2010 GT-E with a drained battery

[aerooo]

Could be of interest to a few people here - what to expect when you have no juice left in the battery.

I happened after my sat in the driveway for a week white I was away. Apparently, my trunk lid was ajar and the light inside slowly drained the battery.

Here is what I found:

The good old keys hidden in the key fob still worked to unlock the door. A friend came over and after we stretched the cables from his car I did the second stupid thing (the first one was not closing the trunk, of course).

I assumed I would have to use the key to start the car, not the push-button. When I used the key to remove the small plastic piece covering the keyhole, the plastic thing jumped somewhere. I know it's still in the car but I can’t find it. It may have to wait until the spring cleaning.

The information/nav window displayed something like "Loading software..." message. You know - similar to loading something on your PC, with the small bar creeping to the right. When it was done I got the "Hello" message and I could start the car with the button.

At this point I let my friend go and went for a ride to charge the battery. Big surprise - the steering assist, being electric-driven, didn't work in the beginning. It started kicking in for a few seconds and then would go away while I was driving. It is a very strange feeling and one should be very careful especially while driving slowly around the corners.

The info display also reset itself several times. Everything went back to normal after 10 minutes. I still drove for half an hour to make sure I have a full charge.

What was gone was the audio settings – pre-set stations, bass/treble, fade settings. The fuel economy and other stats were gone too. The Bluetooth pairing was OK, though. The other thing that didn’t work was the one-touch window up and down. I had to keep pressing on the button so I had to reset it.

Bottom line: don’t panic and hold the steering wheel steady in your hands.

[mazdaskit]

Dam that sucks... I been reading allot of problems with the new ones members have been having.. maybe Mazda wasn't ready for a 2nd gen 3

[beacherYYZ]

I am really surprized at the number of faults coming to light...

Anyone else care to comment...or do we assume complaints are usually articulated rather than compliments?

[slam525i]

I wouldn't call an accidental user-error a fault with the car...

I do find it odd that the systems don't fully work once the car has started, especially the power steering. Was the power steering light on?

[aerooo]

I don't really blame Mazda for it. I guess the one who didn't close the trunk was...well...me.

The fact that the electric steering worked intermittently is not unusual - the alternator probably cannot produce enough electric power to charge the battery and feed the electric motors in the beginning.

I posted the information so that other fellow drivers know what to expect if they happened to be in my situation. There have been no other side effects for several days now.

[aerooo]

...and, yes, the power steering indicator was lighting up when the assist was off.

[SonicBoy]

I thought the 3 was equiped with the battery run down feature. Does this feature not apply to the trunk?

[Go_Habs_Go]

As Nelson from The Simpsons would say....HA-HA!!! :chuckle

Just kidding, thanks for the tip, I'm sure it will help out other 2010 owners.

[pacmann33]

yeah..not a Mazda issue here..LOL

it is just the way it is with any new tech laden car that has just had a dead battery LOL.

[TheMAN]

please have someone recharge the battery before really driving it

a dead battery puts strain on an alternator and can kill it!

[MattC]

lmao, quality automobile... Cant support a 5 watt light for 7 days...

[slam525i]

5 watt, x 24 hours = 120 Watt-hours. x 7 days = 880 watt hours

I think a normal car battery only holds a little more than 1/2 that.

[Zoom Zoom Boy]

lmao, quality automobile... Cant support a 5 watt light for 7 days...

What does the battery capacity have to do with a quality automobile???:loco

[McGuyver_3]

woth the electric steering do full lock to lock sweep while standing still and it will take out your lights. This happens because the car loses its steering angle and since electric steering is equipped doing full lock to lock will relearn the angle.

The power window up and down press and hold the window button down (aka open) when the window is down wait until you hear a click which will be from the relay learning its set points of how far it is allowed to travel. release hold and continue holding up the window will close all the way and again wait until you hear the click and from the relay which means set point learned. Because the drivers side front window has auto roll up and down feature it has to go through a initialization in order to relearn its set points after either programming or a battery discnect. Nothing out of the ordinary it has to do with the anti trap function

The trip meter resetting continuously could have simply been from the battery being to low of charge nothing out of the ordinary. I have seen it many times at work. The radio stations and bass treble and all that is a given.

