My THC is in the shop. I found it dead in the morning the other day. This is twice occuring in a week. The first time they didnt find anything, they thought maybe i drained the battery by leaving something on. They recharged the battery, left it overnight to inspect. It was fine. I drove it. Then this weekend the same thing happened. Since the weather is getting cold, i used my defrost on both occasions. They think the defrost relay is draining the battery. Has this happened to anyone?

 

I've never had the battery go dead so far. My TCH is 19 months old. I have only used the defroster a few times.

I almost killed the battery once by turning the parking lights on, instead of turning the lights off. I know, automatic will do it for me, but I often just turn them off when I park. The lights were on over night. I was amazed the battery still had enough power to power on the computers in the morning.

 

It took me a while to remember to watch the start button led, no green or amber showing. To make sure it's completely out along with any night time speedometer lights. So far no low or drained 12 volt battery.

 

Sorry to hear of your problem... it's frustrating! I had the same experience through much of last winter. If you would like to follow the saga check out this thread: https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...85/#post115111

Long story short, it was in the shop intermittently for almost 3 weeks total until they finally traced it to the computer chip that controls the remote start. Replaced that chip and it has not happened since. Would you want to by the little booster jump starter I have been carrying around for almost a year?

Keith

 

thanks for your post. I will have tech read your thread. The thing is, I dont have a remote starter in my car. But needless to say, maybe the chip in my car is acting up with something else. I dont want to go thru what you did Keith. I hope i wont need those jumper cables. lol

 

Double check that the interior lights are turned off in the car. My kids left them on and it drained the battery dry. They don't automatically turn off. Also, the rear seat reading lights are hard to tell if they are on without looking directly at them so it is easy to miss this. If you have kids sitting in the back seat, always be careful of this!

 

well i got it back and it was a defective 12 v battery. apparently its not a regular celled battery but a gel battery. They did all tests on it, they finally agreed that the battery was defective.

 

Looks like the dealer's shop could install a small battery monitoring box in the trunk. The box recording any current drainage from the 12 battery and also monitoring the voltage. The box when removed could be connected to a computer. Then the few days of recorded battery information could be viewed.

A device like that would save the customer from making many trips back to the dealer to get the problem resolved.

 

I would continue to watch it closely and if it happens again, don't buy the defective battery story. When I had this going on, they replaced the battery twice (@ about $250 each plus overnight shipping) under warranty. After 3 batteries, they finally got serious about finding the drain.

Keith

 

If you end up having more problems, I'd ask the dealer if they had performed a parasitic drain test. How it is done is you put a multimeter in series with the battery and check the drain on the battery with the car off.

Each car has a certain amount of draw for things like keeping your radio presets, etc. It was my experience when I used to work on GM products, that the manufacturer states a normal draw in amps. Anything above a certain amount and you have something "on" that shouldn't be.

I've seen bad trunk switches for example causing the problem. The switch wasn't closing all the way and the trunk light was staying on. You wouldn't know it because the trunk is closed.

How you find the problem is to start pulling fuses. When you see the amps drop down to where the should be, you know that the problem is somewhere in that circuit assigned to that fuse.

Here is a link explaining the same thing. Perhaps better than I am.

http://www.autoshop101.com/trainmodu...rvice/118.html