Is it possible for a car to have dead battery after one day not using it?

Asked by questionguru May 26, 2020 at 05:42 PM about the 2020 Toyota RAV4 XLE FWD

Question type: General

We just bought RAV4 2020 last month.
Did not use the car for one day and
battery is dead. Called the road side
assistance and jump start the car.
Brought it to the dealer ship and
cannot find anything wrong. I think
there is systematic error in the
manufacturing process for RAV4 2020.
Especially that it happens to many
clients already.

14 Answers

41,150

Keep on hounding the dealership and Toyota corporate till the situation is rectified.

1 people found this helpful.

I don't know about Toyota but some car makers install pathetic batteries that won't hold a charge. Use your warranty! You probably also have tow coverage.

10

This happened to me too... if only owned the vehicle for a month. However it also happened to my mom and her new Subaru..the answer was told to me by the mechanic who AAA sent to boost my battery.... are you ready for this? Apparently the newer cars are "search UK ng/scanning" for the keys. As soon as we both started leaving our keys farther away... like 2 rooms away... the problem was solved!

1 people found this helpful.
425

Make sure you call 800-331-4331 Toyota Customer Experience to file a complaint. We had the same problem; 2020 Rav4 XLE AWB sat for 2 days. Keep the key fob at least 30 feet from the car, no idea if that's the problem but did hear from the Toyota tech who jumped the car and a dealer tech that the fob keeps in contact with the car. Take to the dealer and have them; 1. Do a full charge; should be 12.6 volts. If not, that's a problem. 2. Do a parasitic drain test. 3. Get the print out of the diagnostic.

425

Ed92626 - thank you for the reply. Agree with you the most likely cause is cheap battery. The dealer will use their battery tester to charge and test. Keeping the key fob away is one less thing for the dealer to try to blame. Call Toyota to log your complaint.

90

you need to call Toyota headquarters and Natl Highway Safety Comission to file complaints. The issue of battery was admitted to me today from a general manager and a salesman in a different state. Did they know about this when they sold it to me? I think so. They said fix is due by Aug 17 and is only a problem on South East coast and west coast. I was told I need to run it everyday for 20 min while it sits in my driveway. I don't think so. I'm asking for a loaner until they can fix. I gave them 40,000 dollars. They gave me an unsafe vehicle. Three strikes= Lemon law. I have no car security right now.

My Toyota Rav 4 hybrid limited is totally dead. 30 miles from nearest town called for a tow. They couldn’t move it because I brakes are locked. Calling for a jump now. Thanks for the information on this thread. I had no idea what was going on

70

You guys should disable auto hand break feature. My battery was dead two times. After i disabled the auto hand break, never have dead battery again.

This just happened to us. Out of town for 3 days and came back to a dead battery. 2 months old and 1800 mi. Towed to dealership and they replaced the battery. I have my doubts on the battery and think something else is drawing it down slowly.

140

Yes. I have a new theory why we are having our RAV4 batteries die. The car is using battery to keep an internet connection alive. the toyota app queries the car in real time for such silly things as mileage and tire pressure, eating precious battery power. To answer your question, hour car was having its battery lowered while it sat in the dealer lot before you purchased it. Mine too, and mine died a couple of weeks after i bought it. Can someone please tell us how to stop the car from maintaining active communication with apps?

140

I think you can do one more thing. Get a battery that has more reserve power. Two that the auto stores say are compatible with the RAV4 are the DieHard Platinum and the Optima Redtop. I asked one auto writer about this and he said it was a good idea.

970

If the battery is dead after a day or so on no use, you porbably just need a new battery

2 people found this helpful.
10

I have a 2019 RAV4 XLE hybrid. The first time the battery died was May 2020. The second was December 2021. Toyota service said there was a tracking device factory installed that was drawing power (even though we don't subscribe to the tracking service). They removed it and I hope that fixes the problem. I asked them about the TSB 0095-20 and they said my VIN wasn't in the TSB list.

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