I did it again. Dead 12v

I post my mistakes to help others not feel so bad if / when they do the same things.

This afternoon I went out and rolled Priapus' windows down. About fifteen minutes ago a coworker said that Priapus was beeping.

Two things:
1) I have the lights always [ON] to mimic daytime running lamps.
2) when I rolled the windows down I went in through the passenger door since it was more convenient and there was no car on that side.

As we all know, the lights only "auto-off" when the driver's door opens. So when I powered him up, the lights came on; when I shut him down, the lights stayed on. Had I realized the lights were on, I would have turned them off or opened / closed the driver's door.

Of course, after five years you'd think I'd know better. But apparently not. I even started turning the lights off during the day but had to turn them on yesterday during a heavy rainstorm and just forgot to turn them off when I got home in the evening.

Oh well. I would say "live and learn" but I'm sure I'll probably do it again in the future.

 

It was a guy who was completely oblivious as to who's car it was. In fact, he called it "that little Toyota there."

Here's the rest of the story:
One guy helped. He has standard jumper cables. As some of us know (unfortunately), those standard-sized, really thick jumper cables can't easily clasp the jump-point at the fuse box. So we employed a screwdriver. This is what worked the last time. With the cable clasping the screwdriver, he held it to the connection point while I tried the power.

No Dice.

When in doubt, I call the heavy guns. Thanks, Wayne.

Another coworker offered to help. When he saw the situation, he said that we should try his jumper cables. It turns out that he has these little bitty cables. They are, in a word, perfect. With his cables, we made excellent contact and Priapus started right up. And like others said in other threads, there was no need for him to start his vehicle; I jumped straight from his battery.

Happy ending . . . so far.

http://www.cyclegadgets.com/Products/product.asp?Item=BBOOST


I'm going to find a set of this little bitty cables at a local store and keep them in the cargo area.

 

The bigger the scandal, the crazier the story!

 

Sometimes I feel that the dash lights and the MFD are just way too bright for late-night driving. So I turn the dash way down and the MFD off.

As for the dead battery, I work with electrical and mechanical engineers, many of whom have a similar dry humor as I. So there were all kinds of jokes flying around including:

Him: Why don't you just rewire it to tap into that bigger battery?"
Me: I would use the spare but the hatch is electrically locked and I can't get it open.
Him: Yep. Definite flaw in the system right there.

With the cables connected between our cars:
Her: Hey guys, what's up?
Him1: We're tapping into Tony's battery to draw some power out of it.
Him2: It was over-charging and the electrons were causing the sides to bulge.
Me: Yeah, the concern is that too many electrons get stored in the battery causing it to swell. This weakens the walls, causes them to bulge, and - in severe situations - leaks power as electro-magnetic disturbances.
Him2: We figure that we can put a little extra into his car, some into mine and perhaps we'll need a third.
(She walked away and I'm not convinced that she knew we were joking)

Most of the guys find the entire "how I drained my battery" story very interesting in a this-led-to-that kind of way.