Hello everyone!

Here's the story:

I, being an idiot and having a twitchy finger on the snooze button, left my lights on for approx. 8 hours. Needless to say, when I went to start my car that evening, the battery was deader than a zombie. I had to have it jump-started as there wasn't a sufficient hill to "manually start-up" my battery.

As I was driving around, I noticed I had a very, very low idle (I'm guesstimating around 300rpm). Every time I stopped at a light, the car would stall. I thought it was the battery so I drove around on the highways for about 45 mins at around 70-80mph (if you're a police officer, change mph to kph). Unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem.

I should add that it had been raining all-day and that the evening was very damp. I drive a used 2005 Mazda 3S 2.3L standard.

I should also add that I am a complete and utter novice so you may have to dumb down any advice.

I appreciate any suggestions and comments (I will be the first to admit that I was quite irresponsible for letting the battery die); as always internet chocolate chip cookies to everyone !.

 

First, the battery has a problem when dead like that to get a complete charge, even while driving, especially if you are running lights, defrost and wipers in the rain.
The Computer needs to reset, it will happen eventually, but would probably happen faster if the battery was fully charged.

 

First of all, I LOVE your post and sense of self-effacing humor, Ecnesse!! Thanks for the laugh.
Second, it sounds like you activated the "limp home" mode, so a PCM/ECU reset would likely be in order.
As Ken suggests, an alternator is not designed to charge a dead battery, but keep a battery charged. I know that may be a hard concept for a self-imposed novice but that's really how it is. If the battery is fully charged and the car draws from it, the alternator will kick in to maintain the original charge.
If its the factory batt, replace it. If it has been replaced w/a decent new one already, have it professionally recharged. Then reset the PCM by disconnecting a battery cable for ~10mins and reconnecting.
That's a good place to start.

 

Hallo all, Thanks for your suggestions. After a night of rest, my car's idle is back to around 900rpm. However, I'll be stopping by my mechanic to get things checked out and/or the battery recharged. I'll probably have him do all the disconnecting and reconnecting as if I attempt a do-it-yourself the results might end up on http://thatwillbuffout.com/. Have a nice weekend everyone!

 

Oh. C'mon. It doesn't take a genius to disconnect a battery cable, only a 10mm wrench.

YOU CAN DO IT, ECNESSE!!! Its really not rocket science and based on your posts it is clear to me that you are not the idiot you profess to be.