes and be ready with the hand brake, since there would be no power assist

Alternators won't produce power if the battery is dead, as you need to excite the rotor (they are not permanent magnet).

Tom

This thread is so dead, I think it needs a jump start...

OMG is that?........... yes he is , he is wearing a small padlock round his neck!