jvanbrecht

Left Wed night about 7pm, got back 1 am this morning (Monday morning). So, my car basically sat there for 5 days..

It was so dead, that the parking assistance folks at BWI had to hookup the portable charger/jumper box, and hook their 6 banger Ford Ranger truck to my battery.. and basically rev the engine for about 30 min before I was even able to barely squeeze out one start (thankfully it roared to life...)

Now, I have left my car sitting in the parking lot before, for almost 11 days without any problems....

How long have you left your car, and for long term (well more then 5 days).. how do you store the vehicle.. I have considered disconnecting the positive terminal.. but that will also disable the alarm...

As a side note, I was in Vegas for Defcon, my travel back sucked.. delay out of Vegas caused me to miss my connection in Denver, which put me landing at 2 to 3 am instead of 11pm like I was supposed to... Then I get to my car.. and it was so dead.. I had to use the physical key to open the door and trunk.. it was absolutely completely dead..

Even Money

Bad battery.

vdubpower

yup, get an interstate 850 megatorn plus

VividRacing

The fact that it took that much charging seems to me that it's a bad battery. Have it tested at a parts store.

jsc1234

3 months and the car was dead. never happened to my dads s550 which was left 3 months for about 4 years now without disconnecting battery

GBlansten

Any chance something got left on and discharged the battery?

_AMG_

Car was parked at my work for 2 weeks recently and no problem.
I would change the battery.

3,000th post WOOHOO!!

3mrano

i left my car in my house for about 4 months due to business traveling .. noone touched it or started it .. came back and started with no problems :P havnt touched the battery since 09

Roswell

When comes to battery problems, everyone will have different stories as it all depends on several factors. A new battery can last several years as it could last only 1 month.

Yuille36

Back in the day when, I had a 95 Mustang Cobra. I went on a six month deployment, and left my car in a storage unit, vice a open lot the Marine Corp was using. When I came back from deployment, the car started up with no issues. Fast forward, when I owed a 00 BMW 323CI, I stored my car at a aircraft hanger on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, this time the deployment was seven months, well the car's battery was dead, dead, dead. We jumped started it, and it started up as usual, drove back to base, only to have the car die on me, 1/4 mile from the barracks. I had to call BMW of Honolulu to come pick it up. They performed a complete electrical system check, and installed a new battery. So I ask you, why is there a difference between the two manufacturers, that one battery is good and the other one was dead. I just think that the European cars use more battery power for all the systems, compared an American car.

LuisC55AMG

This reminds me that I have to change mine too... Just in case (I've been with the same battery for 1.5 years)

jvanbrecht

I will just go replace the battery, it's about 4 years old with 45k miles on it..

My guess is that I must have left something on in the car.. While most new cars have a cut off to prevent the battery from being completely discharged (it is really bad for batteries to completely discharge) and allow enough juice to usually crank out 1 or two starts.. the problem is that the alarm will continue to draw juice beyond the cut off.. which is what I suspect happened...

Yuille36

jvanbrecht,

I'm in agreement with you, I also think maybe the onboard computers are draining the battery also.

eagle_lex

let us know what battery you go with and what it cost ya. i am considering a battery tender for the winter months... but havent used one yet and all seems well on my 09. it sits all week (m- th) and i typically take it out on a short run either fri or sat. never an issue. most the time its locked with the alarm on i presume.