legacycentral bbs

So i woke up around 6:30 this morning, and it was incredibly cold out. went to start the car... nothing, not even that annoying little buzzer that tells you the key is in the ignition. Had to call work and fortunatly they're pretty close to my house, so they sent a guy out with a jump-pack and got it started right away...

I've never had a problem with this battery before, and it's never not started on me, even when it was sub zero conditions and snowing out. there was frost on the windshield this morning, but it wasnt as cold as it has been these past couple days.

should i get a new battery? it's up in the shop right now with a trickle charger on it, hopefully by the time i get off it'll be at a complete charge. is this something that is going to happen again? i dont really want to throw down the money for a new battery, even if i DO get it at a little over cost.

How old is the battery? How many times have you had to jumpstart it? What kind of battery is it?

Couldnt tell you how old the battery is, it was in the car when i bought it. It's an Interstate battery, and i've never had to jump the car before in the last 6 months that i've owned it

take it to an autoparts store, and have them load test the battery. Should be a pretty easy check.

Hmm, well, that battery's useful lifespan in any interesting climate is probably only around 5 years, so your battery may well be on its way out. Cold weather has a way of killing off a marginal battery. Maybe there's a stamp somewhere on the battery stating the year of manufacture?

Legacy777 wrote:take it to an autoparts store, and have them load test the battery. Should be a pretty easy check.

dont need to take it to an autoparts store i work at the subaru dealership i just dont want to throw money at a new battery if there's possibly something else wrong draining the car... i've just never seen a car go that completely dead in less than 12 hours in the cold.

Marbles wrote:

Legacy777 wrote:take it to an autoparts store, and have them load test the battery. Should be a pretty easy check.

dont need to take it to an autoparts store i work at the subaru dealership i just dont want to throw money at a new battery if there's possibly something else wrong draining the car... i've just never seen a car go that completely dead in less than 12 hours in the cold.

he was saying do a load test to see if the battery is actually bad. one way to check if there's something draining it is to just unhook the negative or positive cable from battery and touch it to the terminal on the battery. if it sparks with the car and all accessories off, there is something drawing a load.

Yeah.....a load test is typically free. It'll tell you what the battery's output under load is.

vrg3 wrote:Hmm, well, that battery's useful lifespan in any interesting climate is probably only around 5 years, so your battery may well be on its way out. Cold weather has a way of killing off a marginal battery. Maybe there's a stamp somewhere on the battery stating the year of manufacture?

My battery has been in almost 10 years

Hasn't left me sit yet.

Manarius- you should probably replace it anyways, you don't want to get stranded. it sucks.

As for other possibilities, check and see if there are any lights possibly on, or any other non-usual sources of drain. It could also be the alternator, but that's less likely.

Sometimes my wife leaves the map light on, I wish that light had a timer on it or something. Happened more than once.

well, i found the problem over the weekend... my brake pedal has gotten a bit worn over the years, (especially with my recent late braking action on the mountain passes) and the brake lights have been staying on all night just from the weight of the pedal... so tonight i'm going to mess around with the actuator/switch thingy and set it back a couple of centimeters and hopefully that'll iron out the problem.