Dead As A Door Nail

[Cosmic Fall]

Morning All,

been on to this site a lot since I bought the IS and have found it very helpful, but it's time for my first post.

Anyway, got up this morning to come into work and found that the remote central locking wasn't working, so I got the spare key to try. Again, no response.

I opened the drivers door using the key and attempted to start the engine - Nothing, I mean no lights, didn't turnover, nothing.

Now I assume this is a dead Battery and will get one of the lads over with jump leads tonight, but the car has only been idle since Sunday evening and the Battery meter was showing 3/4 then.

Is there any reason that the Battery would drain so quickly, and given that it has, is it safe to try jump leads?

Cheers!

(PS. Lights were not left on)

[adrian71]

sounds like a dead Battery, if its dead it wont take a charge but worth a try i suppose with leads or try charging it if you have a Battery charger, youll soon know if its not charging!

[sparkystav]

I had the same other week, it was a dead Battery, Have you fitted anything electrical lately? could be a short somewhere. Or maybe Alternators gone and not been charging the Battery during use.

Stav

[Cosmic Fall]

Thanks folks,

nothing new added.

If the the altenator is gone I'll be surprised coz I've had no problems at all starting it until today, and the Battery meter has always read a healthy voltage.

Gonna give the jump leads a shot and pray nothing explodes

Cheers!

[Lexus Gaz]

Car batteries can just die with no warning whatsoever. usually one cell goes open circuit.

If the car starts with a jump look at your volt guage if its showing a voltage of about 14 or so the altenator is working fine and it is defiinitly the Battery.

Another thing I've had before is loose connections or dirty connections. This can cause the car to have no power at all. check the clamps are not coroded and are tight enough. hope i've been a help!

[Noel]

Hi and welcome :)

how old is the Battery?

regards jump starting, don't just connect up Battery terminal to Battery terminal, put the negative to ground somewhere chunky ;)

[ibby]

most likley the batt..

even tho it shows a healthy voltage

try cranking it . and see what voltage it shows ;)

[Cosmic Fall]

Thanks for all the help,

jump worked a treat and it started again first time this morning.

The voltage is reading around 12 so it seems okay all round.

I have a 400 Mile round trip at the weekend so I think I'll pop into an Advanced Pitstop this afternoon to get them to check out the Battery, just to be safe

BTW as soon as I connected the leads the alarm went off and the the centre light in the cabin came on, so i'm thinking either that light was left on (dorr not closed properly?) or the alarm went off and ran down the Battery.

Thanks Again,

CF

[sparkystav]

glad you got it sorted mate, if the light came on in the cabin, thats probably the cause of the problem, check its selected to "door" not "on".

The alarm should go off when you reconnect to stop anyone trying to disconnect the Battery and reconnecting to nick the car. (ie its lost power so thinks the batterys gone, then when you jump it, its got power again so it goes off)

Thirdly 12v's? is that on the dash display? if it is its a bit low, it should be around 14v when the cars running so prob get the Battery checked.

Stav

[Cosmic Fall]

Quick Update:

All seems fine.

Brought it to a garage, and it's holding the charge fine.

Cheers!

CF