Batteries DEAD- this is not cool!

[MudNurI]

Time line for you all-

330pm- get ready to leave house, heading for The Big E in Springfield Ma, windows are down in D/A, so John puts them up, witht the help of brother in law. Brother in law hits the lights switch (how I don't know)..

1030pm- we arrive home to find our lights on in the D/A. VERY dim, but they are on. yup, battery dead.

doesn't this truck have some sort of "cut off " that would trip instead of killing the battery? Yes, we left the keys in ignition, but keys were not turned.

WHY OH WHY would a $45,000 truck not shut its lights off before the battery died?

WHY OH WHY would my brother in law be such an idiot?

Brandy :mad:

[mackin]

Brandy,


No, they don't have a cut off...GM opted as most do to the Auto on off feature...They figure if you "MANUALLY" turn them on you'all got to turn them off......

Charge the batteries and you be fine you may even see the "green eye" come back in a while.....We've all been there done this before.....

Now about your Brother in law...He the one with the Dodge????? LOL :rolleyes:

I'm not touching this with a ten foot pole....I bet you reamed him bad enough.

[NutNbutGMC]

^....Aftermarket gadget works well...

[ 09-22-2002: Message edited by: NutNbutGMC ]</p>

[car of the week]

Now i don't know if i am lucky or what, but the last three Silverado's i have owned all had the "run down protection." i have left the interior lights on many times and could still start the truck in the morning. One time i left them on for a week while on vacation, came back and the truck started like nothing happened. The interior lights just came back on and stayed on after i started the truck, that is how i figured out what happened.

[Maverick]

I always thought we had battery protection also. I have left the doors open and the dome light on all night and they shut off by themselves. My guess is this feature works only when the keys are completely out of the ignition. Even though the ignition was not on maybe the keys disable this feature. Anybody else?

[TopBanana 2500]

I was waiting for my carpool to arrive one morning in my '01, reading the newspaper and listening to the radio, and all of a sudden the interior light and the radio shut off (with the key in acc position)after about 15 min. It sounds to me like your vehicle should have done it's thing! I'd check your owners manual.

[MudNurI]

well, my K5 wouldnt jump it today, so we charged both batteries on low for an hour, and she started...

brother in law has been banned from 50 foot radius of truck. and no he's not the cummins owner, he has a couple suburbans.

going to check owners manual, other brother in law with a '01 2500hd 8.1/a has the run protect thing. I have the radio shut off but his will kill the batteries before they drain.

Brandy

[Kennedy]

Guess he didn't hear the chime???

[TXMAX]

Brandy,

If you only charged the batteries on low for an hour, you did not charge them enough. You will ultimately shorten thier useful life if you do not charge them completely. Low usually equates to a 2 amp charge and if you did it for an hour that is probably all you replaced but you had enough charge for for the engine to start in moderate temps... blah, blah I can go on forever. What you have unknowingly done is create the perfect breeding ground for large crystal lead sulfate (PbS04) growth on the battery plates and it will cover up the lead dioxide (Pb02) and that is the active plate material in the battery. The result is you can't access it (PbS04) and the battery just won't last as long or give up as much energy when it is cold. Bottomline here is that you need to fully recharge the batteries. There is a bunch more on this that I can go in to but I'm just trying to help you maxmize your batteries life without typing the Magna Carta.

Regards,

Abe

[NickLeinonen]

Guess he didn't hear the chime???

if you put the lights on, and roll the interior dimmer down all the way [to turn off the dash lamps] the chime will shut off, and with the dash lamps not on, it is easy to forget that the lights are on

*****edit*****
i've been getting spoiled over on the TDR & ford-diesel forums. their UBB code work... too bad they do not work here :(

[ 09-23-2002: Message edited by: NickLeinonen ]</p>

[mackin]

TOP


Are you sure about the ACC 15 min thing? I listen to my jukebox for hours waxing and such and it won't shut off.....If I sit in truck with key off, and don't open door , it will shut off in about 15 min, key in or not, but in the off position.....I'm pretty positive if you turn the lights on manually they will not shut off on a run down feature .....As the flashers will not do the same......Run down feature is when settings are in auto mode.......Key in out makes no difference I've noticed......Just my observations.....

MAC

[ 09-23-2002: Message edited by: mackin ]</p>

[TopBanana 2500]

Mack... I think your right on that, now that you got me thinking about it. It most likely WAS with the ignition in the OFF position. I think I put it in ACC. after the lights and radio went out.

[SS396]

I had the same problem this morning the key fob opened the door OK and the DRL lights came on bright, as soon as I turned on the key to warm the glow plugs everything went dead. The lights came back on very dim and of course not enough power to crank the engine. Now we are only talking about a truck with 800 miles on it.

A jump start did the trick, it seemed like it re-energized the system, and I was on my way. The batteries acted like they were at full power and I didn't have any problems the rest of the day.

Any ideas?