Just back from 2 weeks’ holidays, went to take the car for groceries… and it was stone dead. Nothing.
Before leaving I covered it up in the garage, and made the conscious decision not to plug in the battery tender. Figured two weeks would be fine (I normally plug in the tender if it sits more than a couple of days).
Well… add in my LED steering wheel still plugged into the OBDII (with heat option), the smartTOP module, the car’s own parasitic draw, and the fact the battery was pushing ~4 years old… and I was doomed. On top of that, I’ve been at car shows nearly every weekend, constantly cycling the roof up and down showing people how slick it is - probably not doing the battery any favors.
Tried throwing the 5-amp Battery Tender on it, but it just errored out and told me the battery was toast.
Instead of wasting time, I grabbed a replacement: H6 AGM, 760 CCA, 4-year replacement warranty battery. Sticker was 08/25, so fresh off the line - exactly how you want them. (Cue the AGM vs flooded flaming, but I’ll take the better tech.)
Moral of the story: batteries don’t last forever. Plug them in, take care of them, and don’t over-abuse them like I did (roof up/down 20x a day
).
Before leaving I covered it up in the garage, and made the conscious decision not to plug in the battery tender. Figured two weeks would be fine (I normally plug in the tender if it sits more than a couple of days).
Well… add in my LED steering wheel still plugged into the OBDII (with heat option), the smartTOP module, the car’s own parasitic draw, and the fact the battery was pushing ~4 years old… and I was doomed. On top of that, I’ve been at car shows nearly every weekend, constantly cycling the roof up and down showing people how slick it is - probably not doing the battery any favors.
Tried throwing the 5-amp Battery Tender on it, but it just errored out and told me the battery was toast.
Instead of wasting time, I grabbed a replacement: H6 AGM, 760 CCA, 4-year replacement warranty battery. Sticker was 08/25, so fresh off the line - exactly how you want them. (Cue the AGM vs flooded flaming, but I’ll take the better tech.)
Moral of the story: batteries don’t last forever. Plug them in, take care of them, and don’t over-abuse them like I did (roof up/down 20x a day
).
