In 1992, a small village owner became the richest man in the village by owning a car.

Chapter 260 A Simple Repair of a Mercedes-Benz

Of course, using the car for too long or leaving it unattended for an extended period can also cause battery problems.

Yu Dawei's van's battery cracked completely because it had been left unused for too long, and the storage environment was too cold in winter and too hot in summer, or other uncertain environmental factors.

"Brother Li, could you check if the headlights on the front of my car are working?" Yu Dawei rolled down the car window with his left hand and looked up at Li Fubao beside him, saying this.

“No problem, go ahead and do it.” Li Fubao gave Yu Dawei an “OK” sign.

Yu Dawei was stunned when he saw the other party's "OK" gesture. It turned out that Lao Liang had learned the "OK" gesture that he and Brother Duan had made from here. It was exactly the same as the gesture that Brother Li made.

He had been wondering why this old man would be speaking English with him and Brother Duan when he had nothing to do, since English wasn't popular in Northeast China these days.

Yu Dawei started turning the headlight switch, first to low beam, then to high beam. When he looked up at Li Fubao, the other man was intently staring at the headlights of the car in front of him.

"How's it going?" Yu Dawei stuck his head out of the car window. "Did you see the light?"

“I can see it. But it seems the sunlight is too strong at midday, so it’s not very noticeable.” Li Fubao pointed to the sun overhead.

It's December now, and the sun in Northeast China is high and round. Although the temperature hasn't increased much, the light is dazzling.

Yu Dawei pulled his head back into the driver's seat, gripped the steering wheel with both hands and pondered for a moment before reaching out to turn on the windshield wipers.

As he expected, the windshield wipers worked very slowly, like an old man wiping the car window bit by bit with a rag, until finally they stopped moving altogether.

"Alright, it's probably a battery problem." Yu Dawei opened the car door, got out of the driver's seat, and said, "But we still need to take it out and check the battery to see what's wrong with it."

"Ah, oh!" Seeing Yu Dawei's serious expression, Li Fubao nodded in agreement, though he didn't quite understand.

Yu Dawei opened his small blue toolbox, which he had picked up from Duan Dahai some time ago. It was a toolbox that others had discarded and sold for scrap.

He thought it looked alright, so he painted it with another layer of paint. Inside were all kinds of small tools that you could use normally: pliers, hammers, screwdrivers, Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, and wrenches ranging from 22 to 6.

In addition, there is a small plastic metal box specifically for storing gaskets and rubber rings, as well as commonly used items such as electricity meters and test pens.

These tightly packed items were kept separately by Yu Dawei in a small iron box, which is now coming in handy.

Electricity meter, wrench, screwdriver, and a rag taken from the car.

He just noticed that many parts inside the hood were covered in dust, probably because they weren't regularly maintained or cleaned.

There are quite a few repair shops in Northeast China nowadays, but when it comes to maintenance, many people only know to change the engine oil and check the brake pads. They don't know how to clean the dust or wipe the inside and outside of the shop properly.

"Brother Dawei, is it troublesome to remove the battery? I've only had this car for less than a year, and I haven't been driving it for very long, so I don't know much about this stuff." Li Fubao leaned closer, wanting to observe it up close.

The machinery of today is nothing like it was in his youth. Hand tractors could be easily disassembled; the parts were simple, and they could be put back together. Modern cars, on the other hand, are far too complex, with various systems layered together.

"No trouble at all." Yu Dawei said as he began to operate the system, "Turn off the electrical switches inside the car and remove the key."

“Then remove the negative and positive terminals in order,” Yu Dawei said, taking out a small wrench. “There are fixed brackets on the battery. We unscrew the screws on it and then disassemble the fixed brackets so that the battery can be removed.”

After removing the black battery, Yu Dawei started measuring the voltage again with a multimeter. The voltage of a typical car battery is around 12V, and 11-14V is acceptable under normal circumstances.

But this battery only has a voltage of 6V, what the heck? That's way too low!
"Brother Li, how long has it been since you drove this car?" Yu Dawei turned to look at Li Fubao, who was squatting next to him.

If it's been left out for a long time, that makes sense. He's seen voltages drop to 1.5V before, let alone 6V.

"Well, every now and then. I usually take it out to drive when I have something to do, but if I don't have anything to do and don't go out, I just leave it at home. I drive it out at least two or three times a week." Li Fubao's legs were a little numb from squatting, and his round butt was sticking out. He put his hands on his knees and said, "But I've been driving quite frequently this week, almost every day."

Upon hearing this, Yu Dawei fell silent, realizing that things had become more complicated: "It's probably not a power drain; it's more likely that a single cell inside the battery has a broken grid or short circuit. It's hard to say right now; we'll have to take it apart and check. But this battery is probably unusable for now."

