Battery Dead after 8 days sitting the garage
 

I have a 2010 manual 370z. The car has 3,000 miles. Original factory battery. I left the car in my garage while out of town, so it sat for 8 days without being started. When I returned the battery was so dead that the dashboard would not light. I verified that I didn't leave anything on (light headlights...etc). I took the battery out and headed to walmart to let them check if the battery was good or not...they came back and said the battery was fine just needed to be charged. Took the battery home put it back in car and the car started right up.

Anyone know what would be causing the battery to go dead? I find it hard to believe that you can't sit the car for 8 days without the battery going dead.

My car is not my daily driver and has sat for up to 15 days with no battery issues. This is definitely not right.

I once stepped out of the car, closed the door and the radio was still on....
Turns out I had accidentally double tapped the engine stop button when turning it off and it ended up in the Accessory position...Just a thought..

Something had to be on for it to completely drain..

qft, this has happened to me before, but i caught it. this would be a likely scenario.

take off the battery cables next time, that's what i do with most of my cars when i leave, i never had any problems, just give the keys to someone who you trust and tell them to turn the car on every 2 weeks if you leaving it for a long time.

This.

I accidentally did the double-tap and while the engine was off, the car was still in accessory mode so my dash and instrument panel was lit, ac was blowing, and the radio was on. I think I came back to the car after an hour or so. :shakes head:

Battery water level
 

Another interesting note...

When I removed the battery the water level in some of the cells was low...

Wondering if that would cause the battery to lose juice...

defective battery maybe?

ive left my car for 1 months when my son was born and it started right up.

My 2010 Pathfinder did the same thing right after it was purchased. I put it on a slow charger and brought it back up to full and have not had the issue since.

My 370Z regularly sits for a week at a time without being started and I have not seen this happen.

Keep an eye on it, my H2 came from the dealership with a dead cell in the battery and left me stranded less than 1 month after purchase.

E

I am not too impressed with the battery that came with my new Z. I had to boost it up twice in my first 2 months of ownership. The 2nd time, the dealership ran a check and said battery was OK. Granted mine is a roadster,with the added drain playing around the power top; this factory battery appears not to hold the charge too well esp with my daily driving being fairly short distances ( less than 10 kms ) each time on my daily commutes.
The first time it happen was after a week of ownership and I attributed that to having left it in the ACC. position; as I was in a hurry getting to work and then finding the battery almost dead 9 hours later.

i'm pretty sure that after certain amount of time with inactivity, the car turns off in ACC mode.

My battery has been fine, even with 2 week trips. There is no reason a battery can't sit a month or more and still hold a charge. I do a lot of boating, and the boat batteries (just car batteries) sit for very long periods when I can't get to the boat. No issues.

On a side note, it seems the hot weather has been killing car batteries in Chicago left and right. Had to jump my wife's car last week, a co-worker's battery just died, and my doorman said that three people have asked him for jumper cables this week as well.

Unless your car is going to be in storage or sitting for a long time (6 months+) is no need for that.

Going to Watch It
 

My plan is to just watch it the next couple of days and see what happens. With the car placed in the ON position and not running the battery gauge reads roughly 13v. Once the car is started the battery gauge reads roughly 14v. I drove it around today and it seems to be doing just fine...holding steady at 14v all over town. I'm in Texas and we are having 100+ degree days so I'm thinking that might have added to the battery stress.

Question...sorry for going off topic a bit but I wanted to ask...

After the car starts up all my gauge needles peg out then go back to normal (this is with the car sitting still) ...it looks cool so I'm hoping this is for show. To my knowledge this has always occurred since I bought the car. Is this correct that its just for show?

yeah when the battery dies;)

yeah its meant to do that. Alot of cars do that now.

+1 on the double tap

The radio was definately left on. How do I know? Because I did it myself.:ugh2: Only difference is, I came back to my car 45 mins later to see my damn stereo on.

I've left my Z in the garage while I was on a 2 week trip to Australia. Came back abd it started right up. Sounds like you inadvertently left ACC on

How did you open the car with a dead battery? My windows do a slight 1/8 inch movement down every time I open or close the door. Did any rubber part was damaged from opening the door without lowering the windows down?

I was polishing mine all day on saturday a week or two ago and the car definitely shuts down after an hour or so. I know this because I had to keep turning it back on. Might be a 2010 improvement...

K

but when you accidentally do this and you lock your doors/set alarm doesnt it turn everything off?

first thing i did when i got home after purchase was charge the battery at 2amps... it took over 18hrs to float. the battery while sitting at the dealer was low.

i only motor my G and Z on the weekends... during the week i use a battery manager/tender. it's cheap (amazon has them) and worth every penny.

also during the 3month hibernation it's plugged in. :)

Amazon.com: Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger: Automotive

According to the manual, page 3-10, the car will turn off power after 60 minutes when the switch is in ACC, all doors are closed, and for 7AT, the transmission is in Park.

So it shouldn't run down the battery to leave it in ACC.

Sure it will. As long as the battery is connected there is residual draw. Go long enough and you'll be dead.

True enough, but I think we were talking about in a week.

A bad battery, or one not fully charged can deplete in a week Used to happen to the Corvette guys ALL the time..

Got out of mine just the other night, it was beeping at me. I thought it was off but the data screen was showing "Key not in car". I must have double-tapped the start button when shutting it off, no other explanation.

Maybe mine is still new (to me), but I always wait and listen to the turbine wind down sounds it makes after shutting it off :D

Just for the sake of troubleshooting and TSBs, my Z also died after about a week of non-use sitting outside... and while, for now, I'll take the blame as user error, I have never left anything "on" in my car for as long as I've owned a vehicle.

I've accidentally left one of my ceiling lights on before. Luckily only over night. My car is sitting in my garage for 16 days in Cali right now while I'm visiting my folks in CT. I'm anticipating no issues at all.

The dead battery bug hit my Z last month. Turned out it was due to an internal short in one of the cells.The battery was an oem.
Those things happen sometimes.

Since we're on the topic, and this JUST happened to me... what the f size are the nuts on the battery connectors??? 3/8 is too small and 7/16 is too big. My Z is going to waste away in its damn parking space...

All japanese cars use metric bolts and nuts. I believe it is 10mm.

:iagree: 10mm and 14mm are popular sizes for most metric applications.

my King does not approve of this blasphemy. But thanks :)

was this ever resolved OP? I have an 09 370zed with similar issues but even stranger... A few weeks ago my navi unit freaked and stopped working, will only cycle on the opening nissan logo, radio stopped working and AC stuck on high. Dealership is replacing entire navi unit under warranty but had to order the parts which takes 3 weeks. Last week my battery drained and I had it towed to the dealership, they replaced battery. I picked up car today and went for a drive just now and noticed the battery voltage drop from 14.5v to 14v on a short ~5 mile drive??? I am going to drop the car at the dealership friday and tell them I want a loaner until the navi unit is fixed so they can figure out whatever the problem is...

you have to drive considerably at higher rpm for the battery to recharge. 5mile trip is hardly enough to charge the battery... in fact, it will drain it.

i put my dd on a battery manager every weekend as my commute is only 11-12 miles one way. it's not enough to have a healthy charge. i will add im on a 8yr old original battery and started up fine in -2F weather. :p i do add distilled water from time to time (once every 3yrs) when the cells show a dip in level.

Do you have anything plugged into your OBDII port? If so that drains the battery.

OK I'll drive my car to work and back tomorrow ~70 miles and won't be shy with the rpms