This may seem weird but I drove my car the other day, drove just fine, put it away in the garage with the windows down for a change (wanted to let it vent out the vapors from sitting in the shop at Imagine Auto, you know the typical gasoline/oil/shop smell). Car sat for what 4 or 5 days and I went to start it today and the battery was almost completely dead. I did not leave the keys in the car, I did not leave the hatch open or any lights or stereo on, as I said the only thing different from what I would normally do is that I left the windows down. Any suggestions? I have the car on my trickle charger now (the one I picked up from Ralph Boothe last year - Ralph is recoving from knee surgery btw, please wish him well in that topic thread) and after several hours on the charger it doesn't seem to have built up any battery power, as if there was still a drain on the system. What the best way to check for how much drain is on the system, an voltmeter across the positive/negative terminals of the battery or something else?

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K-Man S
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Partial answer is that from my experience lowering the windows has no impact on battery life. Trickle chargers will take more than 24 hours to get you back to normal. I'd suggest a short somewhere as a WAG.

I park mine in the garage with the windows down, it makes getting in and out easyer. Went on vacation for 2 1/2 weeks car started right up.

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Is that 35mph corner 45, 55 or a ..... corner?

I also park in my garage with the windows down, and no battery problems. I doubt that is the source of your issue.

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Dan

Funny you ask as I was pondering the same. I parked my car with the windows down for a few days and when I tried to start it all it gave was a couple of clicks and dead. I jump it with cables and it started right up. I shut it off and put it on the charger for a few hours and it has been fine since. It was the only time I have parked it with the windows down for more than a couple of hours.

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Was the car locked or unlocked while it was parked with the windows down?

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- Suneet


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To check for current draw, first you must have a fairly well-charged battery. Then disconnect either battery cable and connect an ammeter between post and cable. Many multimeters will be damaged by current levels above a few miliamps so use a good meter and start with it set on a higher range scale. You are looking for low levels of current, hopefully, so you may need to work down to miliamp ranges anyway. Does your car still have its original battery?

Unlocked, I know because my son opened the car door at one point but I fully closed it, it was not ajar or anything.

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K-Man S
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Yep still has original battery and there have never been any signs of battery weakness before, the only issue I've ever had in that regard is my ipod staying on and running out of battery power because the car shut off the most ring and the ipod stayed on for some reason (I suspect a flaw in the Dension software as others have reported same issue)

Oddly enough too when I took the batter cover off there was a piece of duct tape over the terminal on the passenger side. I took it off. I suspect it was put there by my dealership when they last worked on my car to see if I had pulled the battery cable off at some point or something, I don't know, but anyway I took it off because I didn't put it there...

Anyway still on the trickle charger, I am out of town tomorrow so it can charge all night tonight and all day tomorrow and I'll try it tomorrow evening and see what I get.

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K-Man S
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There have been a couple of threads on the forum about batteries discharging when the car was left unlocked for a few days. I have a feeling the MOST bus, and maybe the CAN bus, stay on or in a low power standby mode while the car is unlocked because more features stay "ready" to act for you to get in and drive away. For example, the window motors that lower the windows slightly when you pull the door handles. Also, the Dension is on an always-on connection, and gets switched signal from the MOST bus, so if in fact the MOST bus does not completely shut down if the car is left unlocked then it's possible it made the situation worse.

Also, the remote RF receivers don't turn off after 5-days when you leave the car unlocked... this is one of the battery conservation features the car has. I know that's not an issue here since you said it was only four days, but in the future, you should definitely lock the car when you plan on parking it for a while.

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- Suneet


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That's weird, because I can leave mine unlocked in the garage for months, and it's fine.

brad

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