Over the last few months Sparty has spent lots of time waiting for new adventures. And just like with people, sitting around is not the best for ones health.
I went to take our van Sparty to run errands, got in and turned the key and he struggled to start. The next attempt a week later, he refused to start at all. When I thought about it, having an original van battery last 146k miles and over 7 years was amazing. It had earned its retirement.
I called Walmart and they said they had the battery at a good price and would install it for free. I just had to get Sparty there.
Sparty has a built in battery charger, but the Battery Doctor is set to disengage when the van battery voltage is low. With the van plugged in, the charger produced over 14 volts. Pressing the reset button on the Battery Doctor provided a few seconds of full voltage to the van battery and just enough time for Sparty to start up.
At Walmart they said it would be an hour for the battery swap. Yet when I returned I was told they would not install the new battery. The manager had decided that his policy was to not change them when the battery is located under floor claiming its too much work.
I argued that its just 6 quarter turn screws and you have access to the battery No amount discussion would change his mind.
That left me with Sparty sitting in a Walmart parking lot with a dead battery. I could call AAA, get a jump-start and find another place. Yet Walmart did have the best price on the battery. But I had absolutely no tools to do the change.
Then I figured that Walmart had originally said they would be no charge to change the battery. So they shouldn’t mind me using their tools.
It took most of an hour to disconnect and remove that battery and install the new one. I suspect it would have only taken them about 10 minutes. The old battery did not want to give up that quick release terminal on the negative lug but finally did with a larger screw driver.
Sparty turned over easily with new battery and was ready to go. A quick stop at customer service to return the tools and we were on our way.