Taxi Driver Online

I am having a similar problem with my metrocab. The symptoms seem identical.

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Grandad,

Hi,
I had a similar problem on my cab with similar noises and clicking. Those noises are the solonoid. When the battery is low, it will make that noise. I topped up the battery and she fired up fine after that. THe engine does have to be turning fast, specially if it's cold...
If your battery has been totally drained in the past, even if it's a new one then it is now probably only good for recycling. You can buy small battery conditioners that will plug into your cigar lighter and keep the battery topped up while not in use.
You could also try to find out if there is anything on the cab that is draining the battery while the cab is unattended. With the ignition off, disconnect the negative terminal and put an ammeter between the wire and the negative post on the battery. This will tell you if there is any leakage. There will always be a little leakage because of the clock, meter and radio but if it's high (more than 50 to 100 mA I would guess) then something is draining the battery.
There are a few things that will drain the battery, one is the red wheelchair release switch in the rear compartment.
I hope you get it sorted...

Thanks - that sounds promising. My gut feeling is battery, just like my (correct) gut feeling with the gears was bad fluid. Still waiting for the garage to get back to me sadly........

I can't remember the name of it,but I bought (a long while ago) some powder that was supposed to revitalise a battery that had been allowed to go flat.
I put it in a six year old heavy duty battery that had been allowed to go completely dead one when a light was left on and after that would not hold a full charge.
It worked and I still use that battery soe years later.

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.

i think you misunderstood the instruction from the dealer that sold you the powder
nice to know that Columbian stuff even works on batteries then

You might be right,I suppose if you sniff enough of the stuff I bought you'd not care wether the battery was OK or not.

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.

I just remembered,the stuff for the battery is called EDTA. Thats the stuff I used and it seems to have worked fine.

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.

Slam Dunk time ! She's back. Battery replaced and she fired a treat. I am sooooooo happy. Now just have to fix a few loose electronic connections on the idicators and we are off to the MOT test station. What could possibly go wrong ?

Thanks all for your input. I'm sure I'll be back here soon enough to ask more dumb questions.

Oh - the Maz has gone. Failed MOT, really due a new cam belt too and could not see a reason to spend on it. Some nice Polish lad picked it up for 3000SEK and will use it as a project for his mechanic training. So, just the Skoda and the taxi - will they last our final year here and which will come back to Blighty ? Who knows....

So after all that it was the battery.

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IDFIMH

Yes. But all the noises you get from just having a duff battery are unreal ! You could so easily THINK it was something else and start trying other things. Amazing that it still does not work when you jump start from another engine - it would work if the battery were just dead and not disfunctional.


Weird stuff, but handy to know that the battery can have such a huge impact.

Glad you got it sorted. You deserve a bit of success after all this effort.

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.

The stuff you were trying to remember was called BAT-AID, it came in pellet form and you dropped one in each cell.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_255205

So all's well that ends well, what was wrong with the skoda lights??

Skoda lights was just some sort of switch that they had to get from Germany. They kept the car for about 10 days in the end - naturally I had to ring to find out they had done it. It cost about £100 but they forgot to charge me the £200 investigation fee I think - either that or they realised £300 would be a rip off. The light switch now does not function like it used to, but the test people were happy with it anyway.

Rain and my inability to find 'double bullet connectors' in Sweden are now hampering my taxi repairs!