Parking Car When Away For A Few Weeks

[rondofj]

Ok so just sharing my experiences here...please add your comments as you like..

So last year I went away overseas on a holiday for 5 weeks and parked my Skyline at my cousin sister's. Didnt tell her to start / drive it weekly. It was alarmed and immobilised when I left it.

When I got back the battery had died and I had to jump-start it with her car and then it came to life, left it running for 5 mins when I should have actually taken it for a drive to charge it up..

Went upstairs to get some coffee and have a bit of a chat..back downstairs and the battery is dead again, so I jump-start it again and drive off home 10mins away. The next day I was lucky to start it

and immediately drove off to get a new bigger battery with bigger terminals and more cranking amps. All good.

This year I go off to Europe for 5 weeks and leave my car again at my sister's, alarmed and immobilised. She starts it once a week and leaves it running for 10ish minutes. On the fourth week the dashboard lights dim

and the engine turns but wont start. She tries again, same thing. Leaves it and arms the alarm. The next day the alarm led is dead too and absolutely nothing happens when she turns the key in the ignition - the on, acc, start

does NOTHING.

I arrive back to find it like that. I get her car and 2 jumper cables cos the batteries are far apart. then I 'jump' the batteries with the two cables joined together, I notice her end of the cable in her car is HOT and smoking after a minute or two

of revving her engine. Something shorted somewhere. I try to start my car. NOTHING happens. Few attempts at jump-starting. Nothing. On, acc, start does nothing. Completely dead. Rush off to get a new replacement battery.

Same deal, nothing happens when I turn key in ignition. Headlights and horn work though. Hazards and ignition on/acc/start dosent. I scratch my head in a rage. I realise its a fuse somewhere, after testing/pulling out the fuses under the steering wheel,

they all appear good. In the engine bay fuses, theres absolutely zero Volts in every fuse when it should be 12.6V. So I sort of think its either the earth grounding is screwed or the fuse(s) as the fuse box cannot get power at all. Cant figure out how to test it???

Get a mobile technician in. He tests and finds the 80A alternator fuse blown which he says is the result of my shorting it when I tried to jump-start the car and got the polarity screwed up or something.

A new fuse comes in. Car starts. Me happy... lol what an experience.............

[rondofj]

So how do you guys leave your car when away for a few weeks?? Do you remove the battery or what?? I had a Prelude in NZ which had an alarm and immobiliser and I left it like that (didnt remove battery) for 5 weeks at a time for 4 years and nothing ever went wrong....confused..

[interfooler]

If I am away for more than 3 weeks, I disconnect the battery negative terminal.

[rondofj]

sweet, do you find it still has at least 12V when you get back?

[emts]

My S14 normally gets started once a month, (track days)And never had a problem that's with alarm armed and battery in car, has smallest car battery I could find as well.

My ford gets started maybe every 3 months or so it has battery disconnected, reconnect and starts first time.

not left my Ute more than 3 weeks between starts but no problems charge.

So I would guess you have something draining your battery.

Do you have amps? back when I ran cars with stereo's the amps would slowly kill batteries even when the car powered off. (they did have triggers to the head unit) but they have power connected straight from battery and would put some drain on it.

just a thought

[interfooler]

sweet, do you find it still has at least 12V when you get back?

hmm.. I don't bother measuring the volts but engine starts straight up and everything runs fine so I supposed the battery is healthy.

[Ant97GTR]

In both my R33 skylines that I've owned I could put a new battery in it and after about 3 months if I don't drive it on a weekly basis the battery goes flat. During the first 3 months no matter if I didn't drive it for weeks on end it would still start. Considering I don't drive it much I got sick of this and bought a trickle charger and no issues since. Skylines are renound for this.

If you can't do the trickle charger then do what is suggested above and isolate (disconn) the battery

[rondofj]

Aaaah no, I dont have any amps or woofers, got rid of them ages ago, just have a normal Pioneer single DIN CD player which dosent work now (blew a fuse when I shorted the battery/circuits??)..dont have any fancy electronic gadgets on car

[gotRICE?]

I went to the states for 4 months in 2008 and 2009, just took the terminals off the battery.

Put them back on, and it started as per normal.

[mad082]

i have a crappy old VH commodore that just sits in the yard and never gets driven other than to move it to mow the law (when i could be bothered to move it). it normally takes about 30 seconds or so of turning over to start. i used to disconnect the battery but then i got lazy and stopped doing it. i just recharge the battery about once a year with a charger, but other than that i think the longest i left it was about 3 months without starting the car and i was surprised that it still started. but it has no alarm or anything like that.

[jiffo]

Something is slowly draining the battery, my guess is the alarm siren internal battery.

[Al Despo]

Ive been away for 10 weeks on a eurotrip, still have two more to go and I was actually wondering what would be the go with my 34, I left it with my grandad and he would crank it every week. He hasnt said its gone dead so must be all good

[ian]

I used to leave my r34 for a couple of months at a time while I traveled - and never had a problem once I figured out what to do..

I got one of these - http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MB3501 - and hard wired it in ie do NOT put it in your cigarette lighter as that isn't connected to the battery when you take the keys out! I just put a little socket up under the dash, with a matching plug on the charger, and last thing I did was to put the charger on the dash in between the glass and sun shade, carefully parking the car pointing north..

It started every time I got back with no problems. Mind you, if I was going for more than 3 months I parked at a friends place so he could take it for a drive once a month.

And yes to one of the post above, it is the alarm that normally draws the most power, assuming you don't have a problem (I measured mine back then, but cant' remember the number).

Ian

[sydking]

Trickle charger, mines been flat for 5 months now, And i have a calcuim batterty? the cheap loin ones, And they need to be chagerd properly you cant jumper cable then drive to charge it.

[adamskill]

So last year I went away overseas on a holiday for 5 weeks and parked my Skyline at my cousin sister's.

your cousins sister is still you cousin.

[rondofj]

Maybe you can't read properly adam, I said 'cousin sister' not cousin's sister.. Go to school you poofter! lol !! seriously..jokin