Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Kam’s Christmas Column
Hello Again!
Yes, ‘tis I, Dr Raj here to see you through the Christmas period and on into 2003 (I’ve got next week’s column too!) – our Dr Kev is away at the moment, exchanging the excitement, drama and skinned knuckles of the workshop for some home comforts.
I thought that this year I’d be a lot more organised than the rest of the lads and get all of my Christmas shopping done early. Well, that was the intention! Here I am, only one shopping day left until Christmas and there are still a number of gaps under the tree… I’m sure I can think of something in time! Of course, had we decided to close right over Christmas (apart from just on the day itself, Boxing Day and New Year’s day) I would have got everything sorted – but then you’re cars would have had to wait until 2003 and that just wouldn’t be fair!
A (seemingly) classic case of Winter Blues came into the workshop this morning. Mrs Grainger is one of our most senior – and longest-term – customers (name changed to protect her innocence of course!) and owns a really rather nice two year old VW Polo.
The thing was, this Polo had a penchant for going through batteries at a rate of knots. We’d been out three times to jump start it, and each time recommended that she bring the car in so that we could check it over. But, this being Christmas, Mrs Grainger had seasonal duties to fulfil and couldn’t spare the time. I also know that two other companies had been out to the vehicle to jump-start it and one of them had supplied a new battery.
So, it was on the fourth call out (i.e. this morning) that I finally persuaded Mrs Grainger to leave ‘Bertie’ with us. It surely couldn’t be that hard to find out why the battery was running down so quickly, could it?
The first thing to do was to check the battery itself, make sure that it wasn’t defective and to see how high the drain was. Being brand new, the battery was still perfect, so that couldn’t be the culprit. The drain was pretty severe, so it looked like there was a major problem somewhere in the system. Shaun checked the alternator too, just to make sure that was OK (which thankfully it was).
Next came the really fun job of following all of the wires, switches and relays to find out if one was broken anywhere. All of the wires checked out OK, their coverings intact and connections good. The relays also performed perfectly. That just left the switches. Now, regular reader, I don’t know if you’ve ever counted the switches in a VW Polo – but let me tell you that there are a lot! And of course, if one is broken anywhere then it can drain the battery by not turning off when it should do.
Typically, everything was in perfect working order. This left Shaun, and myself, in a bit of a quandary. Everything was perfect, but the battery was still leaking power. It obviously wasn’t any of the interior lights because we would see them staying on. It wasn’t through a broken wire or relay – so where on earth could the drain be coming from?
The answer came from an unlikely corner. While checking out the rear passenger door light switch, Shaun suddenly spotted a chink of light coming from the boot. Quickly, he pulled down the rear seat and spotted it – the boot light was remaining on, even though the boot was firmly closed!
“Got it!” He shouted, then banged his head into the grab-handle above the door.
On opening the boot, the scale of the problem became clear. Mrs Grainger had obviously been to a party sometime recently and on the way home either had been rear-ended by Santa’s Sleigh Team on a pre-Christmas training run or had thrown one of those novelty reindeer antler hats into the boot. Pushed under the boot mat by tonnes of shopping, only the antler’s tip was left poking out – but this was enough to jam under the boot lid and stop the boot light switch from turning off even though the hatch was slammed fast!
Once the offending antler was removed and the battery charged, Mrs Grainger was able to return and collect her beloved Bertie – although she allowed us to keep the novelty antler!
Of course, I was thinking about the next job and so left the antler on the front desk. A minute later, I heard a wailing and so rushed back to reception – to find a small girl in tears, her lower lips trembling.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking around for her parents.
“You’ve got one of Rudolph’s antlers,” she wailed. “He’ll never find my house now!”
Well, regular reader, what could I do? I picked up the phone and jabbed one of the speed dials.
“Santa, yes, it’s Dr Raj. I’ve got that antler you were looking for. Yes, it was in Mrs Grainger’s car. You’ve fixed Rudolph’s contact lenses? Good. I’ll meet you at my house in twenty minutes.” You should have seen the look on the little girl’s face!
That’s it for this week regular reader. I hope that you have a fantastic Christmas with every joy of the season. I’ll see you again next week!
Dr Raj
PS Don’t forget that we are back in the workshops on Thursday!
