Electrical problem

[V10 SPM]

It's a nice day so I thought I'd go for a drive. Unfortunately remote did not unlock car and everything seems totally dead. Car was serviced two weeks ago and battery had good charge. Plugged in a battery charger and it doesn't seem to want to charge. I've never had a problem before even when leaving car six weeks without driving it. Do you think I need a new battery? Any other ideas? Thanks.

[xyyman]

I'd get the battery tested first if I were you. It happened to me a few weeks ago even though I fitted a new Optma Red Top a year ago anfd I always keep it on an Accumate when not in use. Turned out to be a dead cell in the battery, which a got a refend for. Fitted a new battery from my local Chrysler dealer (£82.00 not bad I thought, Optima's are around £150) and all is well so far.

Phil

[yellowvette]

First thing to check is that you haven't accidentally left anything on in the car, like an interior light. Amazing how that can kill a battery over time. I made that mistake on my Camaro. I'd left the car a week, then when I went to it again the battery was so dead it couldn't illuminate the ignition lights. I plugged my Accumate into it and it didn't even register there was a battery there. At the time the battery was a year old. I discovered I'd left an interior light on, so obviously turned it off. I then connected a boost charger and left it for about 10 minutes. Then my Accumate saw the battery OK when I reconnected it. Left that on it for a day or so and everything was fine. That was over a year ago and no trouble since. Basically, a trickle charger is not capable of recovering a deeply discharged battery, a booster is.

[V10 SPM]

Thanks for the help. You were right! Just a quick boost and then the charger started to work again.