[lmhoward]

This morning I hit the unlock button on the key and....nothing. Well the key's battery is almost gone so...open manually. Open the door, waiting for the alarm.....nothing. No alarm, no interior lights, nothing. Dead, dead, totally dead! The surprising part is I went to the theater, dinner, met with friends, you know, weekend stuff. No indication that the battery was even weak.
Being ambi-auto, I pulled the beater up and hooked up the jumper cables. I idled connected for 2 or 3 minutes and tried the 300. Click. Not several, one click. Sat in the beater 5 minutes at 2000 rpm and tried again. Clicky click click. WTF!!! In all I had the 300 connected for 15 minutes and I FAILED. Maybe its like in the princess bride, you remember, dead but not totally dead. Put it on my charger for 15 minutes, crap, I don't have time to **** around. Took the battery to Western Auto and they checked and told me it was time for a transplant. Put the new $$$ sucker in and she started right up. We'll see tomorrow if it really was the battery or something else.
What really surprises me is not that the battery only lasted 4 years, but that it gave no signs before sudden, total death. Never, never have I been surprised like this. No dim lights, slow cranking. Heck, the EVIC tells me that its charging (13.9 to 14.1) Any one else have a like failure? Time to put the stock tune in, just in case.