Why does my damn car die if it's left alone for more than 48 hours

BDS · Mar 2, 2020

In December 2018, I bought a brand new 2018 Mazda 3. I love it and it's a great car, except there's one problem. The damn thing dies if left alone for more than 48 hours. The first instance happened in July, where I got in the car on a warm Monday morning to find that it would not start. I had left the car alone since around 3:40PM on Friday afternoon, had a lazy weekend where I never drove anywhere, and the battery apparently died in that time. I called Mazda roadside assistance and they jumped the car and everything was fine.

Now this morning, the same thing happened. I got out of the car around 4PM on Friday, and now on Monday morning it's dead again. In December I actually went and bought a new battery from Costco since my dad said the one it came with was so weak, and yet it still died after 48 hours of inactivity. So now, as I sit here waiting for the jump again, I figured I'd ask you folks since I don't know much about cars. It's still under warranty, so I might have Mazda take a look at it.

It's worth noting -- I have a dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter, and I believe it continues running even when the car is off. But I can't imagine it's drawing that much power that it sucks the entire battery dry in two days. Am I off base here?

VaporSnake · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
It's worth noting -- I have a dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter, and I believe it continues running even when the car is off. But I can't imagine it's drawing that much power that it sucks the entire battery dry in two days. Am I off base here?

Case solved. Unplug it when you turn your car off dude.

Okii · Mar 2, 2020

Yeah you answered your own question I think ^^^

The Boat · Mar 2, 2020

Yup, it's most likely the dash cam.

Max|Payne · Mar 2, 2020

Try unplugging the dash camera and see if that what's causing it. If it still dies, maybe you have a faulty battery or some other component draining the battery when it shouldn't.

ThreePi · Mar 2, 2020

Dash cam would be the obvious first thing to look at. You could get a fuse tap and power it directly out of your fuse box so that it only turns on when the car is running. Otherwise, vampire draw is a thing, and you may have something else using the battery while the car is off.

kyle mechlachlan · Mar 2, 2020

I had this problem when I had a car a few years ago. It would sit on the side of the road for a few days before using and it would be dead. Never confirmed it to be the case, but leading theory was that it was the automatic car starter I had.

Lord Fagan · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
It's worth noting -- I have a dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter, and I believe it continues running even when the car is off. But I can't imagine it's drawing that much power that it sucks the entire battery dry in two days. Am I off base here?

...yeah?

Have you tried not plugging the dashcam in for a few days and seeing what happens?

3bdelilah · Mar 2, 2020

I mean what do you want us to tell ya? It's probably the dash cam sucking up the battery, so start there, but if it's not, then you have a faulty battery and you should take it back to wherever you bought it.

BDS · Mar 2, 2020

The thing is, millions of people own dashcams and I'm sure many of them leave their car unattended, but in my internet searches the most I could really find was people saying it's hypothetically possible for one to drain a battery; it certainly doesn't appear to be a widespread thing. If dashcams draining batteries was some kind of rampant, widespread problem, why would anyone buy one?

Having to unplug the dashcam every time I leave the car unattended is stupid and sort of defeats the purpose of leaving it running in the first place.

whatsinaname · Mar 2, 2020

You shouldn't have bought a new battery. The first rule is - if your car is under warranty, take it to the dealer.

BDS said:
It's worth noting -- I have a dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter, and I believe it continues running even when the car is off. But I can't imagine it's drawing that much power that it sucks the entire battery dry in two days. Am I off base here?

How are you getting the dashcam to run continuously from the cigarette lighter port? Mine is always pluggged into the cigarette lighter but that isn't powered when the car is switched off.

Most dashcams with a parking mode do also come with a drain prevention module. Was that installed?

Gernau Morat Gurgeh · Mar 2, 2020

Unplug the camera and see what happens. If that doesn't solve it there might be something wrong with your battery.

Brood · Mar 2, 2020

It's either the dashcam or a battery drain. Check out Scotty Kilmer on Youtube. He's an old mechanic who has many videos on how to fix your car. I remember watching one of his videos on Battery drain and what causes them.

