Keep your claws off our batteries!

So, my lovely astrologer and I piled the four small-fry into the car in good time to make it to school for “lining-up time” at 9 a.m. Admittedly, we usually make it by the skin of our teeth, if not slightly into the enamel. I handed the keys to the largest of my offspring and asked him to unlock the car and get in, his little brothers following like a line of noisy ducklings.

All in, all strapped down safely, bookbags in attendance and (tragically) small screens beeping, I put the key in the ignition and turned it. A most peculiar noise emanated from beneath the bonnet. First, a dim and distant clicking where the roar of the engine should be, followed by a totally exhausted-sounding attempt at an alarm.

Erm.

We’ve had this car for almost a year now. Admittedly, it is ancient. An old boat of a Mercedes (which sounds far more impressive than it is), it is one of the few vehicles to fit this large family and cost a whopping £650 on eBay. As I say, we’ve had it for a good 10 months and, apart from the way it groans around corners and seems to like to dump all its coolant at surprise moments, it hasn’t given us too much cause for alarm. Ah. I said alarm. Until this morning, we didn’t even known it had one. The key fob that is supposed to lock and unlock it, and set the alarm, has never worked. That was until number one son dropped the keys this morning. Now, suddenly, in a fit of efficiency, it has decided to function. Badly. Possibly because the battery is old and failing and doesn’t have enough power to do its job properly (and boy! do I know that feeling…)

Oh, and it has an immobiliser.

And a very efficient one at that.

The children had to be taken to school by a friend while we stayed to attempt to figure out this irksome malfunction.

We do have another car (also an eBay bargain – a Nissan Largo – and bought as a replacement) but it, too, decided to give up the ghost last week. Apparently its battery is at only just a little over 50% power. So that’ll be £100 for a new one, then. Eek. Collecting this afternoon – keep your fingers crossed it does the trick.

In the meantime, having Googled the Mercedes problem, we have now tried about four different “tips” for solving  it, none of which worked, and are waiting for a friend to deliver a little battery (yes… battery !) for the key fob, in the hope that this small and seemingly insignificant part will fix our headache.

Mercury Gremlins… Dontcha just love ‘em?