Being independent can be incredibly fulfilling.
It can also be fucking exhausting sometimes.
My car battery died, so I ordered a new one. I carefully checked the amperage, dimensions, and compatibility with my car model. It arrived, I removed the old battery (which was no small feat, and I was ridiculously proud of myself when I finally managed it) and then discovered that the terminals on the new battery were reversed and it wouldn’t work.
So now I have to return it. Which means carrying a 15 kg battery to the post office.
Then I have to wait for the correct one to arrive.
And after that, I get to figure out why two of my tyres are flat (no problem, I have a spare tyre and ordered a charger/air blower thingy, hopefully it will work).
I am perfectly capable of taking care of my own shit.
I’m just getting a little tired of it. But lesson learned: buy the exact same model of whatever you need to replace if you can.
/rant
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A lot easier than checking three dimensions and maximum current once you know about it, that’s for sure.
See, it’s probably one of those things that people “just know” if they were raised around cars, and wouldn’t ever think of if they weren’t. I was raised very much in the spirit of equality, but was never invited around for car stuff (granted, my dad died when I was 13 and I was quite wild before that so maybe it wasn’t really very safe). All I know about cars is stuff my husband taught me + some YouTube videos but there’s still so much I don’t know and maybe wouldn’t think to ask. That’s why my daughters learned how to top up wipers liquid as soon as they were tall enough to reach the intake and it goes on from there 😂
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I have no advice, only hugs.
I’ve fallen quite far down the degoogling / selfhosted tech rabbit hole.
Benefits are cool, but it is nothing but this.
I feel your pain, sister.
That sucks.
I’m working on some plumbing and I’ve come home with the wrong part more often than I want to admit. By the time I’m home there is no way I’m going back out, so it gets put aside until I remember again/have the energy to deal with it.
You didn’t ask for advice, so putting this behind a spoiler so you can ignore it easily.
spoiler
Is there some reason you want to do this all yourself? Your post sounds exasperated. I get wanting to be able to diagnose car issues and the appeal of saving money, plus the pride of getting it done. I was so close to changing my own car battery recently except that mine is a weird one apparently and the place that had them also had an install service so I was like, “why not?”. It was also early spring and I don’t have a garage so I am sure my enthusiasm would have faded as soon as I started the work lol. It doesn’t always feel good, but once and a while I give something up and there is a lot of relief.
All the garage around are on vacation currently and it started as a pretty straight forward job, and the battery would needed to be ordered anyway since my car is 30 years old and the model not common here. I thought I could manage before my garage was open again, and now that I’ve started, I will finish what I can, since I’ve invested effort and time.
I’m exasperated today because I got very deflated when I thought I was pretty close to finish, but I will enjoy the process once it is resolved, however that will be.
Hey, thanks for the spoiler on the unsolicited advice, it is so thoughtfull and I appreciate both, the spoiler and the advice. Thank you :)
Good luck! I understand the deflated feeling. I spent like two hours gathering parts yesterday based on the apparent availability of a different part. Turns out it was misleadingly named and not what I needed. I could have cried in the store lol.
I honestly wouldn’t have even thought about that. Thank you for sharing so now I’ll know if I ever need it. I’m sending you all the ehugs.
I feel like I’m deliberately stepping on a landmine here as I’m not a woman, but this came up on my feed. What do you mean exactly that your terminals were swapped? Battery is a rectangle, if you turn it through 180 degrees your terminals are swapped. If you checked the battery was compatible with the vehicle there shouldn’t have been any trouble.
Anyway I’m gonna stop trying to armchair diagnose your problem and assume that you have a real issue that necessitated returning the battery, because you seem to know what your about and that’d be a pretty amateur mistake. But we all make amateur mistakes so worth double checking.
Now, for the real advice. Never undertake any repairs that are going to take you out of commission except Durning business hours of the hardware store. You WILL need that tool/doohickey/widget
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It came up on my feed, I didn’t read the rules. I do know a thing or two about car batteries but I’m fine if you want to assume I don’t. Just trying to be helpful
They should have their own instance that isn’t federated until Lemmy adds the ability to not post to all. Until then, expect anyone and everyone to reply.
Out of respect, I will not be replying to anyone. I said what I said. Reddit had the same problem, but they had an option for subreddits to not post to /all. Until Lemmy includes this option, expect anyone to reply or move to a defederated instance in the interim. I would wager most people who read a post on all do not read the rules of the community or the community they are replying to.
Women are allowed to exist on the internet without cloistering ourselves.
It’s site-wide rules that everyone adhere to community specific rules.
Just had to, didn’t you?
Better idea, you should log off and delete your devices.
