987.2 Dead battery saga

[jamesanderson84]

Just posting this for information purposes.  

 

Did not drive car for three-four weeks and when I returned to it battery was dead (I actually own a battery tender but there’s no place to plug it in where I park the car :-()

 

Garage attendant came with portable battery pack and we managed to open the hood using the pack and the lever to the left of the driver’s seat.   We hooked up the car to jumper leads and tried to start it using the power from the other car’s battery but got no response.   Tried to charge the battery from the battery pack but nothing.  Had to leave it all day and came back that evening.  

 

In the evening I could not open the hood using the lever. Would not respond.  Could not tell why not.  

 

Came back next evening with a newly purchased replacement battery.  Hooked up the new battery to the fuse panel red doohickey and was able to open the hood - using the release hood button on the key.  That worked first time.  Removed battery and installed replacement - all good -  car started right up.   

 

Original battery was a 3 year old Bosch which seems young to have failed.  

 

I’m going to try to charge the old battery to see if it failed - or I replaced it prematurely.  

 

Lessons I learned:

• Don’t leave car unused for more than 2 weeks
• Use the key to release the hood when doing the flat battery opening trick