Car won't start after months of not using

Power/Fuel
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1

Hi CarTalk community,

I have a 2003 BMW 325i which I got a new battery installed into my car. Then I was out of town for 5 months without driving the car and when I go to start the car it won’t start. Even somethings like clicking the unlock button on my car key won’t work, so I manually have to put the car key in the door to unlock it. This leads me to think the battery is dead after not being used.

Today I tried to jump my car and and it seems like it was charging because the inside lights and the doors would lock/unlock from the key fob. So when I turned the key in the ignition it started to make some clicks (before jumping there were no clicks at all). I gave it 5 more minutes and tried to start it again and this time it made less clicks(maybe 1) and the lights in the car inside the car stopped working. I am guessing the battery didn’t have enough charge after trying to jump it a second time. During this process, I definitely let my car connected to the donor car for around ~20 minutes.

Any ideas what could be going wrong? Does this sound like a battery issue or could it be something else? What would be the best next steps to take?

Thanks in advance!

2

Yes, it will take 8 to 12 hours to recharge the battery. Your car battery is many times larger than your telephone battery, you don’t expect your phone battery to charge in 20 minutes.

3

Are you jumping it off a car that’s running?

4

Definitely recharge the battery which should take overnight. Did the battery ever freeze? I wouldn’t be surprised if the battery cannot be recovered.

5

Somehow I suspect the best, quickest way of getting this problem resolved it to buy a new battery. Yes, I know you just bought one 5 months ago. But leaving a battery, even a new one, to discharge over 5 months wasn’t a good idea.

6

5 months ??? Yeah the battery is completely dead .

7

I would hook up a battery charger on slow charge for overnight or longer. The battery may be good enough then, but it possibly has lost some capacity and longevity.

8

I would try:
Clean your battery terminals
Charge your battery, more than for just a few minutes.
Then try starting it.

9

Charging a completely dead battery is tough on your alternator (or the alternator of the donor car). As others have said, it would be best to charge the battery with a battery charger in this case.

10

I agree but you need a battery charger, not jumping it from another car. Hopefully the battery is still ok after sitting dead for a while but needs to be fully charges. Given that it is a BMW, you can’t just put a new battery in without going through the install procedure or so it seems.

11

My pickup has sat around unstarted longer than this without discharging the battery (it was disconnected.) Buy a jump starter outboard battery.