[DBond]

I assumed I would have to use the key to start the car, not the push-button. When I used the key to remove the small plastic piece covering the keyhole, the plastic thing jumped somewhere. I know it's still in the car but I can’t find it. It may have to wait until the spring cleaning.




haha the same thing happened to me but luckily I found it pretty quickly. That thing really flies!

[m_bisson]

Bottom line: don’t panic and hold the steering wheel steady in your hands.

Let it idle in the driveway instead? What a great idea :P

[m_bisson]

i don't know how to edit posts. but also, once the battery goes below a certain voltage it's garbage and will NEVER be able to reach a full charge ever again. I used to work for BMW and we had to go to the new car lot and charge 2-3 cars each day so they wouldn't run out of juice.

[aerooo]

Happy to report that the battery is not dead. No issues this winter so far, even on the coldest days.

The battery didn't stay discharged for a long time so it didn't have time to be damaged irreversibly.

[krimsalt]

The information/nav window displayed something like "Loading software..." message. You know - similar to loading something on your PC, with the small bar creeping to the right. When it was done I got the "Hello" message and I could start the car with the button.

At this point I let my friend go and went for a ride to charge the battery. Big surprise - the steering assist, being electric-driven, didn't work in the beginning. It started kicking in for a few seconds and then would go away while I was driving. It is a very strange feeling and one should be very careful especially while driving slowly around the corners.

The info display also reset itself several times. Everything went back to normal after 10 minutes. I still drove for half an hour to make sure I have a full charge.

What was gone was the audio settings – pre-set stations, bass/treble, fade settings. The fuel economy and other stats were gone too. The Bluetooth pairing was OK, though. The other thing that didn’t work was the one-touch window up and down. I had to keep pressing on the button so I had to reset it.



Steering assist wouldnt work at all. the only reason you felt it was working was because when you are up to speed (anywhere passed about 15km/h), the car's inertia itself is enough to turn the wheel without effort
The raeson a lot of electrical wasnot working, would most likely be because as the battery drains, the computer shuts off (reason you had a loading software bar in the beginning). even when your car is off, most of the comptuer is still active (monitoring to see if the keyfob communicates, monitoring alarm system, etc). Your computer also stores the fuel economy stats and radio settings while its on. when the computer shuts off, it loses that information

Also, the computer controls the output and distribution of power from the battery. and as the battery is dead, its very little power until the alternator begins charging more of the battery.
Plus certain parts of most of the car has surge protection chips installed. it shuts off power to most things (radio, pwr mirrors, pwr windows) when it detects too much or too little power going into those devices, to avoid damage.

what you were experiencing with your car is normal, but you may need to have the dealer check the computer to make sure all sytems restarted properly.

any new car, if you drain the battery, very similar things will happen when trying to restart

[SonicBoy]

Does anyone notice the humming sound of the fan in the dash (I assume for the Computer) constantly going? I've not had a chance to leave the window down and check frist thing in the morning without getting in the car.

Does the fan stop after some time or is it drawing on the battery too all the time?

[Jeff-TheBiz]

as soon as you get out and the car locks etc... it goes off.. at first I thought it was the Throttle body..

[Y2M3]

My 10 mazda 3 battery got replaced(keeps draining, cant start the engine) within 10000KM and had my tire changed(bubble on side wall) right after I noticed it! that is ridiculous!

[Jeff-TheBiz]

My 10 mazda 3 battery got replaced(keeps draining, cant start the engine) within 10000KM and had my tire changed(bubble on side wall) right after I noticed it! that is ridiculous!

Battery is like $5.. whats the deal with the tire?

[SonicBoy]

Which battery is Y2M3 referring to? Car or remote?

[Y2M3]

Which battery is Y2M3 referring to? Car or remote?

car

[Jeff-TheBiz]

Battery is like $5.. whats the deal with the tire?

Which battery is Y2M3 referring to? Car or remote?

car

Disregard the $5 comment.. sounds like a much larger issue.. Take it in and have someone figure out why it died.

[Y2M3]

I went to the dealer and got it replaced for free. I got my tire replaced for free as well.

Disregard the $5 comment.. sounds like a much larger issue.. Take it in and have someone figure out why it died.

[Rjohal]

I have had the same issue. My 2010 Maz 3 2.5 GT SPort has been in the shop for almost 8 weeks. Under warranty.
http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?61521-2010-Mazda-3-GT-2-5-sport-low-miles&p=905172#post905172