Dead battery
Nothing but a click, an hour before you need the car
Most of these calls land in the hour before somebody has to be somewhere. A cold night, short runs all week, and a battery that has been quietly giving up since the spring. We arrive with a proper pack rather than a set of leads and a stranger’s engine, and we stay long enough to see whether the thing holds once it is running.
How this one goes
- A pack, not a tow start — nothing gets dragged down a Sevenoaks side street to fire it
- What it does after the boost is the useful part, because a car that dies again has told you something
- Ordinary battery sizes ride with the van; the awkward European ones may want a second visit
- Stop-start cars take a particular type of battery, so we ask what is in there before promising one
Ring from where the car is
Open 24 hours. Say what has failed, what you are driving, and the nearest thing you can see from the car.
Asked often enough to write down
It started, then died the moment you left. What now?
That is either a battery that will not hold charge or an alternator putting nothing back in, and we can usually tell you which it looks like. What will not happen is us boosting it every morning and taking your money for it.
Can you do it in a car park or on an underground level?
Usually, as long as the van physically reaches the space. Underground levels around Tunbridge Wells and Bluewater are tight, so send the height limit before we set off.