Battery flat after 10 days

gaia · Post by **gaia** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 12:09 pm

I have a 2003 model 206cc automatic.

Yesterday after returning from being away for 10 days the battery was flat.

The battery is less than one year old and is the second battery for the vehicle.

As I travel extensively it's inconvenient if the battery goes flat after a week or so.

What can I do to avoid this situation in future?

Nobby · Post by **Nobby** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 1:33 pm

Do you have an extra alarm, audio gear, or some other aux equipment such as a PDA which could be taking the charge out of the battery.
Some alarms take more than the standard charge for LEDs etc.

marcelnl · Post by **marcelnl** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:58 pm

get someone to measure the current that flows when the ignition is off and then find the culprit, or.....buy a battery safeguard that shuts off the currebt drawn when the voltage drops too much (would wanna know whether an alarm causes this because that will then be shut off too)

omak · Post by **omak** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 2:50 am

Mine's also a 2003 model and my battery died a few days ago. There were no signs of it dying, just didn't have any power left to start the car one day. Our car has done 55,000km, so we use it quite regularly.

I've never looked at the battery, but apparently it's a tiny midget!!

marcelnl · Post by **marcelnl** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:50 pm

what would be of interest is the question whether you guys habitually operate the roof with the engine switched off or on, as I can imagine the battery takes quite a beating when it has to produce max juice for 20 sec....
BTW the Battery is a midget...

omak · Post by **omak** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:59 pm

I always make it a habit to keep the car running before I close the roof just for that particular reason!

Having said that, I'm not sure what my wife has been doing since I've been overseas for the last 2 months.

:

traceys · Post by **traceys** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:31 pm

The dealer who sold me my car strongly advised me to keep the engine running when opening/closing the roof as it can drain the tiny little battery very quickly. Had read on here previously about people coming back from holidays etc and finding their car dead but I've left mine for 3 weeks and had no problem.