2004 GXP battery died...jumped and its fine...advice

[FrankAR15]

Wife stopped, went into store for about 15 min. Came out and car would not start.
I went to help and classic signs of not enough power to start car. Radio buzzing in and out, dim lights, and a funny noise when trying to start the car.

Hooked jumpers up and it started right up. Drove for less than 10min and parked at home. Turned off and restarted and it was fine. Guess ill wait about an hour and try again.

Isn't the GXP supposed to have a battery saver that supposed to let you be able to start the car to get home? The DIC said nothing at all. Voltmeter looks good now, but before the jump, the needle was close to 0.

Just hope this isn't some intermittent problem.

Also, is there anything I need to know about changing the battery if that is what it is? Just because it is under the seat and somehow is vented?

Tips on removing the back cushion?

Thanks for any advice

[FrankAR15]

Ok, after a 1/2 hour the battery is dead again. Can't imagine there is anything draining it.... Will remove and replace with new one. Autozone has one in stock for $159.

[01bonneSC]

Rear seat just pulls up. There are vent tubes on it, swap those to new one. Take a little sandpaper and take off the paint under the ground cable on the body. Been a known problem.

[00Beast]

You may have to adjust the vents for the new one, IIRC they've gotten narrower.

[FrankAR15]

Battery swapped and all good.

Autozone tried to say the stock battery was different then the one I had. It was shorter in length and the vent tubes would not have fit(without modification). But after he looked at the number on my battery, he was able to find the exact size battery. Except it was rated at higher cranking amps.

They did put the old battery on their tester, it was at like 10volts and then when He put a charge on it,it went down to 6 volts! Bad.

I think I pulled a back muscle pulling that battery out, lol.

I didn't see the post about sanding the ground, but I had checked to see if it was tight.

[CMNTMXR57]

The OEM replacement is smaller I believe (I know my AC Delco was). If you found an identical replacement, that's great.

These cars do not have anything to give you one last shot at starting it. What they do have is battery run-down protection which will shut stuff off accessories like dome lights, radio, etc, after a certain time-frame has elapsed to help avoid completely draining the battery, but the battery is a battery. It is a device to store electrical energy and as age, wear, and tear factor in, it looses it's ability to store said electrical energy. Plain and simple. It's no different than the AA or AAA batteries in your remote control for the TV other than the fact that your remote doesn't have an engine driven alternator to regenerate electricity and recharge those batteries like your car does. Eventually though, it will lose it's ability to store that energy and if you have a situation like above, it's only going to get worse. Especially as it gets colder out.

On a side note, I replaced a battery in a Sable the other day, static voltage was 3.46 volts. :egads: It was to a point where it didn't even take my 75amp jumper. With it on the charger, it was hovering about 8 volts. The owner had stated exactly like you did, it started with just simply not being able to start, and needing an occasional jump. IT would start on it's own after for short periods of time, but then leaving it overnight, it wouldn't start, etc, etc... To the point where it was at Wednesday where it gave up the ghost.