Loss of power

[.Holdon.]

hey, just had a little scare with my VT. drove it yesterday and worked fine, went to start it today (about 24hours after i last used it) and there was no power at all. jump started it and its running fine. it has a new battery, just been serviced and roadworthied and all so i'm sorta stumped. the only thing i have added is one of those fm tuners that charge the ipod thru the cigg lighter. i left the ipod in it over night (turned off i'm sure) but that wouldn't cause this to happen would it? even tho the car is turned off can power still be drawn thru the cigg lighter?

any ideas.....?

ALSO - the day before the car died. i was driving down a hill in 1st gear (so it couldn't gain speed and change up gears) because i was looking at the smoke from the vic bushfires, the whole town was wreathed in it (crazy sight). could that have burned out the alternator at all, because it was revving a bit at times. only for a few hundred meters, done it once or twice before and nothing has happened. could this have finished off the stock alternator?

[PaulSV6]

Is ur alternator not charging? You'll have a lil light come up on ur dash.
It doesnt take much for the battery to drain if this is the case.

[Adam_88]

what paul said or the new battery has dropped a cell they can do it at any time without warning

[Juztin]

Yer sometimes my VT doesn't start and I needa jump it.

Tis fair annoying ay'

[ephect]

i would get the battery checked out and load tested, if it ends up being the battery u should beable to take the report and get it replaced under warranty.

soon as you turn the key off, it cuts all power to ur accesseries so the ipod being plugged in shouldnt have had an affect, unless the previous owner has modified the ciggy lighter to say on when the car is off.. u can test it by turning the car off and checking the ciggy lighter socket with a multimeter to see if there is still power there.

[.Holdon.]

hey guys. will definately be getting it checked. jumped it at lunch today and it worked fine. let it run for a bit. went to start it 5 hours later and it was stone cold dead again. brand new battery in it so yeah will be getting checked.

cheers guys

[greenacc]

do the headlights and other electrical things still work ?

[.Holdon.]

yeah car worked fine after i jumped it. then when it died the second time we hooked up a battery charger and could turn on all the lights and electrical stuff, but there wasn't enough power to start the car.

great example of murphys law though, i was going to see the drag racing that is on in sydney on saturday and then i was roadtripping up to brissi then across to darwin and 3 days before i leave - car dies in the arse!

getting it checked out tommorow.

[.Holdon.]

well its all sorted. left it on the charger overnight and got it checked the next day - the auto electrictian couldn't find anything wrong. left it last night off the charger and checked it this morning - nothing. started fine like nothing had happened.

bit of a puzzle.

[PORT3R]

...i left the ipod in it over night (turned off i'm sure) but that wouldn't cause this to happen would it? ...

I left my ipod in overnight and it caused my battery to die and i needed a jumpstart. So that could be the cause, but if you think that you turned it off, i'm not sure. Nice to see it's resolved anyway.

Dave.

[dave0103]

my VT used to do it on and off and was hard to start some times, like trying to turn over a 747 once it was running everything was ok, had a new battery and the altenator was good. It was until i was stranded late one night and had to jump it and we discovered the starter motor was cactus it lit the whole engine bay up. replaced the starter and havent had one single problem since