LC not starting after 3 days parked

[francis]

Hello everyone,

When I came back from work on thursday, the 12V battery was completly dead, after sitting in the parking lot since monday.

I’ve read from multiple members that the battery was fast drained if you leave the hatch open for some hours or if you leave the car on accessories for too long, but that was not the case, lights are always on auto so it should not be a problem.

While it was a cold week, monday was -15, tuesday and wednesday were -20 to -30 and thursday when i had to jumpstart it, it was only -11.

I never had a car have a dead battery so fast, old or new, and where I live we have -30, -35 weather at some point every winter, so it’s not something that rarely happens.

I have not modified the car, dealer installed a block heater , Domino and electronic antirust. Block Heater was not plugged in because I was not starting at a temp colder than -15, but it would not affect the dead battery either way.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I am not taking i to dealer until end of march and I will see if it happens again in the next month.

 

[katekebo]

I would check for parasitic drain that is discharging your battery. Connect an ammeter on the battery cable and check current draw. It's normal for the current draw to be significant (as much as a couple of amps) immediately after you shut down your car. But after about 20min, when all the computers go to sleep, the current draw should be a couple dozen milliamps. If the current draw is more than 0.5A, it will discharge your battery in a matter of a few days. Anything above 100 mA is indicative of a problem.
If indeed you have parasitic drain, I would first disconnect dealer added accessories. I have a strong suspicion that it one or both of them that are killing your battery.

 

[EOD Guy]

It's a LC thing.......... I replaced my battery with an Optima and installed a roof top 12v solar charger. So far so good. I also keep a jump box in the LC as I've been stranded on more than a couple of occasions.

 

[toyotadude]

It's a LC thing.......... I replaced my battery with an Optima and installed a roof top 12v solar charger. So far so good. I also keep a jump box in the LC as I've been stranded on more than a couple of occasions.

Have you had good luck with the Optima’s? I used to run them way back but switched to the Odyssey’s the last decade. Never had an issue with the Odyssey’s but did have some with the Optima’s. But things do change over the years

 

[francis]

I will try to check the amp on a hotter day! Does the computer give you any trouble after a battery disconnect?

Yeah I’ve seen you had problem with the stock battery. Did the new battery made a significant improvement? If my problem is not parasitic drain, even a 25% increase in capability will still be pathetic…

The solar pannel is not ideal because from december to april, we get a lot of snow and if it’s not cleared fast enough, it can turn to ice and is then hardly removable.

I will carry the jumpbox in the LC, thought it would be better for my gf’s old honda fit, but it actually never failed to start in 12 years! The LC on the other hand…

 

[EOD Guy]

I will try to check the amp on a hotter day! Does the computer give you any trouble after a battery disconnect?

Yeah I’ve seen you had problem with the stock battery. Did the new battery made a significant improvement? If my problem is not parasitic drain, even a 25% increase in capability will still be pathetic…

The solar pannel is not ideal because from december to april, we get a lot of snow and if it’s not cleared fast enough, it can turn to ice and is then hardly removable.

I will carry the jumpbox in the LC, thought it would be better for my gf’s old honda fit, but it actually never failed to start in 12 years! The LC on the other hand…

It hasn't been low enough not to start, since I installed the new battery and charger.

From my understanding, the LC have several, what I call sentry/stby features. Looking for the FOB signal, puddle lights, auto interior lights, electric parking brakes etc......... none of which should put a drain on the battery, but something is def draining the battery. Most people use their LC as a DD so the DC to DC keeps the battery at a nominal voltage. Mine isn't a DD so it goes weeks without being started and the battery goes flat. There is a fuse that is installed at the port/dealer that energizes several systems (to help prevent the battery going flat in transit) When the weather warms up, I plan on doing some diagnostics and see if I can't isolate which systems are drawing amperes and devise a on/off switch. I have purchase some "flip/flop" relays for this purpose. (flip/flops...... provide a 12v pulse the the relay flips to the "On" state and stays in the "On" state until it receives another 12v pulse, then it flops to the "Off" state and stays in the "off" state etc......

 

[jayce]

I was worried about battery drain based on the discussions here. However, we recently went on a 3 week trip leaving the car in the garage unlocked. Temps were well below freezing, but a little warmer in the garage. Car started right up when we returned home.

I wonder if locking the car can increase battery drain?

 

[Alpha Puppy]

If you recently acquired the vehicle, I think it's possible your dealer neglected to fully charge your battery as part of the required procedure prior to selling you the vehicle. Same as not deflating the tires to the proper pressure, which has been reported here widely. The car can sit a long time in transit prior to getting to you and lead acid batteries self-discharge fairly quickly even in the absence of parasitic drain from the vehicle. If use of the truck started with the battery at a marginal state of charge, it is going to be very difficult to get it back to a fully charged state just with typical daily driving. Due to the inherent charging profile of lead acid chemistry batteries it would take many, many hours of driving to get it fully charged (12+). So unless you took a really long road trip when you first got the truck, it is likely your battery has never been at a full state of charge....
Now that it's gone dead once, it's likely going to happen again unless you use a battery charger to return it to a full state of charge.
I'd only had my LC FE about 2 weeks when @EOD Guy first reported his battery issues and it spurred me to check my battery and sure enough it was at only 12V... I fully charged the battery and haven't had any issues since and the battery's SOC has remained at acceptable levels since with only occasional use (2 or so times a week).

 

[jnsplace]

I just got back from a work trip where I was gone for 4 days, temps were in the teens. No problem with starting at Midnight at 15 deg.

???? Is this another one of those, only some have this as a concern?

 

[francis]

Little follow up,

After the first jumpstart on thursday, I left it running for about 1h30, did not try to start it on friday. Saturday, the battery was dead again and when I jumpstarted it, I got a check engine and a thousand error message on the screen.

I tried to charge it with a (pretty small) smart charger without sucess, maybe the battery was too low (3,7V) for the small charger, and it was not going over 5,5V while charging. Did not move a bit after about 15 hours. Jumpstarted without problem after that, kept running for about 2 hours.

On monday, I was able to start on its own power, check engine was gone, but still left it at the dealer to check code and the battery. Dealer said the battery was in bad shape and said they changed it for a stronger one. The check engine was normal for the problems I had with the battery.

This is what they installed from what I see on the invoice. I have not seen it in real yet! I will still check for parasite drain when the weather will be more friendly!

 

[handy]

I'm in a warmer climate and can go 3-4 days without driving and have not had this issue.