gldman

I came back from vacation last night and my Battery was dead.
The dealer told me to get a battery tender or disconnect my battery (the negative end) if I was going away for more than 3 days. Is this crazy? The car was fine after the longer Christmas vacation. I travel about 5 times a year for about 10 days each time. Does anyone have any suggestions to avoid this dead battery problem. The only good news is after the battery was recharged my outside temperature gauge started working again.
Thanks for any battery suggestions?

caball88

i've read another person saying this already but i think its rediculous. no car should have to have their battery disconnected if left alone for 3 days. they are giving you the run around i think and you should not accept this answer.

orange_peel

When I bought my TL, the dealer had a TL w/Navi in the showroom with a dead battery. The battery was dead when I first visited the dealer and was still there two weeks later. There must be some intermittent issue with the battery draining like that.

Tripp11

Definitely giving you the runaround just like they were giving the other forum poster (a lady who was widowed) the runaround. On all of your other previous cars did you leave your car unattended for a prolonged period of time and it was fine? Thought so.

Ask to talk to the service manager and just tell him to use his/her common sense - a car's battery shouldn't go dead after three days if everything is ok with the car.

Tripp11

I could understand one on a showroom floor...people hop in and out of those things all the time and leave the doors open or turn on the lights....play with switches. So, if that vehicle with the interior lights and exterior lights being turned on and off is not being driven regularly, sure the battery would go dead sooner.

gldman

I had this problem on older Maximas. Nissan finally recognized the problem and my 00 and 04 Maximas did not have the problem. The guy from Acura roadside service said this is a common problem on the new TL and since he does the BMW roadside service as well he told me the new BMW 7 series has the worst problem with drained batteries. In fact the BMW road calls keep him busy all day.

Tread

I know someone who has the 7 series, and was with them when thier battery died, the svc mgr at BMW said they have a problem where the electronics do not time out and do not go into a "sleep mode" that conserves electricity.

They have since replace the control module in that 7 series and all is fine, possibly it is the same thing in the TL.

I have had my car unstarted for a few weeks and all is fine.

Formula 350

Your battery should not die in 3 days unless there is something wrong with the battery.

I was working in NY for awhile and only came home once a month. Both of my cars had NO problems with battery sitting around for 30 days, and sometimes 60 days.