Hello all!

After 10 days of not starting my car I tried to start my 2019 CX-5 and the engine would not turn over. I thought it's probably because it's been awhile but at the same time it hasn't been that long. My next thought was to check my husband's 1998 Lexus and it started with no issues even though it has also been 10 days since it's been driven. So I ended up having to jump my Mazda. I didn't leave any lights on so I'm not sure what had happened. It didn't make sense to us that a car less than a year old had trouble starting after only 10 days.

Any ideas and should I be concern?

Thank you for your time!

Em

 

Parasitic load on the battery is a real thing. You've got to figure that your battery is now at least two years old now and is probably only rated for 3 (OEM) years as it is. If your near a Sam's club, replace it with a Duracell Group 35 for $104.00 and no worry's. If you make short trips when you do drive the car, the battery may not be re-charging completely and that is cumulative so... I keep my seldom driven vehicles on a battery tender just for this reason. It's good for the battery and the vehicle is ready to go when you need it. Monthly starts and warm-ups are necessary anyway to keep oil up in the engine. Gravity works.
Example: https://www.batterytender.com/Batter...nior-12V-0-75A (One of the best around).

 

Thank you so much! That makes a lot of sense since my trips to work before this quarantine were only 10 minutes long but I did drive it daily though. I'm guessing 10 minutes weren't long enough.

 

A cold start on a typical car battery requires about 12 to 15 mins of runtime to fully recharge. What this means is that, for you, each cold start might only get 80% recharged after each start. Day-to-day, this isn't a huge issue because at some point before you reach 0% charged, you're likely to go out for a longer drive which will recharge you to 100%, and the cycle starts over.

An older battery might struggle to take a charge, causing you to recharge only 75% during each 10 min commute. (for example)
A smaller battery might drain more during a cold start and require more time to recharge also.

Assuming you have the correct battery installed and that it's only a couple of years old (at the most) you should not be experiencing this type of issues _unless_ you had a particularly cold week (higher draw on start) with _only_ short trips (never fully recharged) right before parking it, or you have a parasitic draw from accessories when parked.

 

Thank you so much for your reply! I live near Chicago and it's been around 30-40 degrees for the past 10 days. I also have a remote start and dash cam both hardwired to my car. So everything makes sense for what you both are saying.

 

I would take it into the dealer and have it load tested. Our 2019 is getting similar use and the battery is fine. Yours is still under warranty.

 

Any updates? What happened?