What Happens Ater Battery Dies

[reza_hoque]

I was parked up about an hour today with all my lights on listening to the radio without th engine on. after 1 hr the IS200 wouldnt start. the Battery had died. so i waited for my mate to come and jump start me. he was gonna be an hour. i waited bout 15mins and then thought id try to start the car again and guess what it almost started. 5 mins later it was fine.

SO STRANGE....does anyone know if the IS has some sort of self charging facility? what happened to my car??

[IanB]

Hi. I'm sure the IS doesn't have a re-charging facility, but it's not unusual for a car Battery to recover like this once you switch off the power drain. Not sure of the chemistry behind it, but I guess your Battery must be in reasonable nick, and hence it has the ability to recover slightly like this.

Might be worth removing and cleaning the Battery terminals, just to make sure there is a good connection.

Motto of the tale is not to keep your lights on so long!

Cheers,

IanB :D

[Mr Morse]

It's surprising how quickly a Battery will discharge for example with just the dome light left on overnight.

[IanB]

Yes. I had a quirk about 3 weeks ago with my IS300 SC which has left me perplexed.

After not using my car all day, I went out late in the evening and fired it up. I only ran it on idle for about 10 seconds, then turned it off (I was turning the wheel to inspect the front tyre). Next morning I went to start it, and the engine turned over really sluggishly, as if the Battery was half dead. After a great deal of apparently slow winding (30 seconds-ish), it eventually struggled into life, and after a drive it was fine. Haven't had a problem before or since, even though there have been much colder days. No lights had been left on overnight, not even the interior light.

There have been several days since this incident when the car has only been driven a couple of miles each day, yet the Battery has never failed to start the engine fine, despite being parked outside.

It was as though the brief start-up had some major effect on the Battery, and/or the ability of the engine to start. Perhaps it didn't reset the auto choke in some way, although that doesn't explain why the Battery seemed to turn the engine over slowly.

Any theories anyone?

IanB

[IanB]

Ah! Just remembered, the steering was on full left lock at the time. Could the power steering have affected it?

[Parthiban]

I was parked up about an hour today with all my lights on listening to the radio without th engine on. after 1 hr the IS200 wouldnt start. the battery had died. so i waited for my mate to come and jump start me. he was gonna be an hour. i waited bout 15mins and then thought id try to start the car again and guess what it almost started. 5 mins later it was fine.

SO STRANGE....does anyone know if the IS has some sort of self charging facility? what happened to my car??

This happened after just an hour? I've done that loads of times and not had any trouble, even left that light above the rear view mirror on overnight once, and still no problems.....