808s & Villainy · Mar 2, 2020

VaporSnake · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
The thing is, millions of people own dashcams and I'm sure many of them leave their car unattended, but in my internet searches the most I could really find was people saying it's hypothetically possible for one to drain a battery; it certainly doesn't appear to be a widespread thing. If dashcams draining batteries was some kind of rampant, widespread problem, why would anyone buy one?

Having to unplug the dashcam every time I leave the car unattended is stupid and sort of defeats the purpose of leaving it running in the first place.

I googled the dashcam thing and immediately found posts that, yes, it would indeed drain your battery, I don't know what to tell you, it's pretty obvious what's happening here, if something is constantly using a battery, what exactly do you think is going to happen after a few days?

jfkgoblue · Mar 2, 2020

Yeah it is 100% the dashcam

Chopchop · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
The thing is, millions of people own dashcams and I'm sure many of them leave their car unattended, but in my internet searches the most I could really find was people saying it's hypothetically possible for one to drain a battery; it certainly doesn't appear to be a widespread thing. If dashcams draining batteries was some kind of rampant, widespread problem, why would anyone buy one?

Having to unplug the dashcam every time I leave the car unattended is stupid and sort of defeats the purpose of leaving it running in the first place.

I think many dash cams either don't run when the car is off, or have an onboard battery. You may just need a different dash cam, or change the settings on it so that it turns off when your car is off for a certain amount of time. I think most cams call that parking mode.

I'd try unplugging the dash cam first and see if that solves the issue. Leaving something on in your car can drain it faster than you might think. I left the little ceiling light on in my car once, and it drained the battery in a week or so.

DickGrayson · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
The thing is, millions of people own dashcams and I'm sure many of them leave their car unattended, but in my internet searches the most I could really find was people saying it's hypothetically possible for one to drain a battery; it certainly doesn't appear to be a widespread thing. If dashcams draining batteries was some kind of rampant, widespread problem, why would anyone buy one?

Having to unplug the dashcam every time I leave the car unattended is stupid and sort of defeats the purpose of leaving it running in the first place.

Basic troubleshooting, first step, unplug the dashcam and see if that's the cause.

After you realize that's what's causing it, then you can complain about it.

neoak · Mar 2, 2020

Why didn't OP try unplugging the dashcam once in the last 7 months before making the thread?

kami_sama · Mar 2, 2020

Dude.
At least try the dashcam, do not start saying that it isn't the culprit without testing.

Tigress · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
In December 2018, I bought a brand new 2018 Mazda 3. I love it and it's a great car, except there's one problem. The damn thing dies if left alone for more than 48 hours. The first instance happened in July, where I got in the car on a warm Monday morning to find that it would not start. I had left the car alone since around 3:40PM on Friday afternoon, had a lazy weekend where I never drove anywhere, and the battery apparently died in that time. I called Mazda roadside assistance and they jumped the car and everything was fine.

Now this morning, the same thing happened. I got out of the car around 4PM on Friday, and now on Monday morning it's dead again. In December I actually went and bought a new battery from Costco since my dad said the one it came with was so weak, and yet it still died after 48 hours of inactivity. So now, as I sit here waiting for the jump again, I figured I'd ask you folks since I don't know much about cars. It's still under warranty, so I might have Mazda take a look at it.

It's worth noting -- I have a dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter, and I believe it continues running even when the car is off. But I can't imagine it's drawing that much power that it sucks the entire battery dry in two days. Am I off base here?

I'm going to guess something (like your dashcam) has a slow drain in your car. My car dies after 1-2 weeks (Depending on weather) of non use and it's because they put a smallish battery in it (probably to save weight). Or at least when we look up the problem it's pretty well known on my car. I'm pretty sure the alarm system is what drains it in mine (I can't think of anything else that might run on it when the car is off), but mine is slow enough it's only a problem when I go on vacation (or back when I had a motorcycle when I hadn't used the car in a week or two cause I was riding to work).

Ryuelli · Mar 2, 2020

It's an extroverted car and thrives on socialization.

Deleted member 11985 · Mar 2, 2020

Go through your dashcam settings and disable all the stupid extra features it has so that it's simply just a camera that turns on when you start the car, and turns off when you stop the car. My dashcam had a bunch of extra stuff like where it would automatically turn on if it sensed movement in front of the car, but that sounded really janky to me so I disabled it, and this thread seems to confirm my suspicions.