Yes, ‘tis I, Dr Raj here to see you through the Christmas period and on into 2003 (I’ve got next week’s column too!) – our Dr Kev is away at the moment, exchanging the excitement, drama and skinned knuckles of the workshop for some home comforts.
I thought that this year I’d be a lot more organised than the rest of the lads and get all of my Christmas shopping done early. Well, that was the intention! Here I am, only one shopping day left until Christmas and there are still a number of gaps under the tree… I’m sure I can think of something in time! Of course, had we decided to close right over Christmas (apart from just on the day itself, Boxing Day and New Year’s day) I would have got everything sorted – but then you’re cars would have had to wait until 2003 and that just wouldn’t be fair!
A (seemingly) classic case of Winter Blues came into the workshop this morning. Mrs Grainger is one of our most senior – and longest-term – customers (name changed to protect her innocence of course!) and owns a really rather nice two year old VW Polo.
The thing was, this Polo had a penchant for going through batteries at a rate of knots. We’d been out three times to jump start it, and each time recommended that she bring the car in so that we could check it over. But, this being Christmas, Mrs Grainger had seasonal duties to fulfil and couldn’t spare the time. I also know that two other companies had been out to the vehicle to jump-start it and one of them had supplied a new battery.
So, it was on the fourth call out (i.e. this morning) that I finally persuaded Mrs Grainger to leave ‘Bertie’ with us. It surely couldn’t be that hard to find out why the battery was running down so quickly, could it?
The first thing to do was to check the battery itself, make sure that it wasn’t defective and to see how high the drain was. Being brand new, the battery was still perfect, so that couldn’t be the culprit. The drain was pretty severe, so it looked like there was a major problem somewhere in the system. Shaun checked the alternator too, just to make sure that was OK (which thankfully it was).
Next came the really fun job of following all of the wires, switches and relays to find out if one was broken anywhere. All of the wires checked out OK, their coverings intact and connections good. The relays also performed perfectly. That just left the switches. Now, regular reader, I don’t know if you’ve ever counted the switches in a VW Polo – but let me tell you that there are a lot! And of course, if one is broken anywhere then it can drain the battery by not turning off when it should do.
Typically, everything was in perfect working order. This left Shaun, and myself, in a bit of a quandary. Everything was perfect, but the battery was still leaking power. It obviously wasn’t any of the interior lights because we would see them staying on. It wasn’t through a broken wire or relay – so where on earth could the drain be coming from?
The answer came from an unlikely corner. While checking out the rear passenger door light switch, Shaun suddenly spotted a chink of light coming from the boot. Quickly, he pulled down the rear seat and spotted it – the boot light was remaining on, even though the boot was firmly closed!
“Got it!” He shouted, then banged his head into the grab-handle above the door.
On opening the boot, the scale of the problem became clear. Mrs Grainger had obviously been to a party sometime recently and on the way home either had been rear-ended by Santa’s Sleigh Team on a pre-Christmas training run or had thrown one of those novelty reindeer antler hats into the boot. Pushed under the boot mat by tonnes of shopping, only the antler’s tip was left poking out – but this was enough to jam under the boot lid and stop the boot light switch from turning off even though the hatch was slammed fast!
Once the offending antler was removed and the battery charged, Mrs Grainger was able to return and collect her beloved Bertie – although she allowed us to keep the novelty antler!
Of course, I was thinking about the next job and so left the antler on the front desk. A minute later, I heard a wailing and so rushed back to reception – to find a small girl in tears, her lower lips trembling.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking around for her parents.
“You’ve got one of Rudolph’s antlers,” she wailed. “He’ll never find my house now!”
Well, regular reader, what could I do? I picked up the phone and jabbed one of the speed dials.
“Santa, yes, it’s Dr Raj. I’ve got that antler you were looking for. Yes, it was in Mrs Grainger’s car. You’ve fixed Rudolph’s contact lenses? Good. I’ll meet you at my house in twenty minutes.” You should have seen the look on the little girl’s face!
That’s it for this week regular reader. I hope that you have a fantastic Christmas with every joy of the season. I’ll see you again next week!
Dr Raj
PS Don’t forget that we are back in the workshops on Thursday!
