Lilly001
Senior Member
Well, I drove to Fl on Thursday to pick up my grandson to bring him to Ga for his spring break. He’s 12 and starting to be interested in hunting and fishing.
So the drive down is uneventful.
I spend the night at my Fl house and then pick the lad up.
We head north on I-75 and are traveling well until we get stuck just south of Wildwood (turnpike merge) by a camper fire that blocks all northbound lanes.
While sitting in traffic the car dies and will not restart. It also will not go into neutral so we can’t push it off of the roadway.
So traffic starts back up and we are blocking the left lane.
Finally a Fl trooper pulls up and with a jump we are started again.
But in less than a mile it dies again and won’t restart even with a jump.
So, now on the shoulder, I call for a tow.
After struggling with talking to a computer on the phone with road noise from semis passing I get a tow on the way.
But the trooper had left the cables on while I called so I tried it one last time. It started. So the trooper escorted me (blue lights and an occasional siren) to a repair shop off of I-75 in Wildwood.
At the shop I had the battery replaced even though it showed ok (it was 5+ years old). And the alternator checked ok.
But the car wouldn’t start with the new battery (totally dead).
But when they wiggled the positive cable it did start.
So after about 45 minutes of diagnostics we found a 50 amp fuse that wasn’t blown, but the part that melts was broken. It worked when it was touching but not when it separated. It was so small that you could barely see it but it was apparent after the fuse was out.
So we replaced that and we’re on our way.
We got to Ga at about 11:00 and driving through a couple frog strangling rain squalls.
I was so exhausted I hit the bed and slept until 9 am without waking. That’s unheard of for me.
Moral to this ramble is stay out of Fl.
But I did meet a host of very nice and helpful people.
The Trooper went way out of his way to help and the repair shop went the extra mile and only charged me for the battery.
So the drive down is uneventful.
I spend the night at my Fl house and then pick the lad up.
We head north on I-75 and are traveling well until we get stuck just south of Wildwood (turnpike merge) by a camper fire that blocks all northbound lanes.
While sitting in traffic the car dies and will not restart. It also will not go into neutral so we can’t push it off of the roadway.
So traffic starts back up and we are blocking the left lane.
Finally a Fl trooper pulls up and with a jump we are started again.
But in less than a mile it dies again and won’t restart even with a jump.
So, now on the shoulder, I call for a tow.
After struggling with talking to a computer on the phone with road noise from semis passing I get a tow on the way.
But the trooper had left the cables on while I called so I tried it one last time. It started. So the trooper escorted me (blue lights and an occasional siren) to a repair shop off of I-75 in Wildwood.
At the shop I had the battery replaced even though it showed ok (it was 5+ years old). And the alternator checked ok.
But the car wouldn’t start with the new battery (totally dead).
But when they wiggled the positive cable it did start.
So after about 45 minutes of diagnostics we found a 50 amp fuse that wasn’t blown, but the part that melts was broken. It worked when it was touching but not when it separated. It was so small that you could barely see it but it was apparent after the fuse was out.
So we replaced that and we’re on our way.
We got to Ga at about 11:00 and driving through a couple frog strangling rain squalls.
I was so exhausted I hit the bed and slept until 9 am without waking. That’s unheard of for me.
Moral to this ramble is stay out of Fl.
But I did meet a host of very nice and helpful people.
The Trooper went way out of his way to help and the repair shop went the extra mile and only charged me for the battery.