BDS · Mar 2, 2020

Everyone saying "Just unplug the dashcam" lol, no shit, except the thing is that in order to test that as a variable I'd need to stay home all weekend and not touch the car, which is actually not common, believe it or not. This has only occurred twice in 15 months.

Obviously, the next time I think I might not go anywhere I'll leave it unplugged and see what happens. But that could be six months from now.

GrimGrinningGuy · Mar 2, 2020

Fistfulofmetal said:
I had this problem when I had a car a few years ago. It would sit on the side of the road for a few days before using and it would be dead. Never confirmed it to be the case, but leading theory was that it was the automatic car starter I had.

This could also be it. Some after market automatic car starters draw power even when off and cause batteries to die aftera few days of no use

But unplug the camera dude and at least see

Deleted member 227 · Mar 2, 2020

neoak said:
Why didn't OP try unplugging the dashcam once in the last 7 months before making the thread?

Tapiozona · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
The thing is, millions of people own dashcams and I'm sure many of them leave their car unattended, but in my internet searches the most I could really find was people saying it's hypothetically possible for one to drain a battery; it certainly doesn't appear to be a widespread thing. If dashcams draining batteries was some kind of rampant, widespread problem, why would anyone buy one?

Having to unplug the dashcam every time I leave the car unattended is stupid and sort of defeats the purpose of leaving it running in the first place.

I mean I get it and all that but I think we're all amazed that you never even bothered to try unplugging the dash cam even once to see if that was the problem.

Instead you've suffered through hardship after hardship of having to replace and jump your battery multiple times. Would have taken less effort to unplug it than to unlock your phone, let alone make this thread where you gave us the likely answer.

DickGrayson · Mar 2, 2020

neoak said:
Why didn't OP try unplugging the dashcam once in the last 7 months before making the thread?

People don't understand troubleshooting.

Max|Payne · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
Everyone saying "Just unplug the dashcam" lol, no shit, except the thing is that in order to test that as a variable I'd need to stay home all weekend and not touch the car, which is actually not common, believe it or not. This has only occurred twice in 15 months.

Obviously, the next time I think I might not go anywhere I'll leave it unplugged and see what happens. But that could be six months from now.

Start doing it anyway, just in case.

Plywood · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
Everyone saying "Just unplug the dashcam" lol, no shit, except the thing is that in order to test that as a variable I'd need to stay home all weekend and not touch the car, which is actually not common, believe it or not. This has only occurred twice in 15 months.

Obviously, the next time I think I might not go anywhere I'll leave it unplugged and see what happens. But that could be six months from now.

Still a good idea to form a habit of unplugging it whenever you're not using it.

Wackamole · Mar 2, 2020

Never leave things plugged that drain the battery.

Maybe the battery isn't working properly.

MrKlaw · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
The thing is, millions of people own dashcams and I'm sure many of them leave their car unattended, but in my internet searches the most I could really find was people saying it's hypothetically possible for one to drain a battery; it certainly doesn't appear to be a widespread thing. If dashcams draining batteries was some kind of rampant, widespread problem, why would anyone buy one?

Having to unplug the dashcam every time I leave the car unattended is stupid and sort of defeats the purpose of leaving it running in the first place.

the vast majority of cars probably power down the cigarette lighter after 10-20 mins of turning the car off

when I looked for a dash cam there were lots of discussions on how to keep the power on because of this - general response being you need dedicated power, or a battery cutoff circuit to shit down the dash an before your battery runs flat

subpar spatula · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
Everyone saying "Just unplug the dashcam" lol, no shit, except the thing is that in order to test that as a variable I'd need to stay home all weekend and not touch the car, which is actually not common, believe it or not. This has only occurred twice in 15 months.

Obviously, the next time I think I might not go anywhere I'll leave it unplugged and see what happens. But that could be six months from now.

What do you want people to say? You literally admitted your dashcam is in the cigarette lighter and assumes it uses power while the car is off. if anything, your dash cam drains, your fuse sucks, and your car is shorting out because of or any of the three.

