Yes, to answer your Q, my battary did die and yes, I had to have her towed in for repair. Bad cell according to the dealer. I also noticed this is a current TSB on the 8. I agree with the responses already, get a trickle charger. The 8 is my second car, I start her on a regular basis to ensure the battery stays good.

- Irish

 

Hey Irish,

Can you point me to that TSB? Mine died after a week in really cold weather and probably froze. I want to ge another battery out of Mazda and having the TSB in hand would help.

Thanks.

 

I have a question. I just got my car out of the shop and it's running great. The did some clutch work and say they replaced my battery becuase it failed the test. I was just wondering if there was a way to tell if I got the 'NEW' battery or just a replacement for the oem.

 

Can I connect the slow charger directly to battery terminal without disconnect the battery from the car?

 

What do the charger instructions say?

 

I talked with my service advisor yesterday and he wasn't suprised by my claim iof the weak battery and the parasitic drainage of the battery. He told me to be happy I didn't have a lincoln LS. He said those are about 2-3 times as bad as our car. He said cars with navigation systems fair worse than those without.

 

Borrowed from friend, there is no instructions. It has a ampmeter, circuit and overload protection. If I connect directly to battery without pull the battery out, will it damage any electronics?

My car been sitting in garage since Dec. Alarm lights still flashing, but I want it full charge before I start it up.

 

If it is a slow charger like a wall transformer with a few wires the battery will smooth out any current spikes so don't worry about it. I have charged mine with a full size charger too. You need to worry when your battery is fully discharged and you jump start it using the boost feature on some chargers because the internal resistance of the battery is high so it can't take all the current that is being supplied and the voltage goes up. This would also be when you wanted to turn on all the lights and fans as mentioned earlier in this post.

Bottom line, if you are slow charging just hook up the red and the black to the car and let her rip.

 

Yes, it is slow charger. Thanks.

 

I am so freakin glad i found this thread.

My car will die if it is not driven once every three days. In the near future i wont be driving it very often at all. I am looking into a battery maintainer and had a few quick questions.

1 - Can you leave it connected to your car all the time or only when the car is not running?
2 - Other than the solar ones, every battery maintainer i have found comes with a cord to connect to the wall. Is this just to charge the maintainer or does it always need to be plugged in to work? I read the instructions on the maintainers and did not mention this.
3 - which ones are you using?

Thanks for the help, much appreciated...
-hS

 

First of all, if your battery is dying in 3 days you have a problem with unusually high power drain when the car is shut down. The battery charge should last for weeks with a normal dark power drain. You should find the source of the unusual power drain to solve the problem. A maintenance charger is treating the symptoms--not the cause--of the problem.

One problem some owner have had is the trunk light staying on when the trunk is closed. Open the pass-through between the rear seats to see if your trunk light is remaining on with the trunk closed. That's the simplest thing to check. If you have Nav, it may not be shutting down completely when the car is shut down. If those are not the problem, you or a dealer will need to do more-through troubleshooting tests.

But to answer your questions:

1-Since the maintenance charger requires "house power" to do it's thing, it is unlikely you will leave it connected when you run the car. Anyway, your alternator will charge the battery when the car is running.
2-Like I said, most of the chargers require connection to AC power. You remove it when you run the car.
3-Schumacher makes several maintenance chargers. Do a Google search and check out their web site. I occasionally use the Schumacher model SEM-1562A when the car potentially will be sitting for a week or more. This model is a 1.5 amp trickle charger with a quick disconnect capability. Also, Sears sells some of the Schumacher chargers under the Sears brand name.

 

BigOLundh: I have to leave my 8 parked for weeks, and sometimes months, at a time. First time it was parked for 6-8 weeks it was totally dead. I bought a Schumacher trickle charger on-line from Ace Hardware. When it arrived at my local store, I learned that it could not be left connected indefinitely; you had to monitor it and unplug it when the car battery was fully charged or it would damage the battery. I exchanged it and bought a Schumacher AUTOMATIC TRICKLE CHARGER. I permanently connected the charge-cord to the battery terminals (as the instructions indicate) and then I just plug the charger into the inline socket when I have to leave the car for more than a couple of weeks. It is self-monitoring and has not damaged the battery. I have left it for as long as 5-6 months with no adverse effects and the battery is fully charged when I return and unplug the charger. I've been using it for a couple of years now. Just be sure you get an AUTOMATIC charger.

Now, if your battery is going dead in under 4-6 weeks, you have another problem. The parasitic drain is supposed to take up to two months to run the battery down.

BoomerBurt

 

One of my mods is causing the drain.. and im just going to have to deal with it.

This automatic charger sounds great, but in the near future my car is going to be parked away from any outlet socket, i dont know how effective it can be when not plugged in. I can plug it in occasionally, but i was hoping for something that could work while remaining unplugged.
For example, when having the car transported... i need to ensure the battery doesnt die, and it will definetely not be able to be "plugged in" at that time.

-hS

 

What do people think of portable jump-starting systems, such as the Vector Start-It?

The unit can be charged and left in the trunk. One of the Vector models comes with a built-in air compressor that can be used to inflate tires. The unit has an emergency LED light and can also be used as a 12V DC power supply. It can be recharged from a standard 120V AC power source or a 12V DC accessory/cigarette lighter port.

 

I hate jump staring any new vehicle due to the surge to the electrical system and the ECU

 

This is interesting. I had just assumed that using a second battery was effectively the same as having a fresh battery: the key is in the "off" position, then when you turn it to 'start" it draws on an (alternative) 12V source of power as it would if the original battery had juice. So there'd be no difference in surge to the electrical system.

I'd be interested in hearing more about this.

 

Thanks for the great advice guys - I go out of town weekly and have the same problem so this is just what I needed!

 

had a dead battery saturday. on thursday i had installed the short shifter. i had turned on the map lights while doing th einstall. forgot to turn them off. i didnt notice them on ion friday when i went out fo some errands- too bright i guess or too busy learning the new shifter. any way- hooked it up with cables from the wife's outback one on the terminal and one on th ebolt on the alternator. started right up and no issues since. had to reset the DSC of course

 

Third week that my car wouldn't start. First week I put it on the trickle charger, got it going. Last week I took the battery in and had it checked. Today I went out and it was dead again.. Then, after reading a bit here, I went and check the trunk lid. It wasn't latched.

I think it is a big issue. I am sure my trunk light was on and ran the battery down(Now that's parasitic drain ) Well, I hope that's what the problem was, I am pretty sure so.

But, it's easy to hit the trunk button on my key tag. I'll be more careful. Fortunately I read here about a similar problem.

Steve

 

Just remove the bulb from the trunk light. Not worth much anyway.

 

Yep, plan to disconnect it.

 

1. 12 VDC
2.
A low maintenance B. maintenance free

I have those settings on my charger as well.

I too once didn't secure the trunk as fully as I had thought. Darn trunk light!