I drive a 1999 Chrysler 300M. It was a hand me down from my father, but drives just fine. However, recently I went about a week without driving it (fairly common for me), and when I tried to after that time the car had no power whatsoever. Nothing for the ignition, no lights, not even the remote key worked. I get the car towed to a dealer who concludes the battery was bad (and the battery had been flaky in the past). Sure enough, after replacing the battery I was able to drive it just fine off the lot. However, now after another 6 days with out driving the car appears to have lost all power again.
Does anyone have any idea why a car sitting in a parking garage can magically loose total power in so short a time period? I checked to make sure the lights were off and I didn’t have any draining devices such as GPS’s pluged in.
When you got the new battery did you immediately drive home and park the car? Or, did you take for a drive of about an hour or so?
New batteries are supposed to come fully charged, but often they have been sitting around awhile and could use a good drive to fully recharge them.
When you got the new battery was your charging system checked out? If not, it is possible you are not recharging your battery. Old and/or corroded battery cables can also cause this type of problem.
If the charging system was checked an is OK then there is a electric current drain on the battery when the car is parked. Sometimes a small bulb is on and you don’t know it. Some cars have a bulb in the glove box, trunk, and under the hood. If one of these lights is staying on you wouldn’t even know it. Find these lights and remove the bulbs.
Get the car going and take it for a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive in the country to fully charge the battery. If the problem goes away then one of those bulbs was the problem. If it still won’t start after sitting a few days take the car to a shop to track down where the current leak is coming from. There are car security systems that can do this when there is a problem.