carmudgeons.com - View Single Post - P-car battery dead, what a PITA

FC · 01-15-2013, 01:58 PM

It seems I left the lights on by accident. I go to jump start it and realize the hood release is electric. You need to get a donor battery and jump a terminal in the fuse box just to pop the hood. Except my wife took the MCS and my cables were there. The key is stuck in the ignition and wont come out. I decide to plug in the battery tender I bought from stuka years ago.

I go back home during lunch with borrowed cables from my dad. No luck from the tender. No surprise since the key is in the ignition probably draining what little is going in (among many other reasons). I try to jump the terminal with the BMW and the key can now be released, but the latch is still a no go. Out of time, I go back to work only to find out that apparently, I cannot use the latch release in the car, but must instead use the one on the key fob. Dammit! I didn't try that. We'll see if that works tonight. I plugged the tender again. Hopefully with no key in the ignition it will charge the battery enough to actuate the hood release.

The car had a new battery put in by the dealer a year ago.

01-15-2013, 01:58 PM	#1
FC Solving problems Join Date: Oct 2003 Carmudgeonly Ride: M5 / 718 GTS / Cooper S / GTI / LR4 Location: Metro Boston Posts: 25,264	P-car battery dead, what a PITA It seems I left the lights on by accident. I go to jump start it and realize the hood release is electric. You need to get a donor battery and jump a terminal in the fuse box just to pop the hood. Except my wife took the MCS and my cables were there. The key is stuck in the ignition and wont come out. I decide to plug in the battery tender I bought from stuka years ago. I go back home during lunch with borrowed cables from my dad. No luck from the tender. No surprise since the key is in the ignition probably draining what little is going in (among many other reasons). I try to jump the terminal with the BMW and the key can now be released, but the latch is still a no go. Out of time, I go back to work only to find out that apparently, I cannot use the latch release in the car, but must instead use the one on the key fob. Dammit! I didn't try that. We'll see if that works tonight. I plugged the tender again. Hopefully with no key in the ignition it will charge the battery enough to actuate the hood release. The car had a new battery put in by the dealer a year ago.