Again, it is expected that everyone adhere to community specific rules. Would you have thrown a fit like this if you posted against the rules in a politics comm?
I don’t think you would.
I think y’all have an issue with women gathering on their own without men. It bothers you that there’s a space you’re not allowed to go as a man, doesn’t it?
You knew the rules and still mansplained in the women’s only community?
I don’t think I mansplained. Or at least I explained it the same as I would to whoever else
I didn’t check the rules, and I don’t make a habit of it. If you come up on my feed that’s on you. If I went seeking this place out, I’d feel more obliged to be familiar. I’ll be sure to never ever engage with this place again though, don’t worry.
If you don’t curate your feed that’s on you.
I feel like I’m deliberately stepping on a landmine here as I’m not a woman
You knew what you were doing.
Yes… I said as much
And yet you’re still here. Still commenting. Still posting against the rules you now definitely know about.
Fucking Hell, what does it take to get through to you complete and utter bags of dicks!?
How are you this fucking stupid?
You could’ve left gracefully, y’know. It’s ok to be wrong.
I had. And THEN a bunch of people that aren’t OP decided to say a bunch of shit
And your fragile snowflake ego couldn’t take that so you just had to put the women in their place. By going into their place.
A real piece of work you are.
Take responsibility for your actions. They didn’t force you to respond.
I didn’t check the rules
I don’t make a habit of it
If you come up on my feed that’s on you
I feel like I’m deliberately stepping on a landmine here as I’m not a woman
Three of these things belong together. Three of these things are kind of the same. But one of these things just doesn’t belong here: now it’s time to play the game.
Which of these statements doesn’t belong? Go for it, Sparky! I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out it! There’s enough clues!
No, they all fit. Just because I had no idea what the rules were doesn’t mean I’m a stark raving moron
No, you continuously breaking the rules after you were reminded of them is what makes you a, to quote you, “stark raving moron”.
Take responsibility for your actions, apologize for breaking the rules, and then leave. That’s all that was expected of you and now you have the ire of a bunch of lemmings here.
It’s not hard to follow the rules and YOU agreed to follow community specific rules when you made an account.
Yeah, I thought so too and I kept on going thinking I would just turn it 180 but the terminals are offset to one of the border, not centered, so if I turn it 180°, the terminals would be closer to the windshield. Positive cable reaches it fine but not the negative one, the cable is too short.
And yes, that was an amateur mistake, I am an amateur :), one less that I’ll do now though.
I appreciate your advice, there’s probably something I haven’t thought off.
The cables almost never have any slack, and as OP said, the terminals are offset to an edge of the battery, even sometimes located on the front face of the battery. Car batteries suck.
Roadside assistance is worth every penny if you can swing it.
A lot of insurance policies include it now
I would normally agree, but AAA in the US has been fully enshittified.
Any details?
AAA no longer has its own fleet of tow trucks. Instead they use outside contractors whom they squeeze to the point that they’re often working at under minimum wage. This, needless to say, impacts quality. There are persistent reports of predatory upselling tactics, like being called for a simple jump start and having the contractors try to sell a brand new battery instead for a LOT more money. They’re playing the Canada Post game, too, of pairing price increases with decreased service. For example basic membership gives you, say, a 5 mile tow (I’m not sure what the current rates/services are; this dates back a couple of years). If you’re on the highway and need a 20-mile tow, you’re on the hook for private towing for 15 more miles. That is a marked downturn from previous “tow to nearest” plans. There’s also persistent reports of them going viciously bureaucratic on reimbursements to the point that people just give up on getting reimbursed despite that reimbursement being within their plan’s service levels.
Ok thanks!
How so?
Back when I was in college, it was a once per year fee. Everyone got the same level of service. Now there are tiers of service depending on how much you’re willing to pay, and it’s gone from having to pay once a year, to monthly if you want their best level of support.
It is super impressive that you managed what you did. Sorry you’re going through this, I know how frustrating it is when you feel like it’s one step forward, two steps back.
I don’t have enough information, but assuming your battery is compatible, can you just rotate it so that the terminals line up again?
That’s when you find out the terminals are closer to one side of the battery than the other and the cables are 5cm too short
Original:
+---------------------------------+ | ++ -- | | ++ -- | | | | | | | | | | | | | +---------------------------------+Rotated:
+---------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | -- ++ | | -- ++ | +---------------------------------+The box is symmetrical across a 180. The things on it aren’t necessarily.
How odd. I’ve never seen or heard of that before.
They’re usually marked with a notation of some kind. I’ve run across it when I was trying to replace a battery in far equipment, and the OE battery doesn’t exist anymore.
