£7 gadget you must buy before changing your car’s battery… or risk annoying issue that takes hours to fix
A MECHANIC has urged drivers to pick up a £7 gadget before they change their car’s battery or risk an irritating issue that takes hours to repair.
Cutting the power to your motor can play havoc with its computer system and leave you paying out hundreds.
Scotty Kilmer, who has been working on cars for 50 years, revealed how to safely make the switch without destroying your car’s data storage.
The computer unit in modern cars has a memory bank to store useful information for drivers that can be programmed into it.
This can include things like your previous sat nav destinations, favourite radio stations and preferred seat position.
However, it can also store vital data like system updates and diagnostic history which can have a major impact on your vehicle’s performance.
Unfortunately, when you remove the battery and the unit loses power, the data is often lost irretrievably.
I got it on eBay for £7
Scotty Kilmer
If this happens, you’ll have to spend several hours programming it back into the computer or pay a few hundred pounds to have it done at a garage.
Thankfully, as Scotty demonstrated, there is a cheaper and easier way to solve the problem.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, he said: “If you’re going to change you car’s battery, here’s something you should do before you take it out.
“This little device saves it all.
“This is called a memory saver, I got it online on eBay for £7.”
The memory saver is a long cable with an On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) plug on one end and a pair of crocodile clips on the other.
Put the OBD plug into the OBD port, which is usually found underneath the glovebox and connect the clips to a working 12V car battery.
Some even have adaptors on the clip end which allow you to plug it into the cigarette lighter on another car.
Scotty added: “When you disconnect the battery, the computer modules still have power and won’t lose their memory.”
Social media commenters loved the handy hack.
One wrote: “Well you got me Scotty never heard of this one before.”
Another begged: “Where’s the link to order it?”
It comes after the owner of the original VW Beetle from Herbie: The Love Bug revealed the annoying issue he faces when out and about with it.
