Getting a Vehicle

[Straume21]

Since the update, I’ve been unable to find any working vehicles in the world I’ve been playing. I’m on day 18 or so with a few NPCs and a large amount of loot, but I haven’t found any cars in garages, which is where I usually check for them.

I keep finding cars that are in good condition, but even after putting fuel in them, they won’t start because the battery is dead.
Is there anything I can do about this without having a working car to jump the vehicles I find with dead batteries?
Would it be possible for me to cut out the old battery and install a new one with a charge from another vehicle?

Ideally, I would want to have some kind of portable generator or car starter battery that I could hook up to a vehicle to juice it, but I’m not sure if this item exists in-game.

Could someone help me out with some advice for what to do?

I have thought about building a car from scratch, but if there is anything I can do other than that, I would prefer it, because I know from experience that building a car from scratch without cheating is really a bitch and it takes a long time and a lot of parts to complete.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[AllisonW]

Would it be possible for me to cut out the old battery and install a new one with a charge from another vehicle?

Yes.

[BeerBeer]

It occurred to me that if you find an undriveable car but with a working engine, put some gas into it, turn the engine on, and let it run for 1-24 hours to charge the battery until it runs out of gas. THEN remove the battery. Car batteries are heavy, so prepare a shopping cart first or drop your inventory or something.

Edit: Wait… does the battery charge zero out if you remove a battery from the car? I haven’t actually done a car battery transplant.

[Rivet]

does the battery charge zero out if you remove a battery from the car?

It does not.

You can also ‘refill’ car batteries using normal batteries, like you find in flashlights.

[Straume21]

I tried doing this, but it didn’t break 1%, so I couldn’t get it started. I thought this might have been changed since the update, but thanks for clarifying.

I ended up getting a working car by pulling a charged battery off another vehicle.

[iceball3]

100 batteries should definitely be enough, even if you are at less than 1%.
So long as the car has batteries, engine, fuel, and an alternator, it should start generating power. Make surenone of the parts are yellow damage or worse, first, though. Yellow batteries and tanks leak their contents.

[AllisonW]

Make surenone of the parts are yellow damage or worse, first, though. Yellow batteries and tanks leak their contents.

This. If I find a vehicle that actually has a fair bit of gasoline/battery power in it, I oftentimes use my integrated toolset to make sure the tank and battery are in good repair for later harvesting or fixing-up.

I wouldn’t mind being able to drain batteries I don’t need to fill ones I do, though. I haven’t figured out a way to do that yet.

[KA101]

[quote=“iceball3, post:6, topic:8578”]Make surenone of the parts are yellow damage or worse, first, though. Yellow batteries and tanks leak their contents.

This. If I find a vehicle that actually has a fair bit of gasoline/battery power in it, I oftentimes use my integrated toolset to make sure the tank and battery are in good repair for later harvesting or fixing-up.

I wouldn’t mind being able to drain batteries I don’t need to fill ones I do, though. I haven’t figured out a way to do that yet.[/quote]

You can kinda do that with jumper/heavy-duty cables. Hook the veh that’s got charge to one that needs charge, and it’ll pull power from the one to the other.

(Only as much as needed: doesn’t equalize charge or otherwise passively transfer power. Further, both cables drain more power than they charge, as happens in reality.)

[AllisonW]

[quote=“AllisonW, post:7, topic:8578”][quote=“iceball3, post:6, topic:8578”]Make surenone of the parts are yellow damage or worse, first, though. Yellow batteries and tanks leak their contents.

This. If I find a vehicle that actually has a fair bit of gasoline/battery power in it, I oftentimes use my integrated toolset to make sure the tank and battery are in good repair for later harvesting or fixing-up.

I wouldn’t mind being able to drain batteries I don’t need to fill ones I do, though. I haven’t figured out a way to do that yet.[/quote]

You can kinda do that with jumper/heavy-duty cables. Hook the veh that’s got charge to one that needs charge, and it’ll pull power from the one to the other.

(Only as much as needed: doesn’t equalize charge or otherwise passively transfer power. Further, both cables drain more power than they charge, as happens in reality.)[/quote]

Yeah, therein lies the problem. Like in reality it’s pretty much just for starting a vehicle that won’t start, and then the other vehicle’s own alternator/solar panels/whatever has to do the rest. In my experience in-game it’s often easier to just replace the battery entirely/install a second one with charge.