Exide

It doesn't have anything to do with X from Xenu and his eternal battery. It's simply because it has a lifetime of 5 years instead of 4. And a shelf life of 6. Talking about the Exide brand, the one i have in the truck.

Today Angela reported difficult starts. A while ago i fixed the battery's positive connector which clamp's ends where bumping into each other not allowing a real good tightening. So i filed a bit one of those ends and voila! Fixed it, wasn't moving around anymore after tightening. The negative seemed solid, i gave it a good tightening together with all the numerous nuts around the connector. Man this car has lots of nuts around battery's connectors. She said that miles are high (60k since) and many starts and she is ready for a battery replacement.

Last time i searched, to my surprise, the cheapest decent battery i found for 2013 Elantra was around 150 dollars, Exide for 155.  Today i did one more search on an idea, "where can i find exide batteries" and again to my surprise i found, (where?) at the nearest Home Depot, for 107. Decent price, i said to myself but Angela was going to sleep (she did "boxes" today, the toughest job at work, which involves lifting hundreds of boxes, all day, 16-25 pounds each). So i tried to do some searches while she was sleeping, the guy upstairs didn't let me, every time i started to search he started to squeak, at first waking Angela, then after i complained (not after she hit the wall several times) he let her sleep and came on the other side on top of my head so i stopped and slept myself.

Slightly bigger capacity, from 60 to 65. So after 8 i ran to Home Depot to get it. First, i forgot the mask in the car, (when are they going to stop with the stupid masks) and tried to take a mask from a stack at the entrance and they where clumped together and the others fell but i caught them in mid air and put them back, after touching a few, and then could not find the battery, "nobody in the store knew they sold batteries", "we used to sell them" said the man after i showed him the picture from their site saying "one available at Tigard store", then after i told him how i did the search he remembered "They keep moving them around" though i'm sure battery was in the same place for  years because if was full of dust, (just checked, shelf life is 6 years), i hope it's been for less, maybe since they opened the automotive department. Hence the price.

More adventures. At the checkstand big screen said they were charging 121, no explanation. Difference is the core price, got to take the old one back tomorrow. Usual drill in parking lot, guys popping out of nowhere in front of my car, stuff like that.

But on the road. Got at the intersection with exit/ramp street (forgot the name, nevermind, Carman LOL)  while waiting on red a guy on a Harley, more than 6 ft tall, blue eyes, stopped at my right (two lanes turning left) moving his bike's horns left right several time, finally took off, for some reason, i didn't feel safe driving next to him so i let him do the corner before i left, then he turned his head left, probably towards where i was supposed to be, and i thought i recognized a familiar face from the news of course. Then he took first right, i guess there's a motel and a gas station there.

Got back home, popped both the trunk where the battery was and the hood and looked for some tools in the pocket of the door (man this car hides stuff in that pocket because of its shape), could not find what i was looking for but when i got out i saw a guy on a bicycle getting away from my opened trunk.

Then i went inside, searched for tools, more stuff happened but when i went outside the first time a guy on a motorcycle started in that second to make a terrible noise in the parking lot. I guess it was after 9, then i saw him riding his bike around the block with a martyr figure on his face. He then stopped the bike and did it all again about 3 times in total, every time when i was getting back outside. Finally got all my tools together (most difficult part of any job done on moonlight in the parking lot). Replacing battery itself took about 2 minutes. Could loosen negative by hand only. So that was the problem. However, when i did a test drive towards Wilsonville and back, got 40 mpg (on dashboard, round trip), like never before. Car has a different attitude. Feels like after i first got it and replaced the 5 years old battery. One or two steps on driveability on a 1-10 scale. Most likely because of the EPS (Electric Power Steering) which of course is depending on batteries connectors.

Coming back from Wilsonville for the first time i accelerated to 75 on the 65 area, got this habit from the recent long drives, and of course i ran into a State Police Dodge parked on the right side. He did not follow me but a guy with white bright lights had a turn signal that was contrasting with those white bluish lights in such a way for a second it gave me the impression of Police car flashing. On the last half mile while descending (about 100 ft altitude diference) towards my home exit a guy slowed down unexpectedly without brake lights coming on while i was doing a "long freeway pass" and had to steer instantly to avoid him and these are only the important scenes i had to go through tonight to replace a car's battery.