Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My car is 3 years 1 month old (from bought new). At 10am today I had a meeting that I took in the car. The engine wasn't running but the car was on (radio/heater on). I guess after the meeting I was in a rush and left with everything still on. At 7pm right now, the car seems completely dead, can't start, remote lock doesn't even work, it's a complete dud. I am currently charging a portable jumper to hopefully jump my car. Assuming it's the battery...
Is my battery completely dead? Do I need a new battery?
I read some places online you can "recharge" a dead battery so it works again. If so, what exactly does recharge mean?
I read some places after you jump you have to drive your car around. How long do I need to drive for? 15min? 30min? 1hour?
My car is 3 years 1 month old (from bought new). At 10am today I had a meeting that I took in the car. The engine wasn't running but the car was on (radio/heater on). I guess after the meeting I was in a rush and left with everything still on. At 7pm right now, the car seems completely dead, can't start, remote lock doesn't even work, it's a complete dud. I am currently charging a portable jumper to hopefully jump my car. Assuming it's the battery...
Is my battery completely dead? Do I need a new battery?
I read some places online you can "recharge" a dead battery so it works again. If so, what exactly does recharge mean?
I read some places after you jump you have to drive your car around. How long do I need to drive for? 15min? 30min? 1hour?
First off you used your batter for your conference call.. also using it for heat and radio.. and you wonder why your batter ran out of charge?/
SMH.. Try getting it recharged.. or getting a jump and driving around for awhile to recharge. BUT, I cannot believe there are so many vehicle owners who do not understand how all those bells and whistle work.. much less what feeds them???
Wow!!! Try this.. but once you totally drain your battery.. nothing is guaranteed!! Maybe next time keep your motor running during "Conference calls"!!
Jump it. Drive it home. If your drive home is more than 10 minutes that should be plenty. Can have an auto parts store test the battery for free but it will likely be fine. Life just reduced a little.
May I assume the car is new and the battery is only three years old as well? If so, my guess is that after 10 hours with the key on, the battery is simply drained and it should charge back to normal with a regular auto battery charger.
I'm also unsure of what you mean by a portable jumper but if you can get the car started with that, or by jumping in with another vehicle, I would recommend placing your battery on a regular auto charger if you have access to one.
And no. After your battery is charged back to full capacity, there is no need to drive it around. If however, you are talking about charging the battery just enough to get it started, then yes, you will need to drive it to allow your alternator to recharge it. However, I would recommend that you take your car to a garage who will charge you about $5.00 or so to charge the battery to full charge. That would seem to be better than driving around wasting gasoline at over $2.00 a gallon.
Some batteries will die out in a 3 year period, especially in the southwest hot areas. I just replaced a 3 year old battery for wife's car.
OP get it jump started, drive it 20+ miles or take it to a garage to charge it. Drive it home and park it, if it's difficult to start the next day then you have a bad battery/dead cells/warped plates. If you need a new battery get one stronger than your present one. A battery of 650 cold cranking amps is the average but those with a higher cca of 750cca's or 850 cca's will last you several years longer. And with all the newer electronics in these new vehicles it's best to go the heavier duty route. They crank over easier and last longer.
I’m pretty sure mine is toast but I have some weird parasitic battery drain & I don’t want to buy another battery so that my car can kill it, too.
It hasn’t been over 50 degrees (right now it’s 17) for days & I’ve had to use a jump starter about 10 times, a trickle charger while at home & had to hustle 2 random people for jump starts, with kids in the car; all just in the last 48 hours.
No matter how vigilant I am about checking to make sure everything is shut off before I turn the car off, it will be dead if it sits parked for longer than about 15 minutes. When I do get it started the parking lights will be on. Sometimes after getting a few blocks down the road the door locks will start clicking off & on by themselves (which is a little creepy).
Apparently I need a voltage meter & to start testing each & every little fuse until I find whatever it is that’s pulling my power but it took me 2 days online & over an hour outside just to figure out how to get to the “under the rear seat fuse box”. I’m just not very “handy”.
My car is 3 years 1 month old (from bought new). At 10am today I had a meeting that I took in the car. The engine wasn't running but the car was on (radio/heater on). I guess after the meeting I was in a rush and left with everything still on. At 7pm right now, the car seems completely dead, can't start, remote lock doesn't even work, it's a complete dud. I am currently charging a portable jumper to hopefully jump my car. Assuming it's the battery...
Is my battery completely dead? Do I need a new battery?
I read some places online you can "recharge" a dead battery so it works again. If so, what exactly does recharge mean?
I read some places after you jump you have to drive your car around. How long do I need to drive for? 15min? 30min? 1hour?
To jump your battery, you need to stand outside your car and jump up and down until the car starts. Since yours is really dead it may take a while.
All the hate for the OP...You don't know what you don't know and you only know what you've learned or been taught. So Be Nice.
You need to jump start your car. You can get jumper cables and someone else's car, and that should work.
Or you can get a portable jump start (basically a jumper cable attached to a battery type thing you recharge by plugging into the wall)
Or a battery tender (looks like jumper cables with a wall plug on one end.) Plug it in for a few hours and go back and start the car.
Afterwards, you do need to drive it around for awhile. 15 minutes or so should do it.
At 3 years with the OEM battery, you might be looking at replacing it in the near-ish future, but also might have a couple years of life left in it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
