Dead battery mystery (1 Viewer)

[mcgarrett91]

Calling Dr. Electron (Ed) or other club members who might be able to help. My Cruiser had a dead battery at the worst possible time this morning at 5:30 in Richmond, when I needed to get to a duathlon that started at 7. Fortunately, my friend hooked up the jumper cables, it cranked up, and has held the charge all day (13 to 14 volts).

When I parked the Cruiser last night, the engine fan seemed to be running for a long time after shutting off the ignition. Not sure how long it stayed on. I was also using a GPS unit, but I removed it from the base, though the base was still plugged into the cig. lighter. Those are the only two variables that I can think of to cause the dead battery.

Any thoughts?

Michael

 

[Devilmans Hand]

Is your cig lighter wired to always be hot?
What kind of battery do you have?
maybe the extreme temps we had caused lower performance from the battery.

 

[mcgarrett91]

Is your cig lighter wired to always be hot?
What kind of battery do you have?
maybe the extreme temps we had caused lower performance from the battery.

It's an Interstate battery, installed in January.

Not sure about the cig. lighter setup. Just seems strange that it would draw power without the GPS unit attached to the base.

 

[bkfj40]

I'm betting the heat. Have the battery checked at an autoparts store before you start tearing into the engine electrical. They can also check the alternator at the same time.

 

[Skrewball]

if i remember correctly the fan is controlled by a thermostat. the thermostat/relay may have stayed on too long after the key was off because of the heat.

not that it should drain the battery, but if the GPS base has a plug with a light on it, i will pull power at all times. not so much the light itself pulling the power , but the converter inside the plug.

P.S. hows the drip doin??

 

[mcgarrett91]

if i remember correctly the fan is controlled by a thermostat. the thermostat/relay may have stayed on too long after the key was off because of the heat.

not that it should drain the battery, but if the GPS base has a plug with a light on it, i will pull power at all times. not so much the light itself pulling the power , but the converter inside the plug.

P.S. hows the drip doin??

Maybe a combination of factors, since the battery and alternator are new.

Vince, still a bit of dripping when I parked it yesterday. I'll call tomorrow to discuss.

 

[emorth]

Hey Michael,
Can you drive it to the meeting on Wed? Maybe we can do a quick diagnosis in the parking lot.
Ed

 

[mcgarrett91]

Hey Michael,
Can you drive it to the meeting on Wed? Maybe we can do a quick diagnosis in the parking lot.
Ed

Ed,

I'm out of town all next week for work.

It seems to be fine since the jump start, but I would like to figure out what happened and avoid it again in the future.

Michael