CAUTION - Sears battery problem

[apowell@ezlink.com]

Friends, as fate would have it, a few weeks ago i was literally ready 
to back the car out of the garage to begin a 2,000 mile trip - and 
the f+&@$#'n battery was dead.  Not the way to start, especially 
when it was the second time in two weeks.  And i really didn't have 
time to mess with it myself, not with the clock ticking and 500 
miles to be traveled that day.

I charged the battery enough to start, then made a flying trip to 
Sears for a replacement.  (Date point: the old Sears battery had 
lasted four years and a few months.)

NOTE - IMPORTANT - when they pulled the international type 
battery, both they and I noticed that there was NO VENT on the 
case.  They checked their stock and every matching type battery 
which had come in during the past few weeks also had no vent.

They did have one of these batteries which had been in stock for 
30+ days, and it DID have a vent.  They grabbed it for me, and also 
checked the charge before installation to make sure I would be OK, 
and I was back on the road in less than 45 minutes from the time I 
arrived.  Not bad, guys, not bad.

REASON FOR THE POST: if you're headed to Sears for a battery, 
(or anywhere for that matter) remember that you want to be darn 
sure to get a battery with vent.  There is a problem with Sears' 
supplier and you should not assume you will get the correct vented 
battery.

Other items dealt with on trip:
1) Right headlight socket melted; wired direct to lamp prongs
2) Heater valve sprung a huge leak; replaced
3) Throttle pivot stud broke off in far west Wyoming (10 minutes got 
me back on the road with clever wire-pivot rigging...and the instant 
type JB weld got me home)

Another set of reminders why many of our less mechanically 
inclined friends swore off Audi after a short period of ownership.

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Al Powell
Apowell@EZlink.com
1958 Fiat 1200 Spyder "Transformabile"
1983 Datsun 280ZXT
1990 Audi 200
http://www.ezlink.com/~powells/
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