Battery Drainage
 

I am the second owner of a 2004 rx8 GT 6manual BLACK ON BLACK. When I bought the car 7 months ago, I had to replace the battery on the car the same day because it would not start not even with a jump. Today, after putting about 8,000 miles stress free and full of fun, my car was dead. I had not moved the car in 6 days (USING SUV FOR WORK) and nothing was left on. Attempted to jump but did not work and dash needles went crazy. I am sitting here waiting for the tow truck to sent it to mazda. Any ideas or similar problems out there???? Hate to start having trouble with a great car...PLEASE HELP!!!:wallbash:

I dont know why it died to fast but go to an car place like autozone and buy a battery maintainer.. .there only like 30 bucks.. it will keep your battery charged all the time but will not over charge it. If that doesnt work you might need to just get a new battery then look the maintainer up to it.

Six days of non usage should not completely drain your battery if it is only seven months old. Take your battery to where you bought it and have them test it. Sometimes, batteries just go bad prematurely, but it's pretty rare.

Next step would be to have your alternator checked.

Or check your trunk light or glove box light are not left on.....

How does this work??? thanks for the help

i will definetely take the battery to get checked....Just seems weird that when I bought the car it was the same issue with the previous owner...I just thought he had left it sitting around too long....I changed the battery and worked great until today. Given that I drove the car almost everyday and the max time not moved till this week was about 3 days.

This happened to me also, although I may caused the battery to drain via leaving the door open. Anyway, I had it checked out and they said the alternator was not working up to spec and replaced the alternator and also the battery, which was only 2 years old.

Does anyone know if the 2005 alternator is any different than the 2004? I know the starter is.

Fuck it happened again!!!! just got back from x mas vacation and i am sitting here waiting for tha mazda guy to jump start the 8...i love the car but it seems from all these forums these cars are a pain...maybe considering selling and getting something else..any new ideas with this battery issue?

Has it been siting for awhile? Is that the only time it does it to you?

Get out a multimeter and figure out which circuit has the power drain...and fix the problem...

Someone reported a fuel pump relay that was stuck on.....

It is not a problem for all 8's.....

over head dome light switched to all the time on instead of to go off when the doors close?

open the pass thru when trunk is closed to see if trunk light is staying on.

+1...Zoom well stated.

thanks for the reply..will check the trunk light...left car in mazda today...the guys actually had the balls to tell me that I should disconect the battery if i was leaving town for a period of time...I told him OKAY I was out for 10 days..that is not extended time guys...I have a ML500 2002 which sits for longer periods and no problem to start EVER...so I told the guy to go with that bullshit story elsewere...I will keep you posted tomorrow to see what the fuck they come up with...

Sounds like you brought it in to the wrong shop.

My employee would be fired for saying that. (Disconnect the battery.)

I had the same issue with my 05 last year my car would sit for a couple of days then my car would barley turn over I had to replace my battery twice then I just bought a yellow top optima battery.

If you are sure your battery is 100% ok then I will next check the Alternator.

like u said, it was fine for a couple of months then it just died, so that means either something is draining it slowly, or simply not enough charging power.

You know that when your drive your car, the system is using power from both the Alternator and battery right ? so if the Alternator is not working as it should, your battery will die out fast.

Cuz its easy to check Alternator, any garage should be able to tell you if its working 100%.

If the Alternator is working ok, then you start looking for small leaks.

Oh also, stay away from whoever the dumbass who told you to disconnect the battery just because you were away for 10 days. 2 years ago when my car was about maybe 7-8 months old, I left my car about a month. Came back just crank and the car starts. No battery issues whatsoever. DId I mention Im still using the battery today ? (its due, after this coming summer maybe)

If you couldn't start (do you mean turn the engine over?) originally even with a jump, you have more (or different) than a battery problem. Remove the battery connectors and scrape them down on the inside with a wire brush, sandpaper the battery terminals, and reconnect making sure the connections are really nice and tight.

If that doesn't help, look for corrosion on positive cable connections to the car, like at the starter, etc.

THEN if the car sitting a few days causes the battery to still drain, my gosh, check the dark current! Selling you car rather than simply fixing a minor problem that should be easy to troubleshoot is expensive and needless. Perhaps the battery that was put in was too small a capacity (the original OEMs where too small too and Mazda replaced them with a much larger battery). Perhaps your battery place didn't get the message about that? Or did you get a too small battery yourself?

The car HAS dark current draw and it WILL go dead that's a guarantee if left for a few weeks. But a Normal dark current is the result of the computer and security system being always on. Do you have 3rd part electronics connected anywhere in the car? That could cause extra battery drain. Good luck.

thanks for the reply..will check the trunk light...left car in mazda today...the guys actually had the balls to tell me that I should disconect the battery if i was leaving town for a period of time...

I agree...telling him to disconnect the battery for a two week vacation is bad advice....

Yep, I inadvertently hit the trunk release button one time, didn't notice the lid was ajar, and after a few days of not driving the battery was dead. That one little trunk light was all it took.

thanks for all the advice...the gus at mazda called me today and said "your car is ready there is nothing wrong with it" i was like...okay so if there is nothing wrong with my battery and there is nothing draining the battery why was the car dead?? mr dumbass mazda guy could not give me an answer...i told them to keep it until they could tell me changed something...fuck that...meanwhile i a rental paid by them so I told them it would just wrack up their bill....although I miss my 8 specially since I had not driven it in a while due to vacations...

thanks for all the replies..

i will let you know what dumbass has to tell me tomorrow....ohhh by the way I did tell him he was an idiot for trying to pull the "unplug your battery bit"

what is dark current draw?? sorry for the ignorance

means the + current.

Dark current is just a term for any continuous draw on the battery, e.g. the security system. It's not enough to fully drain the battery over a reasonable period of vehicle non-use.

What we're discussing in this thread is a severe dark current draw from a component that should not be doing so.

DC current flow [opposite of electron flow] is from the positive (+) side of the battery to the vehicle's common negative (-) ground. Higher potential to lower potential flow.

I actually had to turn my trunk release off because I kept hitting the button and was afraid I'd end up doing that.

still waiting for numnuts mazda guys with my freaking 8...