leaving an automatic in gear while parked up, drains the battery.

jonbeeza

jonbeeza

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Seems like leaving a modern automatic vehicle in gear, while parked up flattens the battery. I left our car parked up for a couple of days, and it failed to start, due to a flat battery.
When I got someone to look at it, they said it was because I had left the transmission in R, as opposed to P.

Was told it is because the computer was communicating with the transmission, and as such, the whole system did not power down fully. Even though the car was locked, and no lights etc were left on.

Just to make anyone with an automatic, make sure that the lever is in P, to properly power the vehicle down.

Never heard of this before, but it does sound plausible.
 
I must admit I cannot comprehend why you'd do that, an autobox car should as said above be parked up in P (Park) or at least N (Neautral) I'd love OPs logic of doing this
 
On our Jag XF if you turn the ignition off it automatically puts the car into P and also puts the handbrake on. No worries about leaving it in gear at all.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Why on earth would you leave it in R?
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Because I did not even know I had selected R, I thought I had placed it inP.
I had no idea it would drain the power, but now I am no longer ignorant of the fact, I will certainly make sure it is always placed in P ;).


Alastair said:
If you park facing downhill.
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Yes, have left it in R while on a very steep hill. But told not to even do that.

fabs said:
I can't remove the key (or restart the engine) unless it is in 'P'.

Is yours keyless John?
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Yes key fob, but just another learning curve for me.
Ricardodaforce said:
My guess is "Missus told me to" :D
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Nope, did it all by myself. Trouble with driving an auto, get too lazy ;).
 
boogie man said:
On our Jag XF if you turn the ignition off it automatically puts the car into P and also puts the handbrake on. No worries about leaving it in gear at all.
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It'll stay in Neutral as well but will beep at you to make sure you meant to do it. From D,S and R it goes back to P. AFAIK, it doesn't put the handbrake on but then again, I always do before I hit the button to stop it!

My first Land Rover should never be left in gear on a hill - even with the "ignition" off (hell, even without a key in it!) it could be bump started... (The joys of a Diesel with a manual fuel shut off knob!)
 
fabs said:
I'm surprised it let you switch off. I had a Focus with keyless start, pretty sure it wouldn't switch off unless it was in P.
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Will have another look, and try and figure out what happened. But I definitely hit engine stop button, and locked the car. I know our Volvo would not let me do that, if it was in gear. Unless it was just a glitch.
 
My Volvo S60 won't let me remove the key unless it's in P
 
Mine automatically changes to P when I turn the ignition off by pressing the button. Its a good job or I would always have a flat battery if that info is accurate.

Chris
 
Blue Moon 7 said:
Mine automatically changes to P when I turn the ignition off by pressing the button. Its a good job or I would always have a flat battery if that info is accurate.

Chris
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It was probably only a trickle of electricity that it was using. But over the few days it was parked up, and not run, enough to deplete the battery.
 
How can you leave an auto in R? When the car is in R the car moves doesnt it, just as it does in D? Seems insane to be
 
Could it have been a light left on? Either the roof light or the boot one. My ex missus managed to do that once: the boot was left slightly ajar, the boot light stayed on and the battery was drained enough that the car wouldn't turn over the next day.
 
boogie man said:
On our Jag XF if you turn the ignition off it automatically puts the car into P and also puts the handbrake on. No worries about leaving it in gear at all.
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Lets just hope the car has a good memory in that case :D
( do cars get a robotic form of Alzheimer's ? )


Nod said:
My first Land Rover should never be left in gear on a hill - even with the "ignition" off (hell, even without a key in it!) it could be bump started... (The joys of a Diesel with a manual fuel shut off knob!)
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Facing down hill in Reverse, up hill in first, I don't see how its going to start itself?
 
Not going to run away either - handbrake was good and I always parked with the front wheels turned towards the kerb.
 
It was most likely not the gearbox that was draining it but the fact that the car wasn't switched off yet the engine wasn't running.

I've never come across an automatic where you can switch it off whilst in gear, or if you do like in the jaguar our former Mercedes GL would put it automatically in park and enable the parking brakes.

I must admit that the keyless system in the Prius allowed me to get out whilst in gear due to bitter experience. However when you walk away from the vehicle it also starts protesting with audio and visual signals. And ultimately shuts down gracefully, not by depleating the battery.

I'm sure our resident Ford expert can explain what really happened @nilagin
 
dejongj said:
It was most likely not the gearbox that was draining it but the fact that the car wasn't switched off yet the engine wasn't running.

