[ruf-porsche]

Last October when my alternator decided to quit alternating, I was taking my wife for a birthday getaway weekend. We had reservation at the Hyatt and concert tickets.

When I just pulled into the packing lot of the Hyatt, the P-car just die. Try starting it back up but nothing. Figure the alternator had died and the battery was dead. Lucky for me there was a Sears at the mall next to the Hyatt. Lucky for me the Hyatt had a Hertz rental shop in the lobby. Unfortunately it was a Friday afternoon so they didn't have any car on the premise. They would have to get a car from O'Hare airport.

While Hertz was getting me a car, I walked to the Sears automotive shop and brought a battery that they said would fit my Porsche (it actually fits and I could secure it with the original hold down).

I lugged the battery back to the Hyatt parking lot and proceeded to switch out the battery. After 5 minutes I turn the key and started the car right up. I put the old battery back into the car and drove to Sears. I gave back the old battery, received my deposit and had them test the charging system. The charging system was not charging so I decided not to use the P car for the rest of the night and rented a car from Hertz to drive to the concert.

The concert was great and we were just settling down to our get away weekend, when we received a call at three in the morning that our daughter has been crying for a half hour looking for her mom and dad. The wife just told her mom that we would come back. It was dress and hop into the rental car for the drive back to Chicago. We arrived home and our daughter was happy to see her mom and dad. Dad crash and woke up the next day to drive back to the Hyatt to return the rental car and check out. I loaded the wife suit case and my laptop back into the P car and drove from Oak Brook to Chicago on just the battery.

I would say if your alternator quits and the battery goes flat, you can always buy a new battery and drive the car for at least 50 miles or more depending on traffic but don't use the headlights.