left lights on!
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 28
Likes: 0
From: US
left lights on! hey, i left my aftermarket fog lights on for about 8 hours. Now i just went to go start the car and the battery seems dead. no lights/dash lights/radio. just wondering could i have caused any problems by doing this foolish stunt? is it time to get a new battery?thanks 
TECH Resident
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 859
Likes: 0
From: here, ny
Re: left lights on! just get it recharged, and tested, should be fine... and always hook aftermarket lights to the ignition, so they turn off with the key... y aftermarkets? weren't the factory ones good enough?
Re: left lights on! If the car is a manual...just push it...pop the clutch...and it'll start.....have the ignition turned on first...like you tried to start it....then drive around for about 30-60 minutes...that should get you back up...the battery really will need about 2 hours to get a good totl charge...but it will never quite hold the same amount of juice it used to....and if you hook up those fog light properly the car shuts down all accessories(including lights) before the battery goes dead....10 minutes for interiors...up to 2 hours for exteriors...but it does good at seeing what you got left and shutting off so you can restart.
Re: left lights on! DOH!!!! oh yeah I forgot about that whole computer thing we got...still used to my '69 that got totaled by a drunk while it was parked at 4 am in my driveway...where he hit it doing about 60mph!!!... atleast I had really good insurance coverage on it.
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 1,355
Likes: 1
From: Chicago (Elgin), IL
Re: left lights on!
just get it recharged, and tested, should be fine... and always hook aftermarket lights to the ignition, so they turn off with the key... y aftermarkets? weren't the factory ones good enough?
Generally just recharge and have it load tested. It should be fine. However, if you drain the battery regularly, sometimes the water level goes down enough, the plates get hot enough, warp a little, touch another plate, short out and then that cell in the battery is dead and the battery is really nothing more useful than a door stop.
Also, you don't need the full 11 volts right away at turn over since you aren't using the battery to turn over the starter, just to engage it and power everything up. As long as there's enough electricity to at least cause a spark, push starting the car will work. We push started many an M6 cars when we were too lazy to get the big Shumacher jumper/charger out.
Once the engine turns over and fires, the alternator will supply enough from there on out 
