While on vacation, my 2006 Lucerne sat for a couple weeks. When I tried to start it, the battery was DEAD. My dealer''s service mgr tells me, because of all the electronics (On Star, etc.) I need to run the car every 2-3 days to keep the battery up. I find this hard to believe. Hard to believe the battery can not hold a charge for two weeks.No mention of this in the owners manual. Anyone have experienced this? I welcome any comments.
THANKS
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My 2007 sits for at least a month at a time as I have two summer cars, I have never had a dead battery when I switch cars around.
I do believe no car likes to sit for any time and that is why I do not let any of my cars sit for more than a month. Even in the winter time I take out both of my summer cars when the roads are dry.
Back when I stored the summer cars I would put in gas additives, remove the battery to indoors and on a trickel charger and either put the car on jackstands or special pads to stop flat spoting the tires.
I think your service advisor is blowing smoke up your skirt.
Mike

 

As both of you know at this time no two vehicles are the same and the way they are used isn't the same either. With that said, considering the age of the 2006 and the amount of time driven and electrical loads placed on the vehicle it could affect the state of charge of the battery. I would think the advice given to run the vehicle more frequently was given to "make sure" the battery didn't have time to discharge completely and cause a no start condition. Five years is not an unreasonable amount of time to consider replacing the battery especially since we don't know the conditions under which the vehicle is used and mileage is not the only consideration here.
For example, if the charging system is not operating at the designed level that battery may require a much longer time to become fully charged. The warning lites do not come on all the time when something is operating at the low level of the range considered adequate for "normal" use.

 

I do not disagree with what Hank had to say but 2 to 3 days is what I question and on most newer cars if say the interior light is left on my 2007 will shut it off by it self.
Onstar and electronic memory stuff (radio presets) are not that much of a load that they will kill a good working Battery in 2 to 3 days.
My 2007 has orginial, 2002 is on its third (just yesterday replaced) and 1980 no idea but I have owned it since 2007 with no change.
Mike

 

Hi Mike,
If anyone should know how cold weather can affect battery life you should.
Most modern vehicles today contain "battery saver hardware" and when functioning correctly they do the job.
There are some instances where the new vehicles have many modules controlling many functions and one is the vehicle can sense when the key is in the area the modules don't all turn off, (go to sleep) and that can cause a battery drain OVERNIGHT !
There was an instance where the husband's and wife's vehicles were parked in the same garage and the battery in the newer vehicle kept going dead by morning. It was caused by the spouse's key being too close to the newer vehicle and preventing the modules from going into sleep mode. It's weird , but nonetheless, can be a problem.

 

I have never owned a car with "key sense" but searching the web did not find one artical on what you are talking about.

Did find lots on how long a good working battery can sit before not starting and not one was 2 to 3 days.

Can cold weather effect battery performance yes it can but the question by the member was for a recent problem, not months from now.

 

I own a 2006 Lucerne. In Sept 2011, my husband and I were taking a road trip thru the mountains. Our insurance agent had "given" us a year of free Onstar, so we signed up for it. We were leaving the next morning, loaded the car with everything, and guess what? Battery was dead. Husband jumped the battery and we took car to local dealership. Battery was bad - needed a new one. So off we go from central Florida to North Georgia. Car sat all night Saturday night, Sunday and Sunday night...got ready to leave on Monday morning...battery was dead. Called AAA and then went to dealership in Gainesville, GA. Decided not to buy another battery because car would only be sitting about 8 hours every night. We got home and took the car back to local dealership. They checked everything and told me it was my radio pulling the battery down. Only $700 and they could replace it. No way! I could live without radio. They took fuses out and left them out. Next day, I was cleaning car and noticed a static noise coming from rear speakers. It couldn't be the radio...fuses were out. Got out manual and did some research....took Onstar fuses out and problem was solved. We haven't had another problem with the battery.