Scott R

Hello all, my wife borrowed my '02 SC430 a few days ago and I hadn't driven it since then. Went to use it today and noticed that my key didn't make it unlock. Uh oh. Then noticed that the passenger door wasn't closed fully. Doh. Figured the interior light was on for the last couple of days and the battery drained.

I first tried this goofy battery charger my wife bought a while back where you plug it into the cigarette lighter of both cars. After doing so I read the fine print where it said that it could take up to 20 minutes to charge. Lame. But by then I figured I'd be lazy and go inside and have a beer. 20 minutes later it didn't seem like any progress had been made.

So then I pulled out the old fashioned jumper cables and gave that a go. No dice. My SC430 didn't make any indication like it wanted to start.

So a couple of questions:

1) Is it likely that the battery is truly dead and I need to replace it? I don't have AAA, so it would cost me just as much to buy a new battery as to renew a AAA membership (plus that might not work and they may determine that the battery needs to be replaced anyway).

2) If I do have to replace it, any suggestions? I'm not a mechanic, but I figure I can probably replace a battery. Obviously I'd want to find a local place to buy it. My searching popped up a thread where someone talked about a battery they found at Walmart for under $60.

VVTiBob

Sounds like you have a battery which was drained with the open door, AND one that needs the posts cleaned. A little baking Soda cleaning action...see this page: http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/how-t...ery-terminals/ Probably should also check the tightness first.
Regarding a new battery...a couple issues..size - cold cranking amps, as well as physical size and post placement. You can go online to many autoparts sites, entering your car info and they'll suggest the correct battery. Post position is important because the cables do not reach the opposite one.

JohnnyCake

What does this mean? Are you saying that it didn't even turn over? Or it turned over but didn't wouldn't start? Or turned over so slowly that there was no way it was going to start?

Do you know anyone with a trickle charger?

Scott R

It didn't make any sound whatsoever when I turned the key on the SC430. I waited a couple of minutes, tried again, and still no sound at all.

This morning I got it into Neutral (which it didn't want to do - hopefully I didn't break anything when I forced the stick to Neutral), and rolled it out into the driveway to take a closer look at things.

I discovered a weird little black box connected to my battery with a power cord coming out of the other side. It had a model # 02815A, and my initial suspicions and some Googling indicate that it's an on-board battery charger. There are some basic instructions written on it along with a little red light. It says that the red light on means it's charging, red light blinking means it's almost charged, and red light off means fully charged. Well, I grabbed an extension cord and plugged it in, but the little red light didn't come on.

Next step will probably be to remove the old battery and look for a replacement. I'm thinking about removing/disassembling this little black box, though, in case there's a blown fuse inside it or something. Would seem like a nice little box to have.

Scott R

Well I tried the jumper cables again and that did the trick. First try, no sound at all. Waited a couple of minutes, and I noticed the door ajar light was on. Yea. Tried it again, and it tried to start it up but then started clicking. Waited a few minutes more, tried again, and it got a bit farther. After several minutes/tries, it finally started it up. I've got it running in the driveway now and will take it for a spin for a few minutes. Not sure how long I should leave it running before it's safe to turn it off.

Should I bring it by a mechanic for them to test the battery to make sure it's good to go or if I might still be better off replacing it?

tfischer

Auto Zone and other parts stores will gladly test your battery for free. The SC battery is pretty big, so a replacement will be at the high end of the spectrum. Depending on its age and condition, it may simply need to be re-charged. The stores have testers that can indicate if it still has the ability to hold its charge.

VVTiBob

You're kidding....right? You forced it? Breaking the ignition interlock when you could have used the manual override release?
Sounds like the previous owner had a trickle charger attached to the battery to keep in in shape during those long intervals of non-usage during the winter months.
By the way...just how much force did you use?

Scott R

I looked through the manual looking for something which talked about how to get it into neutral when the battery was dead, but couldn't find anything. Hopefully I didn't screw something up. FWIW, I had to do this one other time when the car was running but wouldn't let me change the gears (I don't remember if it was stuck in park, drive, or reverse). I ended up forcing it then, too.

