Monday, July 19, 2021

Rain jacket and Lexus problem solved


My Duluth Trading Co. No Rainer rain jacket arrived today, just in time for a lengthy dry spell.

But that's not what I want to write about on this, Skip Hess's 83rd birthday.

Our 2004 Lexus RX330 looks older than it is because of a crappy clear-coat application. The peeling clear-coat makes the car look like it has feathers and is molting.

A newish battery refused to hold a charge. Since it was under warranty, the shop replaced it for free.

Fast forward. It sits idle a lot because we prefer to drive our 2017 Subaru Forester. Lately, whenever I go to start it, the new battery is dead. I jump start it and drive around a lot, but come the next morning, the battery is dead again.

The odds of getting two faulty batteries in the space of a few months are pretty long, so I figured something else must be at play.

I came to the conclusion that some circuit in the car is draining the battery, even when the car is idle. Especially when it's idle.

So I jump started it and took it to the shop where it sat for 3-4 days until it finally refused to start. I asked the technicians to trouble shoot the wiring system with an eye to finding a current drain.

They did and that's what they found - a ground wire with worn insulation. They fixed it for $59 and the problem appears to be solved.

I'm pleasantly surprised that I could intuit the problem.

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