Dead Battery after 1 Week of No Driving!
 

Wow! I was detailing my car last week and went to access the interior only to experience a completely dead battery! I had less than 725 miles and always lock the doors - even in the garage... but forgot to lock it one night.

I couldn't even close the door without the window going up above the normal seal and required a call to roadside assistance and then off to the dealers service center. Resulting in a 45 min drive, letting the car idol for another 30 mins and the technician not finding any issues with the battery - it appeared to function within the specifications and tolerances. Not sure they did a load test or checked the alternator.

Plus, I noticed the release to the back seat on the drivers side is totally falling off and is of course a special order.

Pretty typical with newer cars and all the gadgets and stuff in them. They draw power even when the car is off. Invest in a Battery Tender if your car will sit for over a week at a time to cover yourself. I always have used them myself on my weekend cars...

Thanks for the tip. I guess this is why Chevy offers a 110V battery charger. :cool:

Wonder if this is why my dealer bothered to put one in my 1LT LOL. I'm on vacation now so I'll find out if have the same issue July 4. If I'd known we have a low power mode on these cars I would've turned it on before leaving town.

Something is wrong. I let my car sit for five weeks and it starts fine. You have a parasitic drain somewhere or a bad battery

As I understand the V6 has a stronger battery than the SS (or maybe proportionally stronger related to power required to turn over the engine).

I can tell you that if this is a weekend only car a battery tender is a good bet. I used to drive my jeep only every week or two and it's battery was always dead due to the alarm draining it.

Also keep in mind that the car is very good at keeping the battery charged, but less good at charging it up from dead. It takes it hours to charge it and that equals allot of drive time. These batteries also have a short life if they are always being drained and charged.

Whiskey

I had the same issue happen to me last week. Went out of town for five days and came back to a dead car. Tow truck came and tried to jump start it with no luck. They were able to get it to power up so that the car could be put I neutral. The dealership had to replace the battery. I have a 2SS. I am hoping this is a one time occurrence and not something sort of mechanical failure of say the alternator.

If it is the alternator you will know. The car either won't charge or if it is just one diode out your headlights will sort of strobe when they are on.

It seems like it would be wise to invest in the biggest AGM you can fit in the SS models. Its weird to me that the V6 gets one from the factory but the SS doesn't.

This.

My 2ss Camaro has a AGM battery and has sit for 2 weeks or more without any problems with the battery going dead or getting weak but my parents have a 2011 denali and a 2004 chevy k2500 and both of them would go dead in a week to 10 days. This could do with the options you have or maybe you don't have the AGM battery because both the denali and k2500 had regular acid filled batteries.

There is no car designed today that goes dead after two weeks. Earler years maybe, but now, memories are stored in non volatile RAM, which does not need power applied to it.

The reason is you could not take it to an airport and park it. Any manufacturer would have lawsuits out the backside. Any car that goes dead in two weeks, no matter what it is , has a faulty parasitic drain.

The reason some high-end cars have a charger option is because they know that they are not daily drivers in many cases ,and would be stored for longer than a month, and in that case ,winter storage needs a charger.

It has been reported here before, that the 2016 Camaros has a AGM battery

Further, if a car is going to sit for a couple weeks and you just want to reduce stress on the battery, you can put it in "transport mode" on the dash. Search it here.

I went on vacation at the end of June, only thing I left in was the progressive snapshot tool. I left on the 26th and the device stopped reporting on the 29th meaning that in 3 days the battery somehow drained completely. I'm surprised that the snapshot tool could do that..

Believe it:

From another website:

This is a real problem, the dealership is right. I work in a shop where we do handicap modifications to cars. I am the service manager. I have seen these cause dead batteries TWICE. They actually have a very high battery draw. Progressive won't know anything about it so don't bother calling them, they just sell insurance. They know nothing about Ma power draw figures. Just take the unit off or drive your car more often.

The RANGE AFM defeat will also drain a batt in 3-5 days.