I've never come across an automatic where you can switch it off whilst in gear, or if you do like in the jaguar our former Mercedes GL would put it automatically in park and enable the parking brakes.

I must admit that the keyless system in the Prius allowed me to get out whilst in gear due to bitter experience. However when you walk away from the vehicle it also starts protesting with audio and visual signals. And ultimately shuts down gracefully, not by depleating the battery.

I'm sure our resident Ford expert can explain what really happened @nilagin
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I will see if I can replicate what happened, although I am sure I had selected P when I parked it up for a few days. But when mechanic tried to find the source of the drain, interior light left on etc, he found nothing. He noticed the car had been left in R, something that I must have accidentally done obviously. But most seem to think the vehicle can't be switched off, or locked up, in this state.

As I said, I will try and replicate what I did, without leaving it for days obviously. Unless, it was just a glitch.
 
gremlin16 said:
why would you leave a manual in R? 2nd every time.
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I've always put a manual in gear when putting the handbrake on - force of habit from old cars with iffy handbrakes...

Interesting, wife's new Merc has one of the electric handbrakes and the handbook recommends you also put it in gear as a 2nd failsafe...
 
I don't know anything about auto boxes but I have found something on Ford's ETIS sight.
Apparently some Galaxy's do suffer battery power drain. You may well have an open circuit in the wiring harness/connector as shown below.

If you suffer the battery drain again, I'd mention it to the dealer.

Seems the photo must be protected and I can't upload it. But the connector is on the bottom of the gearbox. The connector number is C3245
 
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nilagin said:
I don't know anything about auto boxes but I have found something on Ford's ETIS sight.
Apparently some Galaxy's do suffer battery power drain. You may well have an open circuit in the wiring harness/connector as shown below.

If you suffer the battery drain again, I'd mention it to the dealer.

Seems the photo must be protected and I can't upload it. But the connector is on the bottom of the gearbox. The connector number is C3245
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That sounds interesting, will have a look into this thanks.
 
nilagin said:
Seems the photo must be protected and I can't upload it. But the connector is on the bottom of the gearbox. The connector number is C3245
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You sure it isn't just because you've fallen foul for the new upload limits? anything bigger than 1024 pixels across won't load, I've noticed even some 1024 pixel pics won't load if they are largish files and need to be resized down before they will load...
 
Dave1 said:
You sure it isn't just because you've fallen foul for the new upload limits? anything bigger than 1024 pixels across won't load, I've noticed even some 1024 pixel pics won't load if they are largish files and need to be resized down before they will load...
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It may be that it isn't a jpeg?
 
fabs said:
???
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The problem has only manifested itself for the last few months, there was a thread in the Help & Support sub-forum when it started happening.

You haven't noticed the profusion of big X's in people's posts recently?

Like here as well as with nilagin

IMG_5030.jpg
 
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Dave1 said:
You sure it isn't just because you've fallen foul for the new upload limits? anything bigger than 1024 pixels across won't load, I've noticed even some 1024 pixel pics won't load if they are largish files and need to be resized down before they will load...
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OldCarlos said:
It may be that it isn't a jpeg?
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The photo is on part of the site that I have to log into. Anyone else has to pay to use that part of the site, so it's probably protected in someway.
 
fabs said:
But upload limits have always been 1024 pixels/350kb
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I would presume some tweak introduced into the forum software has started enforcing it more strictly and also started applying it to linked images, I know I used to link bigger images in the past.

It's no big deal, I now just resize to 1000 pixels before uploading or linking but the profusion of red X's shows many others don't realise...
 
Dave1 said:
I would presume some tweak introduced into the forum software has started enforcing it more strictly and also started applying it to linked images, I know I used to link bigger images in the past.

It's no big deal, I now just resize to 1000 pixels before uploading or linking.
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It's always been strictly enforced but the upload limits certainly don't affect linked images.

More likely it's

nilagin said:
The photo is on part of the site that I have to log into. Anyone else has to pay to use that part of the site, so it's probably protected in someway.
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fabs said:
It's always been strictly enforced but the upload limits certainly don't affect linked images.

More likely it's
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Ive seen it happen with TinyPic, Postimage and Photobucket links.

As I said, I've compensated by ensuring any linked image is 1000px and they load fine.
 
nilagin said:
Seems the photo must be protected and I can't upload it.
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I tried to short cut it through the address and I'd say so to :D

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