the flyin' scotsman

Car was running great when I got home yesterday and I parked it in the driveway; changing oil on the m/cycle and needed the garage space. I had opened the sunroof and drivers window to get some nice fresh spring air into it and left the key in the ignition. When I went to park it in the garage last night the battery wouldn't turn the engine over but had enough life to close sunroof and window.

Is it possible that my drivers window switch which does stick would cause the dead batt; I'm sure the ign key was off but as mentioned I left it in place.

The battery is relatively new; installed new last summer and was well 'tended' over the winter.

At least I was home...........any thoughts?

Alan

If the ignition was on it would quite quickly drain the battery itself...if not even the accessory position might cause some major drain depending on what you have installed... The windows should only be active - on with the ignition stay on until you open a door... but if the switch is sticky AND the window controller stayed active (key would have been irrelevant) that would do it (although the window/sunroof motors have a thermal cutout - they would cycle on/off while stalled).

So cause for this would be door pin switch (see if interior light works reliably from (drivers?) door(s) (this could be intermittent) OR the window relay itself (less likely to be intermittent) probe the output to see that it goes off with doors openening.

If its neither of these you need to debug parasitic current draw...

A possibility (frequent issue) - check that the ignition switch seems reliable (is it sloppy in switching between 0-1-2?) look to see that it always turns ignition and X-Bus off when expected - cycle repeatedly...

...Of course a real possibility is just a coincidence - batteries sometimes just die unexpectedly - no warning - fast death...You'll likely find out if it wont hold a charge...

Alan

the flyin' scotsman

thx Alan.............it is entirely possible that the key was left in the accesory position, when I thought it was off and the window switch was stuck in the open position.

I've had the battery on charge all night so assuming it's held a charge and starts the car I'll check out the ignition switch, door pin switch and window relay.

I'll keep you posted.

the flyin' scotsman

The batt measured 12.17v when I took it off the charger and 14.5v back in the car engine running. The door pin switch seems to work; cancels the interior lights and the ping but the ign switch does seem to be loose in that there's not much diff between the acc position and off.

The problem I suffered was probably self inflicted by leaving the key in the ignition assuming I had turned it all the way off...........I forsee an ignition switch change, hopefully not 'til winter.

macreel

Malcolm... also check the door courtesy(interior) lights. Sometimes
when I shut the door(s) the light switch gets jostled 'on'. In daylight
it's not easy to see the light shining 'tho at night it is obvious.

This has drained my battery more than once. But I'm learning.

G'luck.

the flyin' scotsman

thx Macreel...........I did check this also, had the golf bag hit the rear switch last year which flattened the battery. I took the car this aft for a 170 km 'ice-cream' run. Car ran well, many times over 200kph and she started well after stopping for gas and the ice-cream.

Lesson learned, always take the key out and make sure the window switches don't stick. I tried the drivers window switch many times and yes it does stick..........express of sorts!