Battery Dead, Lights Flashing

[RichardT]

Neighbour came knocking on the door tonight, says the lights on the car are doing weird things. I go out, and they are, rear lights and at the front, flashing between high beam and the fogs .... not bright, just dim like there's not much power. And there's not either, not enough power to open the doors by remote, or turn over the engine. So I've disconnected the battery, but now what?

I've looked at this post http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/343588-possessed-lights/page__p__5540346__hl__battery__fromsearch__1#entry5540346

but today has been one of the driest, sunniest days here in Melb for a long time, and there's not even a hint of moisture in the battery compartment. I didn't have the car today, my wife was using it, but it doesn't sound like she was doing anything unusual with it, certainly been no warning lights on recently.

I'm presuming it will go again with a jump start, once the RACV get here, but any ideas as to the cause? It's an '04 300GT sedan.

Cheers,

Richard

[Chris Rogers]

new battery for a start. they are data driven and once teh battery diesthe CAN system goes into no mans land and has a freak out session.

start there and forget a jump start.

[RichardT]

new battery for a start. they are data driven and once teh battery diesthe CAN system goes into no mans land and has a freak out session.

start there and forget a jump start.

Thanks Chris, will do.

Is battery death in these always that sudden, or should there have been other signs?

[Chris Rogers]

there is not a science to it.

IF you are lucky the car will be slow to start otherwise it will simply die. average life of a battery is 2-3 years at best. if in doubt - change it.

[TUFF_350]

Just curious,

i changed my battery last week and read you needed to make sure the windows were all the way down before disconnecting...why?

Edited March 29, 2011 by TUFF_350

[MadMike]

So when the car comes back to life it 'knows' where the windows are. You know that little automatic adjustment your car does when the door closes? Yeah you need to reset that.

Put window down, put window up and hold the up button for three seconds at the top, put the window back down. You should be good.

[VNS 24]

Just curious,

i changed my battery last week and read you needed to make sure the windows were all the way down before disconnecting...why?

So when the car comes back to life it 'knows' where the windows are. You know that little automatic adjustment your car does when the door closes? Yeah you need to reset that.

Put window down, put window up and hold the up button for three seconds at the top, put the window back down. You should be good.

So that process of "put window down, put window up and hold the up button for three seconds at the top, put the window back down" is after disconnecting and connecting it back?

[TUFF_350]

So when the car comes back to life it 'knows' where the windows are. You know that little automatic adjustment your car does when the door closes? Yeah you need to reset that.

Put window down, put window up and hold the up button for three seconds at the top, put the window back down. You should be good.

Hmmm cant say i did that exact procedure,

but as far as i can tell windows go up/down fine and still do that lil kick at the end.

[RichardT]

Well I got the RACV to jump start it this morning anyway. Seems like the fog lights had been switched on accidentally, which obviously did the battery draining trick. Guy said the battery was still very healthy, so I'll just leave it and keep an eye on it for now.