My Z won't start after sitting for 3 weeks
 

What the title said. I came back from a 3 weeks vacation, and she won't start. I turn the key, and all I hear is click click click click....etc.....

There's just the clickin noise. The engine didn't turn. The dash lights are flickering on and off, and the horn sounds really weak when I locked her up with the remote.

Weak battery? If so, the battery goes weak after only 3 weeks?

Sounds like a dead battery to me. Have you tried to jump it?

You think you can just go away, abandon her for 3 weeks, and she will just receive you and run up to kiss your rear end just like that??? What did you bring her, ah?? Di you "cheat" on her with another car? Did you think she would not notice????

;)

Low battery sounds like, probably due to alarm and maybe other add ons.

I haven't tried to jump her yet :D

Didn't have time this morning. I'll do it tonight. Don't know if the battery on my little Frontier will be able to do the job.

Before the Z, I had a little Corolla. And that Corolla can sit for a couple of months and starts right up. My Z is completely stock. The factory alarm can drain that much juice?

Anyhoot, if the jump doesn't do it, I will try to trickle charge her overnight.

Aside from getting it running you should probably try to find out why it went dead so quickly. What aftermarket elctronics have you installed?

She's completely stock, except for a satelite tracking system by Guidepoint. But I had it turned off. Hmmmmm.....wonder if this Guidepoint thing is the culprit.

Is Guidepoint wired directly to the battery?

Dunno.

Low batt. Also check if there's any battery drain. My 03 GTI wouldn't start again an hour after a jump start and dealer told me there's a leak. Good luck

It is definitely a weak battery. Just jump start it and let it run for a while and she'll be okay.

and get it replaced. No new car battery should die after not running it for 3 weeks. Thats absurd...assuming no other power sources are draining the hell out of it.

My thoughts exactly. If I can get her running, I'll take her back to the dealer and have her checked out.

there are constant 12v feed to alot of components like ecu, trunk , fuel lid, head lights, car alarm...etc, but I dont know if they drain that much power.

Same happened to me. 2 weeks. I couldn't jump it either. Took it to the dealer and said "my battery just died and won't jump." They replaced it under warranty.

You should probably check for something draining power. If you have a multimeter, I think you can check this by disconnecting the positive battery terminal and hooking the positive lead of the multimeter to the battery and the negative lead to the battery cable. If the multimeter shows any voltage them something is "on". I could be wrong on if this is the best way to test this so you should do some followup research.

There was something posted here a while back about the need to disconnect the battery if the car was sitting idle for more than ?? days/weeks/months. There is a constant drain normally and if you have something aftermarket like the GPS system, it may be a larger then expected drain.

Some of the guys doing in-car PCs discovered that if they left the car sit for more than a couple days they came back to a dead or significantly weakened battery. IIRC it had something to do with a GPS system.

I bet you left something on you didnt know about. Like, sometimes I leave that over head light on over night by accident.

yeah; Id bet something was on somewhere; maybe the trunk wasnt shut or any number of things.

try the multimeter idea; though thats not the end all; you may have turned off whatever the culprit was without knowing it.

I thought of that. Checked everything, and everything was as it should. Everything off, including my satelite tracker. The only thing on was the constant periodic flash of the red alarm light on the dash.

I was told by some of my biker buddies that with certain cars, 3 weeks is enough to drain the battery. I tried jump startin her, but she won't crank. I was told that if the battery is too drained, she won't crank with a jump. Therefore I need to charge the battery. Since I don't want to fork out 40 or 50 bucks on a charger, I will borrow a co-workers charger. It is a 12V charger, but unfortunately it is designed for motorcycles in mind, not cars. It only charge at 0.75 amps. Which mean it will take freakin forever for my car battery to get charged. I'm hoping overnight will do the job, but I think a full 24 hrs is more realistic. I just hope this works, period. :D

I got a charger from K-mart for only 20 bux. I've seen them at a few other places for about the same. Give it a few hrs and you'll be able to start it up.