Dead Battery!

[ArizonaEnergi]

No, not for that reason, rather the much more likely reason - I left my headlights on! But I think my experience may provide a useful lesson for C-Max owners.

 

I got up before dawn yesterday and headed out for a short drive to relocate a captured pack-rat to a more rat-friendly habitat. I turned the lights on, as we so seldom drive at night I never use the auto-setting, which may be mistake #1.

 

When I got back it was generally light outside, the garage was lighted, and I forgot the lights were on. I pushed the on/off ignition button, which turned the headlights off (as I confirmed in a test), and when I opened the door the headlights-on alarm rang, which I ignored as I was probably thinking about happy rats and homeowners.

 

When I got out and shut the door the headlights were off, so no indication of anything amiss. Eight hours later I go into the garage I notice the turn lights flashing about every 3 seconds, something I had not seen before. I thought maybe a door was ajar, but all was well, so I opened the drivers door and got that sinking feeling as the familiar dash lighting up was not happening.

 

I instantly knew what I had done and turned the headlights to off, and popped the hood. I hooked up my charger and it was reading 7.7 volts, and it proceeded to charge for about the next six hours (used 8 amp rate) and all was restored. Checked it this morning, and did a re-creation of the series of actions I did to confirm how the car responds, and the car was back to normal operations.

 

Here's my one very interesting finding, and perhaps someone knows what's happening: with the headlights set to "on", and the no-key ignition turned "off", the headlights are off but apparently a large battery drain is still happening.

 

I've learned my old-dog-age lesson, and plan to start using the auto-feature now and let the car do its job and handle the headlight function.

Edited November 3, 2014 by ArizonaEnergi

[Jus-A-CMax]

AE, AE, AE....u need some sl*ppin...c'mon.....now you need to change your dead battery poll vote from zero to: 1.

 

;)

Edited November 3, 2014 by Jus-A-CMax

[ArizonaEnergi]

Yep, if the poll has a "self-caused" option! I think in all the previous 13 cars we owned we never once had a dead battery from leaving the lights on, primarily because when they were on they were on. As pointed out in the Energi thread, the parking lights are what stay on and drain the battery when the headlight switch is left at "on". And when one doesn't go back into the garage for a few hours that might be enough to kill these small 12v batteries.

[ptjones]

That is good to know that computers won't run at 7.7volts, it would have been interesting to know if you could jump start it with charger. I was able to do this the only time my battery was from me leaving ACC on , but I didn't check the voltage of the battery.  My small additional battery solution might have saved the day.IMO :)

 

Paul

Edited November 3, 2014 by ptjones