Herbie

Do you use your phone for anything while you're driving, say, navigation for instance? It could be that the phone is using more power than the charger can provide.

I use this one and can confirm that it's very accurate.

Any news on this @Michael Cole?

Any news on this @Edwin mason?

Have you noticed any difference in regard to noise and/or vibration since it was fitted? It may depend on model of car but one member on here said that it became so noisy that he's had the catloc taken off again!

Thanks for updating us Jim. I hate it when people ask for help, they get suggestions and the help they ask for, and then they disappear without telling us the outcome. The whole idea of the forum is to help or be helped and outcomes are important in doing that, so thanks again.

That will do nothing electrically. It's just a case or cover that the battery sits in. What, exactly, is your problem?

Aha, now I understand how it works. Yes, I agree that initially it seems better than a battery pack but in reality it's probably only a 'one-shot' idea. A battery pack will allow multiple crank attempts at, say, about 4 seconds per crank, so plenty of time to pressurise fuel lines etc. The capacitors in that other unit are only acting as a short-term storage of electricity and they may discharge quicker than four seconds. I wonder if there's also a limit to the amount of times current could be shunted from battery to capacitors and back again with a failing battery, thereby limiting the time per crank and/or crank attempts? I'll stick with my battery pack

I've never had to use it on a hybrid yet but I can say that I've used it to start three different conventional cars and my little unit worked flawlessly, so I have utmost confidence that it'll do the same for me if I ever need to use it.

"Batteryless" can only mean one thing - it uses capacitors instead. But the capacitors have to be charged from something and they won't hold charge as long as a proper battery does anyway. As such, I can only imagine that they are a complete waste of (a lot of) money and although they are indeed suitable for hybrids (why would you think they aren't?), I wouldn't waste money on one. The battery packs that I and many others use are just that, batteries, and as such yes, they do need to be kept topped-up but they do hold their charge very well. The last time I charged mine was six months ago and I've just been prompted by this very topic to go and look, and it still has somewhere between 75 and 50% charge left, with three lights out of four still lit up. This is still good enough to start two or perhaps even three or four conventional cars, assuming that they fire first time and nothing else is wrong except a flat battery. If there's another problem and it requires more cranking then obviously that will affect things. I would imagine that when talking about starting hybrids, that same 75 to 50% charge level will start a dozen or more cars. As I've said many times, a conventional starter motor will draw more than 300A to crank a conventional engine, but to get my RX450h into READY mode (the equivalent) it takes less than 20A. And even that is only inrush current for a fraction of a second which almost immediately starts to fall, so it will take very, very little from a jump start battery pack. Another thing I've often said is that hybrids take so little current to get the systems up, they could be 'started' with a pack of 8 AA batteries - the discharge curves indicate that they could supply around 28A for up to one minute.

Rather than having a spare full-size old battery in the garage, which would be no good if your battery went flat while you were away from home somewhere, I carry a jump start battery pack similar to this one in the glovebox. They're brilliant little things, worth their weight in gold just for peace of mind alone, they work fantastically well and they're so convenient to have handy if/when you or someone else needs a jump start - highly recommended.

I wouldn't let Halfords change a wiper blade, never mind trusting them with electricity. It really is such a simple job. It took me about 20-25 minutes from gathering my tools together to taking a test drive to make sure it worked. Use a piggy-back fuse, run the cable up the pillar to the headlining and store the excess up there, job done. If you really don't want to DIY then at least go to a proper auto electrician or a trusted mechanic, but don't go to Halfords.

Owning an iPhone Sorry, just couldn't resist. I'm afraid that I don't know the answer to your problem - you've probably guessed that I'm an Android man.

What sort of noise? Ticking? Whining? Thumping? Knocking? All of the above? Oh, what make of tyres have you got on it? If you bought it from a trader I'd just take it straight back for them to sort it under warranty.

