I have an 05 TL which I bought 3/05. I left the vehicle in long term parking for 7 days. When I returned the battery was totally dead. I'm taking the car in to have it checked....but the service advisor said this could be normal since there is so much electronic gear in these cars that the battery will sometimes get drained after 7 days or so of sitting.

I don't believe him.

First, I have zero after market equipment. I also checked the vehicle very carefully before I left it and all doors were locked and the alarm was activated. It was at night and I checked to make sure no lights were left on.

After jumping the car and punching in all those codes, I also checked to see if someone may have tried to break into the car. There was no evidence of an attempted forced entry.

This must be a defective battery, unless you guys can think of another reason for this situation. This happened yesterday. The drive home was 90 minutes so the battery re-charged. I used the car today and it started without a problem.

Does someone know how good the mechanics are at diagnosing a defective battery? I'm afraid they're going to say it checks out fine and that I must have left a light on. I swear I didn't.

I need to go on another 7 day trip in July and I don't want to return to another dead battery. Thanks.

 

See if your car's VIN is part of this TSB 05-029: Product Update: DTC B1161 with O/S Air Temp --- or Intermittent Dead Btry

 

Thanks for the reply. My VIN does start with 19UUA6 but it ends in 5A081082. That would seem to put it past the VIN #'s involved, unless I'm mis-reading the VIN's involved.

But I have also had the "lost hands free link icon from subdisplay" which is a symptom of the problem mentioned in this service bulletin.

I will bring a copy of the bulletin with me. Thanks again.

 

Please report back what they found wrong with your car. Thanks.

 

I got my 05 TL back and the specialist said the problem was fixed. He said my hands-free system wasn't "going to sleep". Apparently, even after the engine was shut-off and the car was locked, the hands-free system was drawing small amounts of power from the battery.

The amount of the draw was so small that the car could be left overnight (13+ hours) and the battery still had plenty of power to start the car the next day.

However, when I left the car unused for 7 days, while on my trip, the total draw was enough to completely drain the battery. They replaced part of the hands-free system and I'm told the problem should be fixed.

I think a clue to them was that I had lost the hands-free telephone icon on the upper dashboard display. This suggested that something was wrong with that part of the system. Thanks.