Killed the battery again

[Guest Kurt Franz]

This is getting really old. I left my key in the ignition again after turning the car off and the next day the battery was completely dead. Also, I am noticing if I shut the car off and forget to turn the radio or heater off it will kill the battery as well.

Something ain't right......wondering if it has something to do with my Door Ajar switch being broken on one of my doors affecting the RAP or something...

[Guest Kurt Franz]

bump

[Guest Mc_Reatta]

Door ajar switch wouldn't do it. Have you determined if it is due to RAP system or something else yet?

[KDirk]

This is a shot in the dark, but you may want to check whilst troubleshooting the issue. Verify the RAP relay is good, and is shutting off after the 10 minute (max) timeout. Had this issue on my Mom's 97 DeVille, the relay had corroded internally causing it to stick on the on position. Result being that the radio and any other accessories controlled by RAP would never shut off. This would kill the battery overnight while the car was sitting, and it took a lot of time troubleshooting for me to finally figure out what was wrong. I kept thinking the BCM wasn't signalling the RAP to shut of after 10 minutes, but of course the KISS method prevailed (keep it simple stupid) and changing the relay solved the problem.

One other oddity to look for: I once had a car with a bad switch for the glove box light. The light would stay on even when the glove box door was closed, killing the battery overnight. Of course, you couldn't see the light was on with the door closed, so it took a while for me to figure that one out as well.

KDirk

[SeanR]

You could sit in the car for 10 minutes to wait till you hear the RAP click off.

[Guest Kurt Franz]

Thanks for the ideas......the 10 minute wait is a good place to start. I did notice that my glove box light stays on when the car is running. The button on the glove box door is not engaging just right. However, when the car is turned off the light is off. However, I need to check if that light stays on when the key is left in the ignition....

On another note..this is another example of the real value that communities such as this provide. I have a feeling that there are a lot of people who visit/view this community but are not the types who post messages for the "social" aspect of things but only for the "help" and "information" aspect. Nothing wrong with using a community for social intercourse pertaining to the subject matter it was designed for, I just think that there are not that many Reatta owners who are those types. Personally, I visit the site once a day or so and check if there is a question on something that I can offer some help on - as others have so graciously done for me. However, as I am relatively new to this model I do not have much to offer that has not already been provided and hence you do not hear from me on many questions. Luckily we have the knowledgeable folks who chime in and set the "chumps" like me straight

And for that I wish to offer a Thank You.

Good Holidays to All!

KF

[Guest Sidney22]

And, I am visiting once a day to see if anybody else has already asked the questions I have!

[Guest crtnrds]

I had a similar problem with the battery draining over a period of a couple weeks. Then one day the IPC started blacking out intermittently. Had it "rebuilt" and have had no battery drain since.