Not in the short term, no. But do remember that the 12V batteries in hybrids are only small and don't have much capacity, so don't leave it for an hour in a bid to sort of 'charge up' your wife's battery or your's may well end up flat too. Just connect it and get the Clio fired up as soon as you can and everything will be fine. You're very welcome Ian. There tends to be some helpful characters in here so never be frightened of asking for help and advice

Do you mean you tried it but with bad results, or you tried it and they were great for a few months and then went yellow again fairly quickly? The yellowing is caused by the reaction of the sun's UV radiation on the polycarbonate plastic of the light fitting and when you use sandpaper or wet/dry to get rid of the affected plastic, you expose a new surface for the sun to destroy again, so you must use a good quality UV resistant lacquer or top coat, or even a good wax polish it and that should keep them clear for a good couple of years, if not longer.

NO, NO and thrice NO! The reason for this is that a conventional car uses the battery to crank the engine and will draw 300A or more to do this. Once the engine is running then the alternator takes over the role of supplying all the car's electrical needs, so a car with a flat battery will draw on the donor car's alternator, not it's battery. Hybrids don't have starter motors or alternators and take much, much less current to get our cars started, in fact less than 20A. Our equivalent of an alternator is the DC/DC converter and because it doesn't need to spin a conventional starter motor it was never designed to supply the amount of current that an alternator does. If you tried to pull, say, 300A from it, hopefully some current-limiting circuitry will prevent it but if not, there's likely to be a huge bang, lots of smoke and a badly-dented wallet. It may - and I do stress may - be ok to jump start your wife's car from your hybrid if you do not have your car in READY mode, or even switched on at all. However, in your shoes, I would just take your battery out, carry it over to your wife's car and then stick jump leads on it there, so no risks are taken at all.

Thankfully I'm now retired and am just about to put in my final returns 🙂

Do you mean that the only reason you were going to change was because they had yellowed and gone cloudy? I thought something had gone terminally wrong with them. A 3M or Meguiar's kit for restoring is about £30 and an hour's labour would have seen both sides done. There's plenty Youtube videos on how to do it and it's dead easy.

Mike, this may sound like a daft question but you've only just joined the club and over in the 'New Members' area you asked if your vehicle is of the 'stop/start/ variety, which leads me to suspect that you've not had your car long and that you're new to hybrids - is that correct? If so, what makes you think that your battery needs to be replaced? Have you tried charging it overnight? Or maybe even just jump starting it and then going for an hours blast up the motorway? I ask only because the 12V batteries on these cars are only small and don't have much capacity, so the car needs to be used regularly to keep it charged up. It's not exactly a regular occurrence but it's not unusual either for someone to leave their car at the airport while they are on holiday for a couple of weeks and come back to a flat battery. A conventional car has a starter motor that will draw 300A or more from the battery to crank the engine so the battery has to be big and beefy, often being a minimum of 75 or 80Ah. Hybrids don't have a starter motor as such and it only takes about 20A for a fraction of a second to boot the computers and get the car to the READY state. Because of this, Toyota/Lexus thought they could save some money by only using small capacity batteries and if I remember correctly, mine is only 42 or 45Ah. Great in theory, but the downside is that it goes flat quicker than a bigger one would. It actually takes so little current to start my RX450h that I could (in theory at least) start it with a pack of 8 AA batteries! I just don't want you spending loads of money to replace the battery if all it needs is to be used more.

Mike, no it's not a stop/start vehicle and your answer to the other question is in the other forum, the RX one 🙂

Not one to waste words eh Mike? Assuming you're looking for one rather than offering to supply, this topic may help:

Worms, can, opened! For what it's worth I've only ever used 'ordinary' supermarket petrol or LPG in my cars, so 95 is fine. It should also tell you which to use on the inside of the flap. Plus, you've only just joined the club but you have a 2014 car so I'm assuming you've only bought it recently. If I'm correct then you have no idea what the previous owner(s) have been using for the last 6 years - don't worry about it and just enjoy the car

Thanks Piers, just done it now.

I agree, it isn't, although that's increased now to a maximum of £1,000 which is a better incentive. However, not having an MOT invalidates the insurance and that is a very big deterrent.