“Brother, if you’re worried about the hassle, we can just drive to the auto parts market and buy a lead-acid battery with the same specifications and install it. It’s nothing compared to this car.” Yu Dawei glanced at the Mercedes next to him out of the corner of his eye. “If we had an original battery, that would be even better, but… I doubt it.” He had a friend who specialized in repairing cars in his past life who had told him that the “original” batteries sold outside Mercedes cars weren’t necessarily all original; they just had the same specifications, and some even had fake specifications.

"Brother Dawei, do you mean the original battery is better?" Li Fubao asked after Yu Dawei got up.

"Well, the original ones are definitely more durable, but I personally think that the principles of lead-acid batteries are all similar, and the only difference is in the manufacturing process," Yu Dawei comforted Brother Li. "It's better to have an original battery, but it won't have any impact if you don't, and it won't affect your driving."

"That's fine!" Li Fubao nodded happily. The beat-up car his father-in-law gave him cost almost a thousand yuan just to replace a tire; it was really not as good as the new Volkswagen Santana he had been looking at before.

Yu Dawei put the battery in the front trunk of his car, then put away the toolbox, and took Boss Li to the auto parts market in the development zone.

In his previous life, when he worked at Wanqiang Group repairing cars, he had visited the auto parts market in the development zone a few times. Yu Dawei still had some impression of the roads in the auto parts market, including the location of Zhang Baiwan's shop.

He met Brother Zhang at his auto parts store in the auto parts market. He vaguely remembered that there was a windbreak forest at the entrance, and a ditch in front of it. After crossing the ditch, there were several used engines parked outside.

When I met Brother Zhang, he was developing a new business, specializing in reselling used truck engines, and he was making quite a bit of money.

However, when Yu Dawei went there this time, he couldn't see anything except that barren windbreak forest.

Yu Dawei took Li Fubao to Brother Zhang's place first to inquire about the battery shops.

People who run shops in auto parts markets have different ways of making money. Some shop owners rely on integrity, some rely on shady income, and some rely on crooked means.

In China, relationships are the most crucial thing. This feeling is even more pronounced in non-first-tier cities. Even someone like Yu Dawei, who doesn't like to overthink interpersonal relationships, will subconsciously seek out an acquaintance to help him avoid being taken advantage of inexplicably when he arrives in an unfamiliar place.

Brother Zhang was naturally very happy to see Yu Dawei arrive. If Yu Dawei hadn't needed his help, Brother Zhang probably would have had a long talk with him.

Zhang Baiwan himself didn't know why, but whenever he met Yu Dawei, he always felt that there were endless topics to talk about, and he really wanted to share something with him.

Yu Dawei had spent a long time with Brother Zhang in his previous life and knew his temperament very well. He basically smoothed over the relationship between Li Fubao and Brother Zhang with just a few words.

Afterwards, Brother Zhang personally led Yu Dawei and Li Fubao to the third shop from the right next door, which was a parts store specializing in car parts.

The visitor was a young man; the shop was run by a father and son.

When the young man saw that Boss Zhang was personally "escorting" the customer over, he didn't have any ulterior motives and directly took out the battery with the best parameters.

The black battery casing doesn't look like anything to the naked eye, but the young man said that the quality of this battery is no less than that of the original Mercedes-Benz battery. It's also an imported brand, but it's not very well-known. However, the young man himself has this battery installed in his car, and he highly recommends it as a top-quality product.

The key point is that the price is not expensive, around 300 yuan, which is slightly more expensive than ordinary batteries, but not outrageously so. The price-performance ratio is very high.

Li Fubao felt the atmosphere had built up enough, so he decided to pay. But before that, he glanced at Yu Dawei, hoping the other could help him make a decision.

Yu Dawei didn't hesitate either. He squatted down, carefully compared the parameters, and observed the condition of the battery before giving Li Fubao an affirmative look.

The young man was happy to have made another profit after successfully purchasing the batteries. Although it wasn't much, it was better than letting them gather dust in the shop.

Nowadays, people only buy the cheapest batteries, and no matter how good you say your battery is, they won't listen to you.

The truly good stuff is just sitting here gathering dust, and the funds aren't even circulating properly; it's just frustrating to watch.

This is a distinguished customer introduced by Boss Zhang. I'll sell you a little less and make a friend. Maybe you can come back to him for your next purchase.

A businessman has his own business philosophy. In short, he will make you feel like you've made a profit, but at the same time, he will never lose money.

Because his wife was still in the car, Yu Dawei didn't stay long at Brother Zhang's place. After exchanging a few simple pleasantries and agreeing on when to come back next time, he left with Li Fubao.

[ps: Thank you to the owner of Simple Happiness 5358 for the 500 Qidian Coins! May everything go well for you, owner! May you be happy and handsome! May you find money on the street! May you be blessed with good fortune and peace! —Han Jingfan]

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(End of this chapter)