…is that they don’t like long periods of inactivity – and John recently found out why
2000 CITROËN XANTIA V6 EXCLUSIVE
Use of the V6 Citroën goes in fits and starts. It's my ‘smart’ work car, the one I use for meetings and long journeys because it’s fast, capacious and supremely comfortable. If I’m working from home, editing or whatever, it may not get used for three or four weeks just because it’s simply not needed. Thus, it usually lives in the garage blocked in by my MGB GT, which I use for local trips because the V6 is quite thirsty in urban use and not compliant with the Birmingham Low Emission Zone (which I live just outside of) regulations. The MGB GT, on the other hand, is economical, easy to park and – crucially – exempt from the BLEZ.
I suspect, because of its intermittent use, the battery has suffered, so after a few months of charging it every so often on the ‘revive’ pulse charge setting of my battery charger, I finally gave in and decided to buy a new battery. It was especially timely as I needed the car to be reliable the following day for a long trip. A dig around the internet showed my local Halfords had a larger capacity item that would fit and, thinking this would be sorted in 20 minutes, I popped to buy one using the ’B GT.
The trouble started when I got home and went to unscrew the live terminal of the V6’s battery, because it literally fell apart as I turned the 10mm spanner. It had corroded almost to nothing but looked fine from above.
To make matters worse, the live had two feeds going into one terminal. I was able to split them apart and carefully take the insulation off each, while preserving just enough cable. I then went back to Halfords and bought a battery terminal to insert the thicker
