Battery Running Down Because Wheel Is Off?

[bplaney]

I have had my GS jacked up overnight with the wheel, rotor and caliper disconnected. Nothing on in the interior, trunk closed, headlights off.

Something has been draining my battery - I could not activate the door locks with my remote key, and the manual cabin light is a dim glow.

Does the removal of these items introduce a drain on the battery?

[bplaney]

I have had my GS jacked up overnight with the wheel, rotor and caliper disconnected. Nothing on in the interior, trunk closed, headlights off.

Something has been draining my battery - I could not activate the door locks with my remote key, and the manual cabin light is a dim glow.

Does the removal of these items introduce a drain on the battery?

Well, I figured it out. How stupid!!!

Following the advice of a tutorial I found online, I put the car into 2nd gear after jacking it up for safety reasons. Little did I know that the car - even with no key in it - views being in second gear as some kind of special state that constantly requires it to sip energy from the battery. And to make it worse, I forgot that I had put it in 2nd gear, and I ended up buying a new battery without ever having given mine a fair test. Mine was traded in. I had wondered why the door locks were not responding normally to the key (I had to manually lock the car, it would not let me lock it electronically).

I kept trying to start it with the shifter in 2nd gear, and I concluded the difficulty was due to the battery, not the fact that (of course) the car is not going to let me start it in 2nd gear!!! On the plus side, the old battery was almost 4 years old and was just a 3 year battery. But there had been NO indication at all of impending failure before I did this project. The car started strong all the time... I described the situation for the salesman, but of course I had forgotten to mention the 2nd gear thing - he did not know what could have drained it this way.

So many pitfalls... you try to save a buck doing a hard job yourself, and you end up giving it back in some other way due to intellectual sloppiness...

[eatingupblacktop]

So many pitfalls... you try to save a buck doing a hard job yourself, and you end up giving it back in some other way due to intellectual sloppiness...

You really have to worry once you find yourself spending a half hour looking everywhere for a wrench you already have in your hand! :chairshot:

[bplaney]

So many pitfalls... you try to save a buck doing a hard job yourself, and you end up giving it back in some other way due to intellectual sloppiness...

You really have to worry once you find yourself spending a half hour looking everywhere for a wrench you already have in your hand! :chairshot:

Love your avatar - that's the cover of "Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop"! (with some Photoshop work on the sign in the background...) I just saw Jeff Beck perform a week ago near Dallas. Best guitarist on the planet - and he's better than ever at 65 years old!