another dead battery story

2273 Views 11 Replies 8 Participants Last post by DESIREE, Nov 23, 2005

jmk

Discussion Starter · Nov 21, 2005

Left town on Saturday and wife calls me on Sunday saying she tried to start the SRT8 but the battery was dead. I got back Sunday afternoon and there was just enough juice in the battery to make the instrument panel lights flicker - not even a dome light. Put the charger on it for 10 hours overnight and in the morning the starter was barely able to crank the engine over, but it did start. Since it was started I ran it over to the dealer. They measured an 800 milliamp draw on the battery with the ignition off, but it went away after they opened and closed all the doors. The service manager speculates that it might have been a door switch stuck - but not enough to engage the dome light. Sounds quite speculative....

Anyway, their check on the battery indicated no problem there, I drove off...

Now I wait and see if it happens again.

Save

1 - 1 of 12 Posts

II kings 9:20

· #3 · Nov 22, 2005

DESIREE said:
I like that word "speculative". About covers anything they can't put their finger on. And the part about not engaging the dome light! What is that???

800 milliamps might be about what (1) interior bulb would draw, but the door switches, at least in my car, turn on like a half dozen bulbs!

I am going to go with the idea that I proposed with someone else's dead battery mystery: the trunk lid wasn't fully closed enough to flick the switch and turn off the trunk light. My theory has yet to be proved or disproved, but it is (in my mind anyway) definitely a strong possibility. Either the switch (which is mounted in the latch mechanism in the trunk lid) is touchy, or the trunk lid wasn't fully closed. While exploring for the problem you/they may have inadvertently solved the problem by closing the trunk. Or maybe when they measured the 800 ma. they had the trunk open without removing the bulb or snapping the trunk latch to its closed position. NAH!
If you can, leave one of the back seat backrests in the down position so that any light in the trunk compartment can be easily seen.

What he said.

Save

1 - 1 of 12 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month