What’s the chance of this happening?

[Bill]

What’s the chance of this happening?

A few weeks ago I bought an 09 Brera S to replace my slightly ageing 06. I’ve had the original car from new and other than the stock issues that were sorted under warranty, the cars been brilliant and never ever let me down. Well that was true until last Saturday night when without any warning, the battery appeared to have died completely. I assumed that I must have left something on because prior to this there was never the slightest hesitation at start up but now even the doors wouldn’t unlock.

I returned the next morning with some jump leads. I didn’t bother try to start her given that the battery was so flat so we did the jump-start and drove back home. I connected a brand new 8 amp charger but after nearly a full day of charging, the led display said it was still totally flat so no messing, it was off to Halfords for a replacement. It was a bugger to change but after lots of swearing and bleeding knuckles she fired up as good as new. Nothing really odd about any of this is there? Well listen to this!

This morning I used the new Brera to take back the jump leads I’d borrowed and I parked it in exactly the same spot as the week before. When I got back to the car I was slightly blocked in but the bloke had only just parked up and offered to move slightly but unbelievably his fob wouldn’t unlock his door now. I tried mine but my doors wouldn’t open either! The realisation of what might of happened began to sink in. Clearly something at that location was interfering with the RF signal, preventing the key fob from working. I’d assumed the battery was flat but I hadn’t actually tried it and in any case the new charger also said it was flat. 

When I got home, I checked the charger only to find a big fat zero volts on the output but with the digital indicator stuck telling me it’s charging at the maximum rate even though nothing was connected. Check the old battery and Sod’s law it’s bloody perfect!

Ah well if nothing else, at neary seven years I can probably claim to have the longest lasting Brera battery on the planet.

Bill

[Bazj]

where did you park?

 

I want to avoid that place; mine has two batteries and wouldn't want them both to go flat!!