Bought a new car and the 2009 C70 has been in the garage sitting for 5 weeks. Went to start it today and the battery is dead. Reading 4 volts from it. Three questions. One, should I disconnect the battery while charging it? two, what would cause it to go dead that fast? Or is that normal for a car with lots of computer stuff always running in the background. Third, how do I deal with this going forward? The car is not our main ride so how do i keep this from happening? I can't drive it more than once a week. Is that enough? Should I disconnect the battery while the car is sitting? Or would that be bad for computer things? Thanks.

 

I have a battery maintainer/charger connected to mine. Secured under the hood so I just unplug it to drive, just like my block heater. 2 vehicles no problems.

 

I can do that while e're here at home, but there's times we go away for a few weeks. I'd rather just unhook the battery when we go away. Is that ok to do or will it cause problems? What is it that drains the battery? I mean, they sit on the shelf at the auto store for months. You buy one, hook it up, and BAM, it starts your car.

 

If everything is working right, it's just the stuff maintaining electronic memories. The clock, for instance, and radio stations, and whatever the engine computer is designed to remember. If you lock it, then of course the security system is using a little bit of power.

 

You could also have an excessive current draw, most commonly from the satellite radio module

 

So are you guys saying that there won't be a problem if I unhook the battery cables during an extended storage time? Like 2 months max?

 

Disconnecting the battery won't cause any problems

 

The reply is right disconnecting will only loose your radio stations, maybe. A lot of stores sell a positive cable connector adapter that has **** on top that turns to disconnect the cable electrically. Used to prevent vehicle theft. You may have a parasite drag on the electrical system that shouldn't be there or some piece of equipment sucking juice. Some are hard to find.