Gave the car to my wife for her birthday just before Christmas, drove it for 4 days, since the dealer agreed to store the car over the winter we let them store it. 2 weeks ago we picked the car up from the dealers. Drove it about 250 km the first night, left it in the garage for 2 days went to start it and it would not turn over at all. Put the charger on it, next morning it started and took it to the dealer. Dealer kept it over night to fully charge the battery and to test the electrical system all seemed fine. Since the weather was poor (raining and cold – just above freezing) did not drive it for 3 days, again would not start (it would not even allow me to turn the key). Put it on the charger and drove back to the dealer, again they kept it for 4 days, put a new battery in and they tested it by starting it every morning without any problems. Picked it up last Friday drove the car for 50 km on Sunday, went to start it tonight – 4 days later since it was a beautiful night 68f and finally sunny, but it might as well been raining as IT WOULD NOT START AGAIN. Tonight I sent a couple hours reading some forums and have found some others have had this problem and I think it might be something that I’m doing.
Since I always leave the cars in the garage I always leave the keys in the ignition, We have a Lexus and a Chevy, this has never been a problem with them, but now I’m wondering if this is the source of the problem? Any feedback would be appreciated as I have a CTEK charger on it now and I’m back once again to the dealer

 

Hi,
You may well be correct!
You are obviously a very trusting lot in the States. In the UK the car wouldn't be there in the morning!
The on board computers (lots of them) take a considerable amount of power. The idea is that they go to sleep when not required. The level of sleep depends on the situation.
Ignition on, ignition off, ignition off for more than 5 mins, Key removed, key removed + 5 mins etc etc.
If the key is in the level of sleep will bve different to if the key is removed since an assumption is made that at least some level of service will be required "shortly".
Don't understand why the Lexus is different.

I also suspect that your battery is now also defective. Once the level of charge drops below 12.5 volts the battery is doomed due to irreversible chemical changes within. Although the battery may be recharhed it will NEVER work correctly again and will result in unexpected failure to start.
Long storage periods WITHOUT top up charging are BAD news for a batteryespecially in these days with on board com puters which even when fully asleep still draw some power otherwise they wouldn't wake up again. Did the garage disconnect the battery? I suspect not.

Stuart.

 

Do I feel foolish, well at least I can tell the dealer what I have been doing. Thanks for the confirmation, after reading through the forums until late last night it seemed that the keys left in the ignition was the root cause. Thanks for the input. Upside I won’t tell my wife until tonight and I get to drive the car today!

 

Hey i'm from Canada and i wouldn't leave the keys in my car sorry to say but thats pretty dumb..
if your keys are in there your proably draing the battery.. i have a 99 slk i use my car every day and had a battery problem too. u put a new battery in and the problem was gone i use my car in the snow rain and more rain here in vancouver..and it always starts fine...now

 

Also if you leave your keys in the car, will it not lock itself, and "keep" the keys?

 

You may be right but I was not aware of this "feature". OK if you have the spare key! I would have thought that this would have created more problems than it solves. However...

If you unlock the car with remote and don't enter the car it will auto relock after a period as a security measure.
Stuart.