Yep, you’re right about all of that @db4690.
DB is correct and a blown fuse in a meter has cropped up on me now and then too.
I would be suspicious of the dealer telling you there is no draw on the battery. There has to be. The only question is how much.
In my experience, even the very best vehicle will have 5 or 10 milliamps of draw
If the meter is reading 0.L, I start to worry that the fuse is blown
As to why the meter current reading was zero a seasoned tech would realize what the trouble is instantly but a novice might not have a clue.
Double checked the paperwork and they report an 18 mA draw on the battery
@mrstretter
18 milliamps is perfectly acceptable
3 possibilities come to mind:
Your battery can’t hold a charge
Charging system problem
One of your modules is intermittently waking up after you lock the car
That amount of current draw is right what it should be when you compare it to other cars. So unless there is a intermittent problem with the battery I would suspect the real trouble may be a bad connection that makes it look like the battery is drained. You stated that the battery has already been replaced in an effort to fix this trouble so that rules the battery out of the equation. It would be good to know what the battery voltage is when the trouble occurs again. If the battery voltage is around 12.6 volts at the battery posts then there isn’t a drain problem causing this trouble, it is a bad power connection.
I tend to go along with db4690 on the possibility of something either waking up after locking the car or if this is a fluky intermittent; something not going to sleep on a random basis.
That 18 MAs is certainly nothing to worry about though.
You and @db4690 could very well be correct @ok4450. Since the shop isn’t able to find the problem it just makes me think that ‘maybe’ the trouble is being caused by a totally different issue. As far as I can tell from the previous postings, the true condition of the battery was never checked when the trouble happened. A connection problem within the power distribution circuit could sure make it seem like the battery was dead. I know you’ve, “been there, done that”.
It is very strange that the company has put out a notice that the car needs to be driven so much to keep the battery charge up. With that kind of draw (18 ma) it should go for weeks before having trouble starting the engine.
A quick Google search indicates that many Porsche owners have had to resort to using battery tenders:
http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/996-turbo-gt2/272521-porsches-damn-car-batteries-2.html
One of the Porsche owners in that thread experienced an alternator short that was preventing the battery from charging properly, which could also be your problem.
So the other repair shop came to the same conclusion. If we are not driving the car daily, it needs to be on a battery maintainer and is even going to give us one for free. They claim that because of all the electronics on the car that it needs a battery maintainer. This car has no after market additions, does not have navigation, does not have a blue tooth connection for a phone, does not have a backup camera or any “modern” electronics. Its a basic Boxster with the upgraded stereo and HID lights. Does everyone agree with Cougar that it should go for weeks if it only has a 18 ma draw? Should I fight on or just plug the car in after every time I drive it? Frankly, if I wanted the hassle of plugging the car in I would have bought a Chevy Volt.
You could try a new alternator if it’s worth throwing $$ at it. Otherwise I think you have to accept the facts and start plugging in.
@mrstretter
Now I see
Porsche corporate IS the problem
I worked at Benz for a long time, until 2009, actually. Those cars are at least as high tech as your Porsche, and have just as many modules, if not more.
Benz did not tell the customers to use a battery maintainer if the car wasn’t driven daily.
I can tell you with 100% certainty that Benz customers don’t stand for that kind of BS
But Porsche customers are supposed to accept it?
YOU NEED TO KEEP FIGHTING
ESCALATE IT. GET IN TOUCH WITH THE REGIONAL MANAGER
WRITE LETTERS. WRITE EMAILS. MAKE PHONE CALLS. EVERY DAY. KEEP TRACK WHEN YOU CALLED/WROTE, ETC. AND WRITE DOWN EVERYONE’S NAMES
YOU NEED TO ANNOY THEM SO MUCH, THAT THEY’LL FIX YOUR CAR JUST SO THAT YOU LEAVE THEM ALONE
So you need a battery maintainer, so that your car will be ready to start?
And I’ve got a $500 20 year old POS that gets started once every few months, without a problem, and WITHOUT a battery maintainer
What is wrong with this picture?
If the shop is going to give you a free tender why not take it and install it in the car in case you do need it. If it was me doing this I would park the car and let the trouble happen again. Having a battery charger on hand would be a good thing in case the battery does get discharged so you can recharge it. When the trouble happens you will also need a voltmeter to check the voltage on the battery posts to see if the battery is truly discharged or not. As I mentioned earlier, I now tend to think you have a different problem and the battery is really okay. If the battery voltage is above 12 volts while trying to start the engine then there is a problem within the power distribution system causing the problem and not some intermittent load draining the battery.
I don’t know what the capacity of your battery is but with just an 18 milliamp current draw the battery should last for weeks before having to worry about not being able to start the car. My Subaru has a higher current draw and it can go for over a month of being parked without having to recharge the battery. The car is a 2001 with around 9.8k miles on it and still with the original battery. As you can tell, I don’t drive it much.
There is no way in hell I would stand for this BS on an expensive car still under warranty made by a company that claims they are bad asses
What a crock; offering a battery tender because they don’t have an answer.
A car should sit for weeks with only an 18 Ma current draw. That is miniscule.
Heck, my Lincoln which is packed with electronic modules out the wazoo has a roughly 700 Ma draw for some time after shutdown and even when asleep it draws 70 Mas. That car can sit for 2 weeks and start right up on a 3 year old battery.
My prior Lincoln and the Lincoln my youngest son owned were the same way.
The comments I ran across from several Porsche Boxster owners with the same complaint stated their problems were solved by replacing some electrical widget on the ignition switch barrel. Not being a Boxster expert I have no idea what this widget is but it might be worth investigating.
Maybe you need to contact corporate Porsche and drag them into this.
Like I said before, my neighbor’s Boxster does exactly the same thing. There are times when I’ve been in his garage and I could hear the battery hissing, and there was no apparent draw going on. If I were you I’d file a complaint with the Consumer Products Safety Commission, copy to Porsche corporate, and tell them there is an imminent fire danger here, which seems to not happen only because the battery dies before the fire starts.
Any tech savvy company that charges above $40,000 for a car should be ashamed of itself for something clumsy and dangerous like this problem.
A hissing battery? I don’t see how that could happen unless the battery itself has a problem internally or it is being overcharged.
When I went to pick up the car I asked how long the battery should last with the 18 ma draw. He started to say weeks, caught himself and said at least 5 days. When I pointed out that the battery had apparently completely drained within 3 days on 3 separate occasions it finally dawned on him that there was something wrong with this car. He talked to his supervisor and within an hour called and said that he changed the clutch switch. He never exactly said it was broken, but there was a voluntary recall on it and if it was intermittently sticking, that could cause an intermittent draw. He still recommended plugging in the battery maintainer when the car is not driven, even for 2 days. This leads me to believe that he is not sure that he has actually identified and fixed the problem. He just replaced something that might have been the problem. I also asked about the ignition switch problem some of you had mentioned, He said that was a problem with older models and Porsche changed the switch. He has not seen that problem with this model.
We have filed a formal complaint with the first repair shop - stay tuned. I suspect Porsche corporate is already involved and may have been encouraging the first repair shop to tell us that the car wasn’t driven enough.
Does anyone else think that this could potentially be a fire hazard?
Intermittent problems like this can be tough to figure out, and time consuming. If the problem continues, ask if they will lend you are pay to rent you a car, and let them keep it at the shop. They can put a continual measurement instrument on the drain current and monitor it that way. Something must be turning on unexpectely.