I tried to start the Buick today and nothing. No lights, no dings, just silence. I tried ro remove the key and it wouldn't budge. The shifter was also locked it park with no way to roll the car out of the garage for a jump. I don't recall leaving anything on just maybe I left the key in the ignition which I do all the time. But this time I may have not pulled it out past the first click, just enough to cancel the "key in ignition" message from the DIC.

I got a hold of an old school Schumacher bench-top charger and threw it on the top posts for about an hour and gave it a crank. It cranked slow but finally started and the alternator was making a whining sound probably due to a low charge. I let it idle for a while to put some life back into the system and all seems fine at the moment. I put a trickle charger on the car overnight just to be safe.

Looking back in hindsight I took a peek at the owner's manual and I see that they want you to connect the (-) cable to the battery ground and the (+) to the fuse block positive post. I guess I should have checked that first.

Anybody experience this before?

 

A ground is a ground it dosent matter to jump it

 

Yeah, I know about the ground, but what about the (+)?

Battery post (+) vs fuse block (+). Any difference?

 

It's probably better to use the fuse block positive, but I doubt you hurt anything.

 

The battery is underneath the brace too, so with a typical pair of cables, the + at the block is easier to get to.

 

junk that POS Delco battery and get an Optima. the batteries in these cars are like the trans, a ton of people have had to replace from the delco's just failing and some people have no issue

 

They say not to use the battery positive to prevent ignition of the battery incase of a spark, that is if it is leaking. Never done it this way myself. I'll be replacing mine real soon with an Optima, it's got a pretty weak charge. I don't drive it that often and hve had to recharge it once. So with the cold weather I'm expecting the worst. Not looking forward to it from what I here !!!!

 

Same thing happened to me. Nothing worked. The locks, the trunk, no sound. Nothing. I put the key in the ignition and it wouldnt budge until i charged it. The batteries for these cars are not cheap at all either

 

I'm just kinda PO'd that just leaving the key in the ignition would cause the battery to be dead the next day. 2 1/2 year old battery BTW.

I thought that these cars had the "rundown protection" to prevent this from happening.

 

These cars suck

 

may i ask what brand battery was in your car?

 

Factory Delco

 

agreed that battery sucks *****. i had the same thing happen to me. battery died and i decided to push the car to the center of the driveway to rotate the tires while i waited for my replacement battery to come in. i didnt know that the key would lock in the ignition if the battery was dead. next thing you know i have a dead battery, and the key stuck in the ignition. i decided to check and see if the spare key would work in the door lock since now my key is stuck in the ignition, and that key doesnt even go into the door lock. it was a shitty day. turned out i had to lube the key and lock since the keys were never used on the door and wait a day for the optima to come in.

 

these delco's will just have failed cells for pretty much no reason. even if it wasnt drained

 

I'm almost to the point where I'm going to buy an Optima and put it in before the Delco fails, just to be safe... of course I can't imagine how I'm going to get the battery OUT of that spot it's wedged in.

 

its definitely a tight fit. with the fuse block out of the way though its not that bad. mine gave me a couple days warning before she gave up. slow starts, and i left my hazards on for 10min while i ran into a store and she wouldnt start with out a jump after.

 

Get the Red Top Optima!!!! Thats what I did!!

 

I shouldn't need a battery yet!?!? Right?

This was just a bonehead move on my part by leaving the key in the ignition and running it down once. If this was another 2 years down the road I would be concerned.

 

Just buy a interstate and be done with it if ur looking for a cheaper route out of all the parts stores the duralast gold from auto zone was the battery we used to use at the shop due to we had less returns under warranty than advanced or orileys

 

This is a funny thread for me... I had the same problem happen to me today after I got out of work. It was the stock battery... I replaced it with a Optima Yellow top. Works fine.