Battery dies when it gets cold .
Asked by ocean69 Mar 03, 2015 at 10:52 AM about the 2008 Saturn Astra XE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I have 2008 Saturn Astra, Since November I have put in two new batteries, in the last year have changed the alternator, changed the air filter and I already changed out the coil and h2 sensor. I went from check engine light to battery light and car service light. Anyone know why my battery keeps dying.
3 Answers
I am having the same problem with my 2008 Saturn Astra. New battery, new alternator. Mine kept dying on me at traffic lights. But It would crank right up. Then this morning when I got ready to leave the house the car would not start. I had my daughter jump me off ( the trunk wouldn't open so I could get cables out) and it crank just fine. Had battery tested. It is good. I need an answer also.
in these GM cars they are bad about having a "ghost charge" this mean that something is drawing power when normally it should be off and thus draining the battery, and if the power level is low enough the cold night can freeze the battery making it junk, you can do one of two things you can either find a way to disconnect the battery or find the ghost charge, also if the nights get cold enough it wont matter what you do since cooler temps will drain the battery anyway, at that point you need to find a way to keep the battery warmer, like removing it from the car and bring it inside
H,,I was having the same problem with my 2008 Astra SE (which I love!) with my battery dying/draining many,many,many times for no apparent reason...I felt that I had tried everything until I discovered that....(drum roll)... my glove box light had been on burning bright CONTINUOSLY 24/7!!....for months/years with the car parked or driven and with the alarm on or off...and with the glove box door shut you had no way of realizing that it was on! Then on a hunch I put my digital camera in the glove box on an automatic10 second timed flash....closed the glove box door...and there was the culprit! My just taken picture showed that the glove box light was indeed on without shutting off when the glove box door was in the closed position! That giant glove box bulb was draining my battery slowly but surely! I have since pulled out the bulb in the glove box and my problem has been solved! I can tell that the previous owner had also replaced the battery and alternator trying to fix the problem without success and that may have been a contributing factor to them selling the car! A dead battery is no fun!
