I had really been looking forward to today, a bit of time off work to make a start on things but although the temperature was 7° it was damp and raw so I spent a bit of time seeing what parts I needed then placing a few orders online. The idea is that I need to sell my car asap but want to get some jobs sorted first.

Charging light, battery problem

The vehicle had been standing for a long time before I bought it. As I have a spare battery I thought I’d charge it and swap it over. I don’t really think it is the battery at fault as it seems full of life when starting but this (I thought) was an easy try out. So I carried the fully charged battery outside and removed the passenger seat and steel cover. I realised instantly that my battery is way too tall to fit in the under-seat toolbox.

Battery location

Originally it would have been located in the engine compartment on the ‘table’ part of the chassis. Of course there’s no room for this with the tdi conversion and its current location is the same as the V8 variant I believe.

Even with the short format battery in the toolbox, the terminals are perilously close to the steel cover and the battery is held in by gravity alone. This looks like a problem in the making. I looked at the possibility of making up a securing bracket but the toolbox is so badly rusted that it doesn’t seem worth it. For now I placed a sheet of plastic over the terminals to save any accidental welding.

So I bit the bullet and spent the first of many few pounds ordering an aluminium toolbox especially made for this function from YRM Metal Solutions Ltd. This wasn’t cheap but it looks really good and has an extra deep cavity that can take two batteries, giving me scope for using different battery formats in the future but at the same time replacing a large rotten lump of metal. There may even be room to stow the jack in here with a suitable divider.

I will update when it arrives….