Hey guys,

Wife drained the battery of my beloved baby. So when I get home tonight I'll be hooking it up via jumper cables to my other vehicle. Once I get it started I plan to take it for a drive to recharge it some.

How long do you think I need to drive it around to make sure it'll start again the next day? Not looking for a guaranteed answer here, just opinions and ballparks. Drive it for an hour? More? Less?

Thanks
Matt

 

My personal opinion (for whatever you think that's worth) is that I would not drive it all all. I would connect the discharged battery to a battery charger and let it recharge all night.

If you do not have a battery charger, perhaps you know someone that will loan you one. Or, you could pick one up on the way home and add it to your tool box for future use.

 

Gotta go with the previous advice.

If you have no access to a charger (NOT a trickle charger), then take it for a nice long trip somewhere.

 

No access to a charger I'm afraid. Not to mention I'm in an apartment complex with no power available to plug the charger into. So that's pretty much out.

I've been reading on the forums that running all the juice out of the battery can damage it and prevent it from ever reaching full capacity again. So looks like I'll be looking for a new battery. But in the meantime I will need it to work so I guess I'll just jump it and drive it for awhile.

Might get the braille battery, depends on the cost of a regular battery. If there's a huge difference then I'll have to go the cheaper route.

 

Grommit, what's the issue with trickle chargers?
I've got both types - prefer the trickle charger if you have the time to charge it. I'd say buy a charger and an extension cord.
Drive it for at 30 minutes to an hour if you can't charge it. And park on a slope in case that wasn't long enough.
The Braille has been quoted at $150+ in the past. Ouch!

 

Pull it and head to AutoZone or Pep or the like

let 'em test it....then if OK (probly is) they'll usually let it sit on the machine for a quick charge...40 min or so. I wouldn't do this often but one time should be no harm.

my local shops do this for free ....

 

i would not go by just driving. as posted above, hook it up to a
battery charger with auto-off feature and charge over night.

usually my 35% drained battery will take about 16hours to recharge
at 2A. (battery drains about that much just sitting in the garage by
itself in the winter).

 

If she left a light on or something simple, your battery is not too low. About an hour should charge it enough to last. As you drive through your day,it should be good by the end of the day

 

Again, don't have access to a battery charger. If I went out and I bought one I'd have to bring the battery into the apartment to charge it. There are no outlets where the car is parked and I live on the third floor of the apartment building (would need to be one long extension cord).

My wife left the Xenon headlights on when she came home late on Saturday night. We didn't go out on Sunday so it drained all of Sunday. She didn't try to use the car till this morning and it was d-e-a-d dead. No power locks, no lights, no nothing.

I'll just do the best I can. Thanks for the advice.

 

Not an issue really, but the author of the thread seemed to need his car a lot faster than a trickle charger would work for him.

 

note to self... gift idea for Brew Swap guy

 

How old is your battery.

Was it cranking happily before the lightbulb drain?

Fast charges are not good for your battery, they build up a lot of heat and can warp the plates. Only do a fast charge in an emergency.

There is nothing wrong with charging your battery by driving it. It just puts a little extra load on your alternator and uses gas you would not have used otherwise. But you can use this as an excuse to motor some.

Buy a charger, everyone needs a charger. Get one in the 5-8 amp rating.

If the battery is dead, the recharge time is determined by a crude calculation. Determine the amp-hour rating of the battery. Divide the charging rate into that number. This will be the approx time in hours it will take to fully charge the bat.

Buy a charger, pull your battery, take it inside, charge it on the lowest setting overnight, put it back in before you go to work and all will be well.

Whether all your learned info that is stored in the computer and the radio will be gone, I don't know. No problem, reset your radio and let your MINI get to know you all over again.

YD

 

PS: If you decide to drive-charge it, keep the AC off if possible... more power to be transferred to the battery that way. The radio is OK (not that much of a power draw) unless you have some huge amps set up.

A battery charger is a handy thing to have around. I bought one 6-7 years ago that had a quick-start (jump start) capability, fast and slow charging for less than $50 (like the top link, below) at Target. I don't use it often, but when I do, I'm glad that I have it around...

Sears has this one for $60 or so: http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes

Here for $45: http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes

Or here for $30: http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes

Pulling the battery and taking it inside isn't that hard... just a bit of heavy lifting.

 

be careful though in that there are trickle chargers that always provide juice and battery maintainers that sense the voltage and do nothing until the voltage drops to a certain level and then give a slight jolt of juice. Obviously, if totally drained, it gives a continuous jolt of juice.

Passat, if the battery is truly dead, I'd just get it running and get a new battery. It will save any headaches as the weather gets colder and, in fact, may no longer hold a full charge. MINI OEM price is about $150 (I know because I had to pay for one).

 

Hey guys, update time.

Got home last night and put the rented P.O.S. (read: Pontiac Grand Prix) next to my MINI for a jump. As soon as I got the cables connected the interior lights came on. I then tried to start it (read earlier that is the battery isn't old it should start right away). Sure enough with the cables on for 30 seconds the car turned over without any hesitation.

So I took it for a drive and boy was that awkward. The car felt foreign and like it wasn't driving that great. Part of that is most definitely from me having to drive that crappy Pontiac for a week. But I think the car had to readjust again for some reason. By the end of the drive it was much closer to feeling like it had.

My plan is to replace the battery with a new lightweight Deka battery by christmas. I don't see the need for a battery charger since I have AAA service, have another car that can jump and many chargers cost close to a new battery (as long as you don't by one from MINI, the battery that is).

MiniMac....bring me some Chicago beer instead of a charger. Much more useful.

Thanks everyone!

 

Glad to hear you're back on the road!
It's not surprising that the car "wasn't driving great" at first. Cars these days are highly dependent on the electrical system, with the ECU, BC1, etc. They seem to be pretty sensitive to voltage/power, so a low battery can affect the car.

 

Matt! Make a road trip out here to see your friends in H-town! That ought to recharge your battery!

 

Wish I could Kris! Closest to H-Town I'll be will be Lafayette in either the spring or fall or both. Can't even make it back for xmas this year. I asked .bob and I'll ask you too....If you get the chance spin Elizabeth out for me next time you see him on the kart track.

HMMS can always make a road trip out here.

Eric, I was wondering, would the computer lose the memory of my driving style once the battery was drained? In my mind I can make the argument for yes or no.

 

Don't know if that would be in volatile or non-volatile memory. Personally I don't put a whole lot of weight behind 'adaptive learning'.

 

I know we're off topic now but hey, so what.

I definitely noticed a difference in my car from the first few months vs. now. It shifts much more aggressively even in regular mode (I have the auto S) than it did before. That said, the shifts last night were much similar to when I first got the car. Might be due to the lack of power or maybe the programming was affected. No biggie...I'll be happy to teach it aggression again.

 

The dead battery reset the computer so it had to "learn" your style again.

 

My battery in an 04 MCS is also dead. I had to buy a battery before I can get mine replaced by the dealer next monday. My service advisor told me that they see alot of problems with batteries in MCS's because they are not powerful enough.

 

I hadn't heard that one before. What are the specs on our OEM batteries?