|
Last night I was packing the car with stuff for a road trip we were starting on after work the next day. So I close the doors (it was cold) and sat inside arranging the stuff. I put the car (dome) lights to the (forced) ON position. Ofcourse, I assumed they would turn off when the car got locked! Big mistake!! This morning I head the starter just clicking away and no juice from the battery. Called Acura RoadSide Assistance and the service was great. Polite and useful. They took about 50 mins to arrive. Jump started my mdx and went off.
Moral of story: Be careful when you force the dome lights on, they don't go off automatically! Or else, be prepared for a dead battery. :)
Phew, thank god it wasn't anything else. It would have been one sorry road trip, without the mdx. I mean, that's why we're doing a road trip, because of the mdx. :)
-S |
|
|
|
That sucks. I would think that if the dome light was on for more than 10 minutes the lights would automatically go off. My Cavalier Z24 did that. I took it to a service place (the cavalier) one time at night and dropped my keys of inside the building (they were closed) and looked at my car as we were leaving and saw my light was on. So as soon as I got home I got my extra set of keys went back to turn the light off and it went off by itself. So I went ahead and unlocked the door turned off the forced on dome light and started it up just to make sure it would start. It did. I guess you can't have everything in every car.
lmeans |
|
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by lmeans
I would think that if the dome light was on for more than 10 minutes the lights would automatically go off
I'm sorry, I don't understand...
Why would you think that the car company would think that if you left your dome light in the ON position that you really wanted it to go off?
AM |
|
|
|
| Those dome lights must take a lot of juice. We have driven an Expedition for the last few years (now for sale), with three boys. They have many times left the second seat light on overnight, forgetting to turn it off after reading, Nintendo, etc. Not once has the Expy even been sluggish to start. I'm surprised a dome light would do this. |
|
|
|
Actually, I left the rear lift gate ajar overnight with the interior light on. Started next day no problemo....
Weird,
Ard |
|
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by AcuraMan
quote:
Originally posted by lmeans
I would think that if the dome light was on for more than 10 minutes the lights would automatically go off
I'm sorry, I don't understand...
Why would you think that the car company would think that if you left your dome light in the ON position that you really wanted it to go off?
AM
AcuraMan,
In my other car if you left the dome light on in the on position for to long it would go off on it's own. It was so the battery didn't go dead. It was just one of the features that was on my cavalier.
lmeans |
|
|
|
| Yeah, that cavalier has that feature that if you leave the engine running...it turns off in a while just in case you didn't really want to keep driving. |
|
|
|
lmeans: I'm with AMan on this one. There are times when I've been in a car for over ten minutes with the light on, and I'm glad my car didn't decide what it was that I wanted. I think it's Honda/Acura style not to overload cars with dummy-proof gadgets (as often found in many American cars) and this is no exception.
I've also not closed the tailgate completely and had no problems starting the car after the lights had been on all night. I wonder if the dome light problem is a symptom of a bad battery. |
|
|
|
| I did the same thing, wandered off with a door open, and left the light on all night. The MDX started the next AM without missing a beat - a nice surprise! |
|
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by KK
lmeans: I'm with AMan on this one. There are times when I've been in a car for over ten minutes with the light on, and I'm glad my car didn't decide what it was that I wanted. I think it's Honda/Acura style not to overload cars with dummy-proof gadgets (as often found in many American cars) and this is no exception.
I've also not closed the tailgate completely and had no problems starting the car after the lights had been on all night. I wonder if the dome light problem is a symptom of a bad battery.
I think it's a good idea if you leave your car when your in a parking lot, garage, or anywhere, and you have the dome light on and forget to shut it off, because your doing something that you need a light for it goes off by itself. I don't see that--that is a dummy gadget. I think it's a good idea. I didn't make the car GMAC did.
lmeans |
|
|
|
| I thought I saw a device on the 'net that you hook up to the battery that will shut off the current if there is a constant drain on the battery (or the remaining amps drop to a certain level) leaving enough cranking amps to start the car. Has anyone seen this or know where to get it? |
|
|
|
| To all that have left their doors or tailgates open all night long and didn't have a problem with starting in the morning, that's because the 3 main dome lights go out automatically after 1-2 minutes. The only light that stays on is the little one that is on the bottom of the individual door that is left open. At least that's how it works on my MDX. |
|
|
|
You're right on this, the main lights do go out after a few minutes. What I had done was manually turned on the overhead lights to find something, and forgot to turn them off. Acura hasn't moron-proofed this switch, they figure if you turned the light on you want the light on.
In spite of my advanced moron-hood, the car started fine, credit to a strong battery I guess...
"It's impossible to make the world foolproof, because fools are so ingenious"
|
|
|
|
