HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I canno believe I did this....I got out of my TCH this am at 7:50 am and went into school to work... Luckily no meeting or extra-help needed so left at 3;00. Opened my car and heard the radio running. It seems the car was on the whole day. I dont know how that happened. I was sure I pressed the button to turn it off. It drove to my dr appt OK and then drove home fine BUT>>>>>>>COULD I OF DAMAGED SOMETHING???? I am going for the 5,000 mile check up tomorrow and I am embarassed to mention this....

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I wouldn't worry too much about this. You a certainly not the first person that this has happened to. You will learn to really look carefully to ensure the car is really shut down. I have to watch mine all the time, starts back up after a short delay about 10% of the time.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

At worst you drained the battery down....but obviously not all of the way.

To ensure the vehicle is shut off make sure the clock is off. That was one of the frst tricks I read about when I got mine.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Thanks Guys,,I feel so much better...I really felt so embarassed...Darn car is so quiet and worse of all my tank MPG was up to 37 and went down to 35.6...Darn!!! Probably used couple gallons of gas and at $4.05 per gallon , thats not nice...
When you turn it off..foot on and off brake? How long do you hold ignition switch in?

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I am shocked the battery didn't drain down. I heard a few stories of leaving the car on draining the battery, requiring a drip to the dealer to get it running again.

What does the dealer actually do, when they need to "fix" a totally dead main battery? Can the battery totally die with Gas still in the car?

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

How can you drain battery when the car was running, unless run out of gas? Without the lights and other major electricity drain the car was running off the main battery for about half an hour, then engine would kick in to recharge it every so often. Normal car would probably burn between quarter and half a tank, TCH couldn't burn more than a gallon. For example after driving 500 miles, if you fill 14 gallons your MPG is 35.7, if you fill 13 gallons MPG increases to 38.4. Seaford had smaller drop in MPG than that and likely had driven less than 500 miles, therefore I doubt he burned more than 1/2 gallon.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

As others have said, you didn't kill your car.

Sounds like you may have:
1) left the car "running" -- especially if you tried to turn it off while your foot was on the brake. In this case, when you tried to lock the door, the doors would not lock and the car would give about 3 beeps (not sure about the exact number). Here, the only problem will be the hit in mpg due to the ICE restarting to keep the traction battery charged. :cry:
or
2) "double hit" the Power button, turning the car OFF, then back to ACC. I believe that you might be able to lock the car in this state, but it will still give an alert. In this case, it would be possible to discharge the small 12 V battery (but most likely not during an 8 hr work day, if you ONLY had the radio going, but YMMV). If the 12 V battery died, just a normal jump start would have gotten you going again. :) (And make you -- and you NEW car -- the butt of MANY jokes for the next few weeks.) :embarass:

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

Foot not needed on brake.
Press the power button and look at the clock, if it's off, the car is off.
Now that you've done (what many others have similarly done), you wont do it again (hopefully)

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

It didn't beep when you closed the door? I've certainly forgotten it was on once in a while but the warning beep always catches me before I walk away.

Re: HELP Fast Please..Did I damage my Car???
 

I agree. I always wonder "What the heck did I forget to do or close now!!!"