My car isn't registered yet, but I drove my 2005 around the block a couple of times last week, and it ran fine. Parked it in my driveway for a couple of days, and today the electrical system is completely dead, so dead it's like there's no battery in it, zero indication of power anywhere.

I tried both my keys and remotes, nothing. I charged the battery, but it charged up quickly, indicating that it was fine in the first place. I checked the fuse on the positive battery cable, it was fine.

I took the cover off the underhood fuse box, and looked at the diagram on the underside of it. It looks like there should be a 120A main fuse in there, but in the actual location there are just a couple of terminals with wires attached to them, and I don't want to mess with that without knowing what I'm doing.

I could try jumping it, but I think the battery is fine and the car isn't positioned well for a jump with normal length cables.

Any ideas? I just bought this car so I'm not familiar with working on them or their issues. I have no idea why the car was fine one day, and totally dead a couple of days later, with a seemingly good battery.

 

So I checked the battery voltage after the charger said it was fully charged, and it was only 0.4! I don't know what the deal is with the charger. I hooked it up again, I'll see what happens.

 

Batteries are fickle things.....They can charge and have a resting voltage of 12.6+ volts and have almost no reserve capacity. Happened to my daughter BF the other week....battery voltage tested fine but wouldn't even turn the motor over

Put in a new battery and all is good

I tend to believe the symptoms.....you either have no battery...or you have no connection to the system....really no other options Electricity is rather simple that way

 

The fuse is under the terminals, it's bolted down. If someone has messed with it and bridged the terminals with a wire you definitely want to put a proper fuse in there.

If the battery is only showing 0.4V it's probably beyond saving. When you get a new one, check for parasitic current. There are a few weak spots including the trunk light that could draw a current even with the car off. A healthy car should show about 0.02amp with no key in ignition, lights off and doors closed. If you find more, start pulling fuses until it drops to that level.

 

Thanks for everyone's help. Turns out I'd left the trunk just a tiny bit cracked, so that's what cause the problem. Still don't know why the charger quit charging the battery when it still had very low voltage. I took the battery out of the car and tried again, and the charger worked properly and the battery seems to be holding a steady 12.4, so I guess it's ok. I'm glad it was just my absentmindedness that caused the problem, and nothing complicated and expensive.

At least I could check the trunk light thru the pass-through. Last time I checked for a trunk light that wouldn't go off, my wife had to get into the trunk of her mother's beat up old Saturn while I closed the lid. She's a sport. A small sport, that's why she was the one we volunteered for getting into the trunk.

 

Most of the new electronic chargers won't charge a battery if the starting voltage is below 10v without running them parallel with another battery to get the voltage up. I think it's to prevent charging the wrong battery type

 

That's an interesting bit of info. I'll keep that in mind, and next time disconnect the battery first. Thanks.