ser67

Had a strange one this afternoon - battery almost drained again.

My fault for not having moved it for a week or so...

Started barely ticked over, but she fired up and I engaged Reverse - everything fine - put it into Drive and the transmission appeared to be slipping and the car wouldn't really rev.

Foot almost to floor to go at 5 mph down the street - but engine wasn't screaming.

Turned around, went home - confirmed the issue - you get a grab-type jolt (like all autos) when putting in to reverse but nothing in drive.

Switched everything off and on again (like a windows pc) and everything is fine again.

No warning lights - nothing.

My immediate though is low-battery (as said at the start) played with the electrics.

Any thoughts ??

VVTiBob

I tend to agree with your assessment...low voltage, led to loss of settings memory probably momentarily during cranking, and electronics were "confused" about the "state" of the car. Then on your shutdown and "reboot" everything was reset. Sounds like it time for a trickle charger and/or time to measure the draw/battery drain with the car shut off.

barncat

Do the batteries tend to discharge if left unused for a week's time? I had that problem with a 94 Saab convert and just installed a cut-off switch at the battery. The only down-side is that you had to re-program clock, radio, etc when re-attached. I think there was a slight discharge somewhere that I just couldn't track down. I'd hate to have to do this for the sc430.

VVTiBob

There are some variables ...age of battery, climate, condition of generator/alternator etc etc...But what really needs to be checked is energy draw with the car shut off.
My garaged car, in a very temperate climate zone near the ocean in So. Cal has sat for a few weeks (2) without an issue. (battery less at two years of service) However, with a previous battery, if the car sat for a week under the same conditions, it would be dead. If I know the car's going to sit for a week or so, I usually connect my battery tender. It's mounted on the ceiling above the car so it's just a wire drop to a quick connector.

GS4_Fiend

iTrader: (22)

Bad battery will cause transmission problem. There was a thread about this. Get it load tested to confirm battery integrity. Next i would check the fluid level/condition

Swishh

I had this happen to me last time my battery failed 2 years ago. Same exact story. I put a new battery in and all was fine again.

V300Graham

I had an on-going electrical problems with my Merc E320 W124 cabrio, and it was all eventually traced to a slightly dud battery....

Put in a good battery first and then see what happens.