Help!

GENERAL

Solar charger

Q I read with interest the letter from Jan van der Does in the January 2021 Help! pages regarding a solar charger. Would you happen to know of anyone that could supply one of these, but with a EOBD plug already wired-in?

Ray Bradford

A The EOBD plug to directly fit built-in adapter. the Halfords Solar charger can be purchased from Halfords for £10 at this link http://bit.ly/CMQuSCP or can be ordered to collect instore.

There is a unit for sale on this website http://bit.ly/CMSCaEp for £26 which is advertised as including the EOBD plug. This is very good value, although not having tested the unit, this is only a suggestion and not a recommendation.

GENERAL

Jump-starting

Q In these ‘trying times’ we are using our cars less and they are sitting in the cold with the battery slowly discharging which leads to the occasional jump-start and need to home charge.

Being old school, I’ve been taught to always disconnect the battery before fitting the charger and I’ve also always used the old school jump-start method of paralleling the batteries, positive and negative leads direct to the batteries in that order, starting the donor car before the ‘dead’ car and then unhooking the negative and positive leads in that order.

However, batteries and chargers have improved and I’ve read that so called smart chargers can be used without damage to the car electronics or battery. The advantages of not losing radio settings are a minor positive but I’ve read of ECU’s falling over which would be a big negative.

I’m also aware that ‘newer cars’ require an exact procedure undertaking to jump start them, ref. a recent excellent piece on batteries in Car Mechanics.

My own cars are hardly ‘new’; namely a 2007 Honda Accord 2.2 CDTi, a 2008 Toyota Yaris and a 2002 Toyota MR2.

► Am I OK to continue jump-start using the above old school practice?

► Is it safe to charge the battery on all my cars without battery negative disconnection with a smart charger?

► Can you recommend a smart charger?

Dave Steele

A Even though your vehicles may seem to be not of the newer type, they are all new enough to have electronic systems that would not benefit from the surge that can occur during a jump-start, and so I would always follow the later instructions for jump-starting a vehicle.

With both vehicles turned-off first, connect the positive lead to the positive terminal of the donor and recipient vehicles, if as on some vehicles the battery terminals are not accessible, there will be a suitable jump point under the bonnet.

Then connect the negative lead to the negative terminal of the donor vehicle and a suitable earth point near the battery on the vehicle needing the jump-start. The lead is not connected directly to the flat battery as the voltage from the donor vehicle may cause a small spark when either connecting or disconnecting and if this is directly above the flat battery it could cause the gasses in the battery to combust.

If you consider this precaution dramatic, you only need to witness one battery explode to know the dangers.

With the leads connected you can now start-up the donor vehicle, and gently bring the revs of the engine up to around 1500, this should allow the alternator from the donor vehicle to charge the flat battery. After around ten minutes the flat battery should have received enough charge to enable the vehicle to start, but before starting, the donor vehicle should be switched-off.

Once the vehicle with the flat battery has been started, the engine should be left to idle and warm for a short while before switching off, then the leads should be disconnected, negative first. Once the leads are disconnected the engine on the vehicle which had the flat battery can be re-started.

Hopefully the battery will have received enough charge to now start the warm engine.

The problem of removing the leads on a running engine is that any power surge created will cause damage to one of the electrical control units on either vehicle.

There will be people who say, I have done it that way without problems. Yes, you may be lucky, but when you’re not, it’s an expensive mistake.

There are a couple of smart chargers I would recommend the CTEK MXS 5.0 http://bit.ly/CMY5eBC or the Ring 6A smart charger reviewed in the Jan 2021 edition of CM http://bit.ly/CMa4RsC

Using either of these chargers the battery can be left connected to the vehicle without any danger.

in association with

BUY ONLINE OR CALL US ON 0333 009 0505

FORD FOCUS

Driver’s window

Q My daughter has a 2011 Ford Focus 1.6 hatchback. The driver’s door window is stuck open and will not close or even partially move via the door switch. It did respond when I gave the door a good bang internally but now refuses to move. I suspect that the door switch is probably OK and the motor has failed, but I have yet to start an investigation.

Can you help advise if these motors are suspect and where I can get one apart from the Ford dealer! I have seen sellers of the window regulator online but no mention of the motor.

Will I be able to access the plastic clips holding the regulator to the glass if I cannot move the mechanism? Is this problem a MOT failure? Any other tips and help with the job would be much appreciated.

Roger Edwards

A To answer your last question first, the window does not need to open for the MOT but must be made from safety glass. And it must be clear. The motor is available without the regulator, but from Ford I believe the regulator is