2016 ST Dead Battery 4 times now......

[Zormecteon]

Sounds like they may have found it. Great

 

[me32]

OK got it back this evening.....

drum roll.....
Battery and charging system all good.

Dealer said it was a ground in/on the ambient lighting switch (color changer) that was causing the battery to drain. They replaced the switch. well thats what teh service guy said, i didnt get to actually talk to the mechanic that worked it...Seems odd as i would think the ecu should kill all the accessories when the car is off or the timeout is done.

They still have the ticket open and I have to give them a call monday if everything is ok or not.
we will see.....

A bad ground cause a drain on the battery

 

[Intuit]

A weak ground can be plausible, albeit hard to consider among likely options. Electronics can do some weird things when they don't get enough power. Had an old ten-channel cordless back in the 90s. It would shut itself down when the NiCad got low. If I played with it and kept turning it back on, it would eventually stay on. That's where the fun would begin. It would do things like pickup the neighbors conversations... I could hear them, but they not I. I would get fun sounds out of it, wierd LED patterns, etc, etc. Most electronics would simply hang/crash. The only way you'd reactivate them is to either let it *completely* drain the battery, or remove/replace the battery.

 

[STDave71]

I also had this same issue, I suffered a self battery drain 4 times in the first month of ownership, turned out to be a software problem with the radio, by turning it off with the car driving or running caused the battery drain.

 

[ltdorn]

Oh.. nice.. maybe I will do a check on the radio.. as a just in case...

ltdorn 2016 Fist

 

[ltdorn]

Well crud....

Got car full charged thurday night from dealer.
Friday: Drove to work (16 miles).
Saturday: car sat
Sunday: Drove around city ~12 miles or so.
Monday drove to work and back (16 mile)... just check battery... its at a 50% charge (12.16V)..... its going down again.

Dont think it was a switch ground.

 

[Quisp]

Mine died while having windows tinted. 2 hours with the doors open. Car is 8 month's old. Shop had a portable jumper. Drove home 10 miles started fine. AP shows 13.78v while driving. We shall see.

 

[ltdorn]

Got car full charged thurday night from dealer.
Friday: Drove to work (16 miles).
Saturday: car sat
Sunday: Drove around city ~12 miles or so.
Monday drove to work and back (16 mile)... just check battery... its at a 50% charge (12.16V)..... its going down again.
Tuesday: Battery Dead (11.09V) car sync 3 screen displayed "system turned off to save battery' (or something like that)
Quick voltage check on the fuses in the fuse box under hood reviled 2 fuses drawing current. Check done via fuse voltage checks on the measure points on the top of the blade fuses. all other fuses measured 0.1 volts indicating no current flow threw the fuses. I could not measure current flow on any of the relays.

Fuse F10 15A fuse (@0.4V) Body control module. Right-hand side exterior lighting.
Fuse F39 15A fuse (@0.3V) Body control module. Direction indicators.

(note the manual diagram shows fuse 39 as fuse 43 but there is no fuse 43 description.

No voltage across engine compartment fuse F3 (60Amp) that supplies the glove box fuse box so i think the drain is not in the pass compartment fuse box.

now what the heck is the body control module.....

 

[me32]

Are we sure the alternator isnt the issue? Or something related to the charging system? It seems each day you drive the car the battery is getting weaker. The alt should be charging the battery each time your driving it

 

[ltdorn]

Dealer said they checked the battery and charging system all good. I am not driving a long distance so sitting draining all night and day and only charging during work and back will not compensate for a continously drain.

ltdorn 2016 Fist

 

[me32]

Dealer said they checked the battery and charging system all good. I am not driving a long distance so sitting draining all night and day and only charging during work and back will not compensate for a continously drain.

ltdorn 2016 Fist

20 min or more should charge the battery if the charging system is up to par. You would pretty much have to have a dead battery not to keep it charged for driving to work. The battery isnt that big on the car.

 

[ltdorn]

yea.... dont know... but i do know this is pissing me off...

 

[me32]

With the cobb have you logged while driving?

 

[ltdorn]

well snap... that probably might have gave addition stuff to look at...

But i ended up bringing back to dealer.

 

[me32]

well snap... that probably might have gave addition stuff to look at...

But i ended up bringing back to dealer.

Keep us posted on what they find or dont find.

 

[Intuit]

....................... Bad alternators can be intermittent. I don't know how the charge system operates on this vehicle, but with my other, battery would have to get below ~10.5v before the alternator light came on; exception being is if the alternator is just totally dead with 0 output. If setup similarly, the only way to catch it when it's under-charging is with a voltmeter that plugs into the 12v socket.

Plug & Play
https://www.amazon.com/Zeltauto-Cig...9742523&sr=8-14&keywords=car+12v+socket+meter

 

[Intuit]

BTW, I had left my old car parked over (technically "near") a sewer for a few days. I popped the hood one day and it was literally raining under there. To make matters worse, whatever was steaming out of that sewer was highly corrosive. Everything under that hood looked like it had aged (another) twenty years... in just a matter of days.

Not long after that, alternator died. Got another. It was DOA. Got another, it lasted five minutes. Before it died, it was running full-field... maximum output... 15.x volts. Alternators don't last long running full field and I could smell it, plus it was too hot to touch. The next one had more of a prophylactic behavior; it would run until it got hot then shutdown to protect itself. Once it cooled it would charge again.

Longer story short, voltage drop testing revealed weak grounding. So I ran *additional* wires from the engine to the frame, then from the frame to the battery. Alternator output returned to normal, and I quit frying them. Problem solved.

Batteries that go dead, sometimes or often don't recover, and suffer issues there after.

 

[ltdorn]

Thanks for all the inputs, but I am pretty sure it's something not turning off. Because the battery can go from full battery to dead battery in one day...
I have my lemon law timer going because there is no way I am handing over a unreliable car to my daughter.
Second time at dealer and 10 calendar days so far...

ltdorn 2016 Fist

 

[KKaWing]

A bit late but I have one of these things that I keep in the car. Saved my butt the other day as I took too long to adjust my headlights and ran the battery dead. You can find adapters for a cig lighter socket to power tire pumps and what not. Great phone battery backup too. They're small and don't really take up much space.

https://www.cobra.com/products/portable-power/cobra-jumpack-cpp-7500

 

[OCS12]

Here's another dumb question. Any chance something conductive fell down into one of the USB ports inside the center console? I think those guys stay live, and with the random crap we chuck in there, something could be grounding that circuit.