How long before battery is dead?
#1
Lead Lap
Thread Starter
How long before battery is dead?
Personal, unintended, experiment regarding the 3 year old Duralast Gold battery in my RX330.
Went out Wednesday evening and when I got home I turned on an interior dome light to find a piece of mail. Needless to say, I forgot to turn it back off before heading inside. Light was still on this morning some 33 hours later, though a bit dim. Door locks worked, however, when I turned the key the engine turned once and that was it. Put the battery tender on the battery for about 30 minutes and the RX fired right up. Let it run for a few minutes then shut it off to sit for another 15 minutes without the tender and it started right up afterwards.
My RX has a tendency to sit for days on end without use and in these cases it fires right up. So, for those who report they cannot let their vehicle sit for a couple of days without needing a jump I would say they have a problem with either the battery, the charging system or a power leech somewhere in the system. And, if you leave a dome light on like I did you should be OK if you notice it the next morning. Your battery should easily hold for that 9-to-12 hour period of time. Again, if you cannot do so you might have a problem as stated above. At least enough to have things checked out.
BTW, this is my 2K post. Was saving it up for something more prolific, but this is all I have at the moment.
Went out Wednesday evening and when I got home I turned on an interior dome light to find a piece of mail. Needless to say, I forgot to turn it back off before heading inside. Light was still on this morning some 33 hours later, though a bit dim. Door locks worked, however, when I turned the key the engine turned once and that was it. Put the battery tender on the battery for about 30 minutes and the RX fired right up. Let it run for a few minutes then shut it off to sit for another 15 minutes without the tender and it started right up afterwards.
My RX has a tendency to sit for days on end without use and in these cases it fires right up. So, for those who report they cannot let their vehicle sit for a couple of days without needing a jump I would say they have a problem with either the battery, the charging system or a power leech somewhere in the system. And, if you leave a dome light on like I did you should be OK if you notice it the next morning. Your battery should easily hold for that 9-to-12 hour period of time. Again, if you cannot do so you might have a problem as stated above. At least enough to have things checked out.
BTW, this is my 2K post. Was saving it up for something more prolific, but this is all I have at the moment.
#3
Well if you have a lot of accessories and gadgets hook up to the battery or for constant power memory and settings purposes, chances are the battery will drain a lot faster. I remember my old car, I had a ton of stuff hook up, even with deep cycle stinger battery, if I don't start the car a day, I most likely need to jump start the car. On the RX, I have tried 2 weeks without start up and it still fine
#4
Lead Lap
Thread Starter
33 hours is a long time, 3 year old battery and it seems like it doesn't get charged as much as if you were to drive it daily. How much juice did the tender say the battery had in it? Or take it to autozone to get it tested quickly if your tender doesn't have that ability.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher...arger/13005742
Did not take it to AutoZone or anywhere else as that is a bit out of the way on my travels. Will have it tested next time I get an oil change done in a few months. When the RX is taken out the trips are usually at least 20+ miles each way as there is nothing much in my area off the beaten path. Many of those trips lead me to the interstate if I go into town. So, the battery gets a good cycle charge from the alternator with each trip.
If I had not left the dome light on I would not have had any issues and even when I did there was little I had to do to fix things. Windows and sunroom did not need to be reset. Clock was still correct. All the radio station information was still there. The only oddity observed was just after the tender was turned on when the car doors locked and the alarm wanted to kick in. I used the key to open the driver door, as the key fob did not work this time from the aborted initial start, and put the ignition in accessory mode. After that I pulled the key and it is was well behaved ever since. Back to starting very quickly as before.
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BearsLexus
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03-13-14 07:04 PM