CX-5 would not start after leaving accessory light on

T

tfalse99

Member
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Mazda, CX-5 GT
Wanted to share with you what my wife experienced and get some comments/thoughts.

I received a call from her saying the car would not start (2016 CX-5 GT w/Nav).... The way she described it the battery was dead... Nothing turned on and no dashboard lights....HOWEVER she was able to get in the car with the key fob.... But again when trying to start the car nothing would happen and no dashboard lights.
A friend tried to jump the car and was not able to (since it was not me that tried to jump the car I can only assume they were doing it right).....
my wife feels she left the car with the accessory lights on (engine off/accessory lights on)..... she left the car this way for about six hours.....
Next the neighbor that was helping her figured she'd left the car on and the car ran out of gas.... I'm not sure if he tried to put a little gas in... Or tried to jump it again but he finally was able to get it to start.....

I'm puzzled because it turns out it had plenty of gas in the car.... The only thing I can think of is she left the accessory lights on and drain the battery and eventually jumping the battery work.

Any thoughts or similar experiences?
 
Yep, been there done that, got the embarrassing Tee shirt...

I was able to jump my back to life.. though I had to go to the dealer due to the infotainment system stuck in the "loading" loop... hope you get it started... got it tow to the dealer if it's not to far.
video of what my dash did as I tried to start it..
https://youtu.be/LAdeQiv3WdE
 
None of the interior lights will stay on for more than 20 minutes. You can't even leave the ignition in the accessory position for more than 20 minutes so don't know what went on there.
 
Anchorman said:
None of the interior lights will stay on for more than 20 minutes. You can't even leave the ignition in the accessory position for more than 20 minutes so don't know what went on there.
Click to expand...

Right, according to the owner's manual if the ignition is left in the ACC position it will turn itself off after 20 mins.
 
It happened twice, to my 2014 Touring. Once completely dead battery, no lights nothing turned on. I did not drive the car on the weekend, at all. Monday, I have found it dead. Came home from work, I did not have to use any lights, since it was like 3PM. No explanation.
Second time, it still had some juice in it, but did not have enough power to turn the motor over, it was just clicking.
Now the third time(over a week ago) again, but this time the battery was bad. 3 years and two months old battery, with 25k miles on the car.
 
Could be battery is failing. It's a bit early, but there's a bell curve and some will fall on the early failure side. I'd have the battery tested and check connections for corrosion or looseness. Dealer can handle it and these are covered under warranty.
 
Team

Appreciate everyone's comments related to this.... I called Mazda and discussed this with one of the mechanics. It turns out the car does NOT turn off if left in accessory mode after 20 minutes.... I also validated this in my driveway.... He said the accessory mode (lights etc.) Will stay on and drain the battery.....( yes I agree a 20 minute automatic shut off would make sense).
So he feels that it was a simple dead battery.... Even though I tried to jump it the first time unsuccessfully when I tried the second time it started.... He felt I simply didn't give the battery enough time to trickle charge.

Thanks again for your comments
 
Not sure what mode but when listening to the radio with the car engine off it automatically turns off in 20 minutes. I know because its my queue to go back to work LOL :)
 
Anchorman said:
None of the interior lights will stay on for more than 20 minutes. You can't even leave the ignition in the accessory position for more than 20 minutes so don't know what went on there.
Click to expand...

They will if somebody reaches up and turns one of the overhead lights on. My grandson did when we were parking to go see a baseball game. We came back about 4.5 hrs later (they went to 13 innings) and I noticed the backseat overhead light was on. It's not a good area of town and it was after midnight. Luckily the car started.
I would imagine it would take more than 24hrs for one of those little .5 watt bulbs to drain the battery.
It would be nice if they shutdown after 30 minutes or so.
 
craigo said:
Could be battery is failing. It's a bit early, but there's a bell curve and some will fall on the early failure side. I'd have the battery tested and check connections for corrosion or looseness. Dealer can handle it and these are covered under warranty.
Click to expand...

MTBF follows a poisson, rather than a gaussian distribution.
 
wlong01 said:
They will if somebody reaches up and turns one of the overhead lights on. My grandson did when we were parking to go see a baseball game. We came back about 4.5 hrs later (they went to 13 innings) and I noticed the backseat overhead light was on. It's not a good area of town and it was after midnight. Luckily the car started.
I would imagine it would take more than 24hrs for one of those little .5 watt bulbs to drain the battery.
It would be nice if they shutdown after 30 minutes or so.
Click to expand...

I accidently left one of the interior overhead lights on (on the drivers side) over the weekend and it turned itself off. I don't know how long it took but it worked as advertised.
 
Conrad 16.5 said:
I accidently left one of the interior overhead lights on (on the drivers side) over the weekend and it turned itself off. I don't know how long it took but it worked as advertised.
Click to expand...

How did you know you left it on if it had already turned off? Did you actually see it turn off? The lights don't have an on/off so you can't tell what position it's in by looking at it. It's a rocker switch.
 
wlong01 said:
How did you know you left it on if it had already turned off? Did you actually see it turn off? The lights don't have an on/off so you can't tell what position it's in by looking at it. It's a rocker switch.
Click to expand...

Not that hard to figure out you know. I walked up to the car and I could not see any interior lights on. I started the car and when all of the interior lights went off except for the one that I left on I kinda figured out that I left that one on.

There's a three position rocker switch (and you can tell just by looking what position it's in) in the overhead console that will turn all the interior lights on and if you press the light bezel itself it will just that light on. That's the light I left on.
 
The 2016s, have that turn off option, but the earlier ones don't. At least, that is what I have read on this forum.
 
wlong01 said:
They will if somebody reaches up and turns one of the overhead lights on. My grandson did when we were parking to go see a baseball game. We came back about 4.5 hrs later (they went to 13 innings) and I noticed the backseat overhead light was on. It's not a good area of town and it was after midnight. Luckily the car started.
I would imagine it would take more than 24hrs for one of those little .5 watt bulbs to drain the battery.
It would be nice if they shutdown after 30 minutes or so.
Click to expand...

This has happened to our CX-5. Pushed one of those interior lights and did not turn it off.
 
It seems that if you push start without your foot on the brake there are at least 14 different modes other then off. I know that is not true but it seems that way. I have got to the point that I will start the car, then shut it off so I know it is off.

It is amazing how quickly the battery will go dead. I am just short of 3 years on the battery but at one month old I drained it in about half. Hr by leaving the ignition on or acc or something for about 30 min. I turned it on to put the windows up.
 
I just had to replace the battery on my 2014 GT. It has ~26,000 miles. Costco's $79 Interstate fit like a glove. Removal/installation were easy. The OEM battery seemed a little weak over the past year. I took it for a long drive then parked it for 6 days, and the fobs would not even unlock the car. I couldn't jump it successfully either, which saved me some money as if it had started I would have taken it to Firestone and paid $130 to have them put in the same battery. All I had to reset were the clock and the radio stations.
 
Not sure how you could even leave a light on in this thing. The other night I went out to the car to look for something, turned the overhead light on, and forgot to turn it off as I left. When I locked the door and started to walk away.... I got out of remote key range and the horn started beeping like crazy! It's a new car and I'm still not familiar with all its quirks, so I went back, started up the engine and turned it off, only for it to honk at me again when I walked away. It took me a few times before I finally realized that I had forgotten to turn off the overhead light. Then all was well.
 
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