We went out of town for a long weekend to visit family, and this morning when I got in my 8 to go to work, the battery was dead. Mazda Roadside Assistance promptly arrived and gave me a jump, but why? I didn't leave any lights on, the doors were shut, nothing was plugged into the cigarette lighters, etc. I have left the 8 for a longer period of time -- about 10 days -- at Christmas without experiencing this issue. I dread going to move my car later for fear it will not start again. I thought the point of buying a new car is that you didn't have to put up with this kind of thing?!

We went out of town for a long weekend to visit family, and this morning when I got in my 8 to go to work, the battery was dead. Mazda Roadside Assistance promptly arrived and gave me a jump, but why? I didn't leave any lights on, the doors were shut, nothing was plugged into the cigarette lighters, etc. I have left the 8 for a longer period of time -- about 10 days -- at Christmas without experiencing this issue. I dread going to move my car later for fear it will not start again. I thought the point of buying a new car is that you didn't have to put up with this kind of thing?!
Could be the dreaded trunk light not turning off. Open the pass-through to check for the light. This is something that has happened to others, but I haven't seen any reference to it lately. Other than that, there may be a power drain of another sort while the car sits, the battery may be failing or, less likely probably, you may have a charging deficit. That is, not running the engine (and hence the alternator) long enough to fully recharge the battery after starting the car.

BTW, there is a service bulletin on a replacement battery with much more oomph than the OEM battery. Call a dealer and relate the dead battery incident, mention experiencing hard starting lately, and they should replace the battery. If not, you can purchase one (Interstate model MTP-35) on your own for about $70 USD.

We went out of town for a long weekend to visit family, and this morning when I got in my 8 to go to work, the battery was dead. Mazda Roadside Assistance promptly arrived and gave me a jump, but why? I didn't leave any lights on, the doors were shut, nothing was plugged into the cigarette lighters, etc. I have left the 8 for a longer period of time -- about 10 days -- at Christmas without experiencing this issue. I dread going to move my car later for fear it will not start again. I thought the point of buying a new car is that you didn't have to put up with this kind of thing?!


Sorry to hear about that. Were you the silver 8 ripping through Sepulveda this morning? If you were, everything seemed to be ok by then. BTW, I enjoyed the run - made my day.

Crap battery...upgrade it.

Same thing happened to me a while back, went out of town for 4 days come back battery was dead. I am going to check the trunk light to see if that could have caused it because to this day don't know what made it do that. By they way, according to my dealer they can't replace the battery unless their computer prints out a paper saying it is dead and get warrenty pay for it, so next time I am having it towed in with the dead battery on arrival.

trunk light has nailed me a couple of times.

james

The stock battery in the 8 is a serious joke! I upgraded to an optima.

I have left my for 3 weeks during the winter and it always started. The battery is crap have it replaced under warrenty.

Trunk lights caught me out a few times on other cars I've had, So I've put a LED bulb in this one to give a little bit less draw on the battery if it left on.

Another possibility is the use of an aftermarket alarm/car retrieval system (LoJack, for example). These systems drain 8's battery rather quickly.

The stock battery in the 8 is a serious joke! I upgraded to an optima.

ditto...and get a larger size group 34, u have room for it...forget the 35

u will need a spacer though...use a regular optima group 34 spacer without the little extra spacer piece

Sorry to hear about that. Were you the silver 8 ripping through Sepulveda this morning? If you were, everything seemed to be ok by then. BTW, I enjoyed the run - made my day.

Yep, that was me :)

didn't you use to take 6th street in LA. Always saw you there when I lived in downtown. Anyways, good to see another fellow forum member on the road. Happy Friday dude!

Yeah, I lived at Park LaBrea until last month, then I moved to Sherman Oaks. Sepulveda is a lot more fun commute than Wilshire :P~

I usually come in about 7:00 or so when the traffic is much clearer, it's a lot more fun. 8 is in the shop today over the battery issue, they want to charge me $40 for a new battery. I think it's lame since it's under warranty. Have yet to decide what to do, I might call Mazda and see what they say.

I have LoJack and the original battery and go out of town all the time with never a problem. My 8 sat 3 weeks last Christmas with no problem. I live in Atlanta area so it was cold when I was gone.

No problem with my LoJack!