Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Car Troubles

I'm getting tired of the battery problems!  For the past 2 years, the battery will simply and suddenly go dead.  OK, twice I left the back hatch up overnight, and once the regular door wasn't firmly closed.  Last year it happened several other times for no reason and I had the battery replaced even though the dealer said it was OK and I had no problems until this August. 

Then it happened several times again for no reason and they checked it again finding no problem.  I started keeping a boat battery in the car.   Now it has happened again 3 times in 2 weeks.  But it's always when its been sitting in the garage for 2-5 days!  A battery shouldn't discharge sitting in a garage for that short a time.

I usually need to go somewhere immediately, so I've previously jump-started it from the boat battery.  Yesterday I put my good battery-charger on it.  The charger as a display that shows the percent recharged.  It started at 13% and got up to 70% in a few hours.  And it stayed there for the next several hours!

I turned it off overnight and started charging it again this morning.  It was down to 50% already!  And it stayed there.  There HAS to be something wrong with the battery.  OR something wrong with the charging system.  Yet it seems to charge up when I drive it, because I never have a problem starting the car after a shopping trip.  I drove the car to the dealer today for a battery check and a charging system diagnosis.  I'll bet both check out OK.

I FEAR there is an intermittent short causing the battery to discharge.  Those are miserably difficult to find!  I KNOW I'm not leaving a door ajar, because for months, I've been standing there until the interior lights go out, showing that everything is shut tight.

Well, I should find out something tomorrow when the dealer calls.

3 comments:

Cats Herd You said...

Hopefully the dealership can figure it out for you. After years chasing a similar battery discharge in a Miata that no one could pin down, I got one of these: http://www.prioritystart.com/. It was great to get off of an airplane at 11pm and not wonder how long it would take to get a jump in a dark parking deck. It doesn't fix the root cause, but you won't get stuck!

Mariodacat said...

How very very frustrating. Nothing is worse than a car that doesn't work!!

Megan said...

I disagree with Mariodacat. What's worse than a car than doesn't work is a car service dealership that won't acknowledge that there's a problem and commit to fixing it.

Megan
Sydney, Australia

Good Heated Cat Mat

Can anyone recommend a good heated cat mat?  Everything at Amazon seems to get 4+ ratings an I have not had much luck with the last 3.  It&#...