Random flat battery on Vantage

[V8VDan]

Got in the car this morning and put the key in the ignition. Mirrors struggled to unfold and then I pressed Start. Nothing but some clicks, followed by flashing lights all over the dash. Battery was clearly flat.

Phoned Rick (thanks for answering at an unearthly hour) and then phoned AM assistance who got it going no problem with a boost. The battery charged fine and holds charge with the engine off. Took it to the dealer for a diagnostic scan and nothing showed up.

I drive it every day and have had no warning signs of trouble. It doesn't have bluetooth or anything else that was left on so it seems to be a completely random event.

Anyone else had similar?

[mybrainhurts]

Used to know someone years ago who had a similar problem.

Several mechanics found nothing wrong, but it kept going flat.

Turned out to be the boot light switch that had failed and the light was permanently on.

[fluffer]

I had the same result from a completely forseeable problem. I didnt drive it enough. Unfortunately I had it parked in a security area inaccessible to the public so couldnt call AM assist.

I bought a Halfords Power Pack 200. Great piece of kit. Not just for the car, but in general. Portable power supply, independent jumpstarter and air compressor. 90 quid.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

I'm now off on holidays again and have this sitting in the boot for my arrival should the worst happen.

On another note, it really should last longer than 2 weeks. I somehow doubt prolific american V8 batteries are left dead after such a short time unused?

[bananarob]

I was once told by a dealer that should I be leaving my previous vantage for periods of longer than 2 weeks away from a trickle charger, you should place the alarm system into a specific mode which disables some security features. Not tried it myself.

[Murph7355]

Mine's been left for at least 3wks, outside in the cold and wet without issues with the battery...

[mikey k]

bananarob said:

I was once told by a dealer that should I be leaving my previous vantage for periods of longer than 2 weeks away from a trickle charger, you should place the alarm system into a specific mode which disables some security features. Not tried it myself.

The manual says the same, it is as low as 10 days if the tracker is active

[fluffer]

I was thinking about putting it in that battery saving mode, but I was parking it in the purple parking carpark in LHR T3. They use drivers to bring the car to and from a facility. They wouldn't have a clue about how to reset that.
To be honest I didn't know it was a valet parking service. If knew I wouldn't have booked it at all. No time to argue 20 minutes before check-in closure..

[M@H]

The DB7 has a common fault where the fans can come on despite the car being off and locked - it is due to the fan relay being sat in the weather up by the front NS headlight - if it gets watery then it will short "on" so the fans will whirr away on their own till the battery is flat (not that long!)

Cheers,
Matt

[V8VDan]

That's possible as it was pretty wet on my drive home Thursday night - although never had a problem before in all weathers. No issues since so I suspect it may be something weather related.

[Knights of Aston]

You could always get your local dealer to fit a datalogger (do it yourself if your feeling confident) which measures battery voltage over 3 months. If something goes wrong the file can be sent to Aston (this is why using a dealer might be a good idea) who might be able to figure out what went wrong due to the speed of the voltage fall off. Can't remember how much they are (£50ish) but if you buy one it always yours. It's resetable so if nothing happens you can restart it and it runs off its own battery so doesn't affect your car.