Do you want people to start a service check on your vehicle from the Internet?

3bdelilah · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
Everyone saying "Just unplug the dashcam" lol, no shit, except the thing is that in order to test that as a variable I'd need to stay home all weekend and not touch the car, which is actually not common, believe it or not. This has only occurred twice in 15 months.

Obviously, the next time I think I might not go anywhere I'll leave it unplugged and see what happens. But that could be six months from now.

I mean other than that what can we say? We know nothing about your car, and you've only provided us with one variable that might indicate - however unlikely - that the dash cam is causing some issues. It's not a surprise that many people would point at that as a potential solution. The next best guess would be that you have a faulty battery to begin with, and you'd have to have it checked at in a garage.

VaporSnake · Mar 2, 2020

BDS said:
Everyone saying "Just unplug the dashcam" lol, no shit

Gotta love someone who couldn't figure out that yes, something consistently using a battery would indeed drain it to depletion, is apparently incapable of easily using google to confirm this suspicion and resorts to a lengthy forum post asking what's wrong, is now telling us how obvious this solution is.

You're welcome by the way.

TheIlliterati · Mar 2, 2020

If you leave an interior light on your car could die in a day or two. Its the dashcam.

Change thread title to "I know my dashcam is draining my battery, several times over, should I unplug it?"

BDS · Mar 2, 2020

MrKlaw said:
the vast majority of cars probably power down the cigarette lighter after 10-20 mins of turning the car off

See, that's how I thought it worked...how is it even running off the cigarette lighter port at all? It's confusing to me.

MattyG · Mar 2, 2020

You don't need to test it, it's the dashcam. I've had my battery die by leaving an FM transmitter plugged in too long, and I'd imagine a dash cam is way more draining. And this would be exacerbated if it's cold out

Tapiozona · Mar 2, 2020

sonnyboy · Mar 2, 2020

There's something you can purchase that will cut the dashcam once your battery reaches a certain level of depletion. I'd recommend that.

BDS · Mar 2, 2020

VaporSnake said:
Gotta love someone who couldn't figure out that yes, something consistently using a battery would indeed drain it to depletion, is apparently incapable of easily using google to confirm this suspicion and resorts to a lengthy forum post asking what's wrong, is now telling us how obvious this solution is.

You're welcome by the way.

I actually did unplug the dash cam each weekend after the first problem in July, but after I replaced the battery I figured that was the end of the inconvenience and stopped doing it.

Lebron · Mar 2, 2020

I had a 2014 Mazda 3 back in the day. If I left the damn interior light on overnight, the car battery would die and need a jump. This is like basic car 101 of not doing dumbs.

if you leave your cam on, it will drain the battery. Maybe not as fast, but it will. As you have already identified.

Unplug it

BlackSalad · Mar 2, 2020

"how can just a dashcam drain so much power"

its not that its draining a lot of power, its that it takes a lot of power to start a car. It can be anywhere from 200-400 amps to start a car, and your battery is most likely 48 amp hours or even less.

Plus having a constant draw on the battery for months is not good for the battery itself

Fat4all · Mar 2, 2020

do you have a gyro meat cooker plugged into your car

Fat4all · Mar 2, 2020

can you sell me some gyro meat at 2 am

TheZynster · Mar 2, 2020

You don't need to be gone all weekend or let it sit days to find out.

Take your battery reading the night before with a multimeter. Leave cam plugged in, taking reading in the morning.....mark end results. Now do the same the next night with it unplugged

see how much of a difference in voltage dropped and compare

99% most likely your car doesn't shut off the cigarette port, so if anything is plugged in, it stays on.

The Namekian · Mar 2, 2020

It dies from loneliness

ChippyTurtle · Mar 2, 2020

Fat4all said:
can you sell me some gyro meat at 2 am

are those glasses on a dog or a paper printed of its eyes?

OP, i had a metal thingy (i think used to supposed to keep the battery in place, but got loose) that hit the battery terminal and was draining it.

XSX · Mar 2, 2020

DickGrayson · Mar 2, 2020

The Namekian said:
It dies from loneliness

;_;

Why does my damn car die if it's left alone for more than 48 hours

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