How much effort did I use? Hard to answer. I definitely forced it to do something it didn't want to do, but I'm no body-builder and I'd say it didn't require more force than my wife would have been capable of using.

So I just did some searching, and found this thread explaining how to get it out of Park:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...o-neutral.html

So what sort of damage might there be by me forcing it?

Back to the battery...I took it for a spin, then left it running for a while, then shut it down, waited a minute, and it started back up again with no hesitation. I'm guessing that the culprit was the passenger door not being fully closed and the battery is fine, but I am wondering if I should take it to be checked, just to be safe. OTOH, I'm worried that they may tell me to replace it even if it doesn't need to be.

Scott R

Was just doing a search in the forums today to verify if I had a dead battery and wouldn't you know, I came across my very own thread that I created last May! I'm getting old, because I totally didn't remember this. Actually, my wife's battery ('07 Mazda CX-7) died about 3 weeks back, and I had the feeling bugging me that we had some sort of battery issue/replacement within the last couple of years on one of our cars. Anyway, I ended up jumping my wife's car with my SC430. I wonder if that could have caused me to screw up my SC430's battery, because a few days ago I couldn't start my SC430. Now, I had recently been out of town and my wife made use of my car, and I immediately noticed that one of the interior light switches was pushed in (that light had burned out a couple months prior, so I figure my daughter tried to use the light, and since it didn't turn on, she didn't think to push it again to turn it off). So I think my wife/daughter are, once again, the culprits. Between that light switch and possibly jumping my wife's car a few weeks prior, I'm thinking that did the battery in. FWIW, opening my driver's side door put some lights on, the clock was showing, etc., so there was still *some* juice left.

From reading this old thread, it sounds like I never actually replaced the battery last year, so I was probably living on borrowed time. Anyway, today I got the car in neutral (I didn't force the stick this time - I did it the proper way), and pushed it out of our garage. I hooked up the jumper cables, and let her car run for several minutes. Trying to turn my car over resulted in some rapid-fire clicking (I was getting the same noise even with no jumper cables attached), but it wouldn't start. It's possible that I didn't have the cables hooked up as perfectly as I should, but the SC430's battery has that plastic covering which makes it a little tricky to get as solid of a connection as I'd like. After trying a couple of times and messing with the cables a bit (no signs of corrosion BTW) and having no luck, I gave up. During some of my attempts I stopped getting any clicking, but did hear a groaning/whirring sound coming from the engine area after letting go of the key. It definitely wasn't the engine making that sound. Any idea what that could be? Is there a chance my problem isn't the battery after all? Shouldn't I be able to jump start a car no matter how dead the battery is? Doesn't the dead car effectively use the good car's battery to start up?

I'm hoping it's just the battery, as I was hoping to trade this in this year for a somewhat more practical CT-weather year-round car (still can't make up my mind what) and don't want to put a lot of money into it right before I'm planning to trade it.

tfischer

You don't want to drive around with a marginal battery under any circumstances.
Your choice would seem to be whether to buy a good, strong battery sized to the car and its big engine, or to buy something cheap that might go for a while until you can spin the whole thing off to somebody who does not know what he is looking at.
If you opt for the latter, you might save $50.00, but if you keep the car, and who does not want to keep these cars, you will be sorry.

Scott R

Update: No need to panic. It was just the battery after all. I'm not happy that I couldn't get it jump-started on my own, because they sent a guy out who was able to jump start it right away. They charged me a little extra for that. The battery/install (plus service trip) ended up at a rather pricey $250 or so. Had I been confident that it was just the battery in the first place, I might have tried to purchase one and install it myself. Oh well. At least it wasn't any major issue.

mandyfig

Let's do an 8D:

Failure: No crank.

Verification of failure mode: No clicky, no starty.

Root Cause of failure: Dead battery.

Cause of dead battery: Power drain due to lights lefft ON.

Who left the lights on: Wifey and daughter.

Corrective Action (CA): Training.

Details of CA: You my friend Scott R need to be trained. You may no longer let anybody else be in your SC430. Hide your keys, pretend they got lost.

Verfication of effectiveness of CA: No battery drains for 12 months or 10,000 miles.

Lesson learned: You fill in the blanks....