[sebastianrg]

I left the reading light on for a day, and it obviously drain the battery. So I try to started with jumper cables no response at all, completely dead. AAA came and no response at all even with their equipment and knowledge. When the car is connected with the jumper cables nothing responds no lights no radio nothing. The only suggestion from AAA was that a fuse that goes where you connect the battery was broken, is in a little box connected to the battery right where is connected to the car. Does anyone have any idea what this could be and if its something easy to solve like buy the part in aoutoparts or if is something that only the dealer can solve? Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[retepsnikrep]

Do the interior lights work when the jumper battery is attached?

Sounds like a blown fuse link under bonnet.

Try a different good battery fitted rather than jumped.

 

[sebastianrg]

no, nothing in the car responds when the jumper battery is attached?
if its the fuse how complicated is that?
thaks

Do the interior lights work when the jumper battery is attached?

Sounds like a blown fuse link under bonnet.

Try a different good battery fitted rather than jumped.[/QUOTE]

 

[egads]

You might start by looking through the owner's manual, looking at fuses and their location. Sounds like some main fuse that would usually be under the hood. You can check fuses (removed) with a continuity tester. If you have a volt tester with a dial that has selections, continuity is often one of them. I imagine a auto parts store would have large main fuses.

 

[AbCaRed00]

[delete. woops.. missed its a 2nd gen]

... but, appears you've missed the point to physically disconnect the dead 12v battery from the car and reconnect to a good known 12V battery. You can do it with jumper cables.
[vs. trying to jump it in place _thru_ a possibly heavily sulphated 12v PbA battery or corroded connections].
Have your car's battery load tested after a full re-charge to assess it's capacity before getting a new one. All that may be required is some steel wool shining up the contact terminals and ground connections.

 

[egads]

Thanks for the pdf, but this is the second generation forum, the pdf is for the first. (although there may be similarities)

 

[Cobb]

Where are you or the car located? Is it a gen 1 or gen 2? Do you have any aftermarket electrical parts like a sub woofer, navigation, cb or ham radio?

When the jumper cables are connected do the horn, flashers work? Those are fused to the positive cable. THe positive cable has 5 fuses made into it including a 100 amp one that goes to the car, then 4 smaller ones for a few of the above mentioned items. Pull ff the red cover, the fuses are under it and I believe made into the positive terminal, but you can see if they are broken/blown.

Have they tried disconnecting the ground and using the jumper ground to take the battery out of the loop?

Worse to worse, have AAA tow it to the dealer. If you are local Id look at it for you.

 

[10InsightFred]

This car will 'disconnect' the battery if voltage drops to a certain point. Running an accessory i.e., radio or lights w/o the engine running will shut it down.

Deep cycling a battery is not good, the car recognizes this and will shut down the start cycle.

I sometimes think this car is too smart for its own good and controls me more than I do it.

 

[Cobb]

Interesting..... Must be a new "feature"? The older ones will go til its dead. Basically you go out to your car and the keyfobe doesnt work. You unlock the door with the key and it will only open your door, not the rest. The power lock button is useless. The dash does not lite up either. Then, for no reaso or warning your horn starts to honking and you hear some clicking from the dash area.

You come to the conclusion the alarm just went off and the keyfobe is again useless. You turn it off by inserting your key to the ignition and try to start the car. THe alarm goes off and you see faintly the various idiot lights lite up and constant messages appearing on the tv screen and boing noises.

 

[10InsightFred]

There is a whole section in the service manual on Immobilizer System. It starts with the ignition key. If the key is not recognized or becomes inop, the car won't start. Just to the left of the water temp icon, which is to the left of the long sweep charging dial, in the dash, a key icon will flash when the ignition is turned to 'on'. This icon flash recognizes the key and then supplies fuel pump voltage. If you don't see the flash, the car will not start.

When I moved from GA to WV I removed the park light bulbs in the car except for the LED tail lights and towed the car with the park light switch on. When I got the car off the tow dolly, it would not start. I jumped it, but would not start again after shutting it down. Until I put the bulbs back in, the car would not restart w/o a jump.

I was at a friends house one day. We sat outside and listened to my car radio with the doors opened. 90 minutes later, the car would not start w/o a jump.

It's all about protecting the cars' (smaller) battery from going into a deep cycle discharge. The car will not allow this. I've not found anything in the book on the car 'disconnecting' the start circuit if the battery is low, but I know from first hand experience my car does that.

 

[Cobb]

Must be a new feature (TM). I guess the lights thing is part of the automatic lights system? Ours is the old fashion one that you got to turn off and on and if you leave it on it will drain the battery.

I have a dummy key, it will let me do everything but crank the engine. When I turn the ignition on I get a blinking green key symbol on the dash.

 

[wkmiller]

Disconnect the negative terminal form the battery and try jumping the car with the battery disconnected by clamping the negative jumper cable to the engine and the positive to the battery postive post.

If it works then a Battery cell shorted and Battery will have to be overhauled to remove the short or replaced.

 

[wkmiller]

Thanks for the pdf, but this is the second generation forum, the pdf is for the first. (although there may be similarities)

I guy on Ebay is selling both the 2010/2011 Service and Electrical Manual as a PDF for $9.90, I bought a set so can vouch for it. Look up item# 111068970928.
or Seller delasoula.

 

[wkmiller]

I've not found anything in the book on the car 'disconnecting' the start circuit if the battery is low.

It's there they just don't say it that plainly....See page 4-5 , Start at step
7. Which is to power "OFF" the IMA battery
8. Set the parking brake , put shift lever in nuetral or park.

Then it asks does the Starter crank the engine normally?

So, it thens tells you to go to step 17 , but you can skip that step cause the HIM wasn't used......

18. Tells you to Turn the IMA Battery back "ON"

19...Here is the spoil alert! "If the IMA Battery level indicator displays no level,
start the engine and hold the engine speed between 3,500 and 4,000 rpm with no load in P or N until the level in the indicator is half full.....

So if the IMA Battery doesn't report a good voltage , system won't start unless it is taken out of the loop in Step 7......