Brand new 06 V6, probably barely over 1000 miles. Was only driven for a few weeks before my license was suspended. It hasn't been driven for over a month (haven't gotten the OLL yet..). Anyway, recently here we had one bad storm. Involved thunder/lightning/hail, whatever. No damage to the car from what I could see. Showers continued on and off, light usually. I go out to the car to grab some CDs and the fob doesn't unlock the car, I figure it could be dead so I get in the old fashioned way.

The car wouldn't start at all, no lights, nothing. The only thing that lit up was the passenger airbag light, which has also ceased by now. I looked under the hood and from what I can tell, nothing was exposed that could've shorted, and no interior or exterior lights were left on at all. The car has been moved recently though (from painting the calipers, and I still wash every couple of days)

Gonna try and jump it soon, anyone else have problems like this? I'm gonna be real pissed if I got a lemon.

 

Todays cars have a lot more "standby" current draw than older cars. If it is going to sit for more than a few weeks you should put a "trickle charger" on the battery to keep it from going completely dead.

The worst case can be when the battery gets "close to dead", this can cause the data in the computer to get scrambled and do strange things.

I would charge the battery, then pull the battery cables after it is charged for 30 seconds or so. The car should come back to "Normal" after a few miles of driving it (the computer will re-adjust itself from scratch due to the battery disconnect).

If that doesnt help it's time to visit the dealer.

 

used a digital meter, was as good as dead. Jumped it, let the alternator charge it, and it seems to be okay. Guess we'll see if it happens again. I'd likely just replace the battery. Although, if it even happened after that, the dealer's gonna feel how pissed I'll be.

 

If you let it sit that long with the active alarm activated, then thats what killed the battery.

 

it has a passive alarm? By the way, when I connected the cables, the alarm did go off.

 

Yes it can cause it to do strange things, but they will recover quickly.

However, the memory in these computers is what is called "flash" memory--it is non-volatile. That means it does not lose its contents when the power goes off! Otherwise you'd have a real mess everytime the battery did go out.

BTW when you re-program the computer you are basically "flashing" it.

Thx.

Mike