just to add creedance to this thread...I just noticed this afternoon the "going to sleep" phenomenon. I haven't driven my car in a little over a week and when I went out today to go for a short spin, my remote didn't work, but I could see my red light blinking (I always set my alarm, even in my garage). I had to use my key to open the door...Every time I drive my car, I find out something new...

 

What he said...

 

I'm going away for six weeks.What would you recommend regarding the battery?I don't like the idea of leaving a battery tender unattended for so long in case it shorts out and burns the car and the house!I thought about disconnecting the battery completely.Any suggestions?

 

if concered you will kill your battery then yes disconnect neg terminal of battery. pop hood 1 10mm wrench will do the trick...then when reconnecting have radio code handy and reset clock on dash.

 

When you say kill switch do you mean a mechanical turn switch in series with your + or - battery terminal? or an electronic hi curent relay? Presets and audio control memory is lost without constant memory wire connected. You could simply hardwire 12v yellow memory wire to the battery. Battery consumption should be around 3 milliamps...which is squat.

 

it is a known fact the factory battery does suck.

So as stated above the ONE thing to do is to NOT arm your car in the garage. That way the car will NOT go into SLEEP mode and you can at least open the door and get in and try cranking it.

I have the Porsche battery maintainer the "crappy" one that plugs into the cig lighter...I love it. So easy to plug in and yes if I usually plug it in a day before I think I am going to drive it. I usually know when I plan on driving it. So if I know I am going to C&C on Sat...Friday night before bed I plug her in...easy as that.

 

if you car is 03+ you do not need radio codes or to reset the clock...it is stored in the dme. If you disconnect your battery for some time, it (the ecu) will have to re-learn your driving style as that memory will be gone.

 

I Can Leave My Car Sitting For 3 Weeks And It Starts Right Up

 

perfect example as to why John who starting this thread should load test his battery to rule out any battery issues.

 

TURBOELECTRO,I have a near new 80 A/H battery fully charged and a two post battery isolator switch next to it on the negative cable.Going away for six weeks.Would you A.lock car with remote and let it go into sleep mode;B.lock car and then turn off at isolator switch[and take the plastic key out of the switch];or disconnect battery completely after locking car.My gut feeling is there will be less wear on the battery if left fully charged but completely disconnected.What do you think?

 

Car sucks about 1/5th of the power when the alarm is armed... My stereo guy was tracing down what we thought was a bad ground, etc... somewhere and spent tons of time learning this!!! Arm the car when it is parked.

I also run an Optima Yellow which helps significantly...

Deep Cycle batteries always restart...

(well until they've past their useful life but that is much longer than one that isn't that sees full drain!)

 

I spent > $1,000 fault finding why my 99 Tip Cab... battery would drain rapidly (within two weeks). It spent three days @ the Stealer...they found nothing. I replaced two batteries, again same problem. In the end I just gave up and used a Porsche battery maintainer which connected directly to the battery. This addressed the issue but did not solve it. Have since sold the car.

My replacement car - 2001 Turbo....no issues.

 

I have been using the Porsche cigarette lighter tender when not using the car for more than a week. I have not been arming the car with the OEM alarm.

Can you alarm the car while using a tender? Will doing both help save the battery?

 

Thanks for all the valuable feedback. I learned a very useful piece of information from this thread, that is to turn on the alarm when parked in the garage so that the battery drains less. I will do this from now on.