Cars We Drive!

HRoi said:

🤔

Well the lighting up like a Christmas tree seems logical to me because the electrical system is still getting low voltage from the uncharged battery. I also believe that a lead acid battery can be discharged to the point that it’s dead forever

Did you ever get stranded out back of an Outback Steakhouse? 😄

But yeah, I think we’re making the same point. Id always suspect some additional issue beyond normal parasitic drain in those cases

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I wonder if it's the alternator .

VaderDave said:

I sold both for several thousand dollars more than I paid for them. If I conveniently forget repairs, maintenance, gas, and insurance costs, I actually made money!

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I was just curious about resale value post-pandemic . I do wonder how ice vs EV resale will develop

I had a problem on my motorcycle where if I didn't charge ride it for more than about 2 weeks it would be dead, and then after that happened it wouldn't hold a charge for more than a couple days. After replacing with another lead acid battery that did the same the following year, I switched to lithium ion and zero problems.

I accidentally upsized the battery on my GTI…

I think the automatics use an H6 because of the stop-start but the manual only has a H5.

Oh well, I just have more power now and my dashcam will run longer before the voltage cutoff.

double00 said:

I wonder if it's the alternator .



I was just curious about resale value post-pandemic . I do wonder how ice vs EV resale will develop

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It's a good question--I think I probably could have squeezed a few more bucks out of each one during the pandemic, as prices for these kinds of cars spiked during that time. But I was more interested in selling them quickly, so I priced them accordingly. Both were gone within just a couple of days after listing on FB marketplace and a couple of enthusiast FB pages.

get a volt meter, clamp it to your system and start pulling fuses one by one. You should be able to find the parasitic drain that way.

A shop can do that in say half an hour, and should have the tools to make the car think it’s on standby with a door open to ensure access to the fuse box.

Years ago I did this to figure out it was the Bluetooth car kit of my merc at the time that did that. Simple solution as I simply unplugged it when I left the car for more than a few days.

nootje said:

get a volt meter, clamp it to your system and start pulling fuses one by one. You should be able to find the parasitic drain that way.

A shop can do that in say half an hour, and should have the tools to make the car think it’s on standby with a door open to ensure access to the fuse box.

Years ago I did this to figure out it was the Bluetooth car kit of my merc at the time that did that. Simple solution as I simply unplugged it when I left the car for more than a few days.

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Have a voltmeter and used it to confirm that one of my batteries is all the way dead and the other is most of the way dead (~3v). But parasitic drain isn't a blocker for me getting this thing running and to my house so I can trickle charge it. From there, the dealer said to bring it in so they can swap out the batteries and resolve whatever is going on.

I did have an oil change recently where they took care of a recall and checked the infotainment system for some errors I complained about. Wouldn't surprise me if something they did there is causing the drain.