Car hasn't been driven in about 3 weeks. When I went to go start it today, it appears that the battery had died.

Before my Sunday drive, do you think I should jump start it, or charge it over the weekend using an at home charger?

I am going to get the charger regardless since it's not driven much, but in regards to getting it running before Sunday, what would you suggest I do?

I usually take the car out on weekends, or a couple times a month.

 

If your battery is completely depleted, a floating charger will not work. It does not have the oomph to reload it completely from grounds up. In that case, you may have to use a beefier charger capable of taking care of deep levels of depletion.

You should run your car more often or disconnect the battery when not in use...or even better leave it on a floating charger.

Yves

 

I'm a weekender as well & I just got into the habit of plugging it in always even overnight.
Just a habit I developed.
If the battery is totally fried and more than say 4 years old, I'd replace it.

 

Take the battery out and have it charged up at Autozone. Then use that CTEK charger I linked you to.

 

Or replace it...notorious weak link with p-cars. If this is the original battery, it may be near its end and not holding a charge is one indicator. It may take a charge, start your car just fine and then be dead in 8 hours - it can happen that fast.

 

I had this issue recently back in Jan or so under the same circumstances, jumped the car and it started however after I parked and came out it wouldn't start. Battery was a goner and had to be replaced. Lesson learned for me, use a Ctek battery maintainer when car is not driven.

This is the P car's Achilles tendon as it seems.

 

Do these cars not give a dash warning when the battery first starts getting low?. For example; Mercedes that I ve had give you a low battery message on the dash before it gets to the point where it won t start.

 

No warning.

 

Dash warning is for alternator, not batt

Battery can be tested before u replace it. Always keep car on tender if not driven for 1-2 wks or more. This makes your batt last twice longer

 

And that's basically what happened....

Before jump starting it this morning, I decided to hook it up to a trickle charger overnight just to see if it would work. Surprisingly, the car started just fine this morning, so I decided to give it some exercise and took it for a 45 minute drive. Went to get my coffee, came out, and it wouldn't start again.

I ended up calling roadside and having the car jump started, and drove straight to autozone around the corner from my house. They tested the battery and confirmed it was bad but had a charge, so I figured I'd take it to the dealer tomorrow and have them look at a few other things while it was there.

The only problem, was that the car now wouldn't start when I tried leaving autozone . I ended up purchasing a duralast gold battery with a 5-year warranty as was suggested by this thread: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...mendation.html

The car seems to be running fine now. Thanks for all your input & suggestions!

 

FWIW, I've been advised by shops that jump-starting is not recommended due to potential damage to sensitive electronics.

 

I had a similar thing happen (minus the getting stranded)
Ended up getting a new P OEM battery at 240 USD and installed it myself 10 minute job.
You can get repalcement batteries and a gazillion choices out there. Luckily this is not like me 335i that has gel batteries which need "programmed" by the dealer when you replace it. (350 for bat 150 for reprogramming, ouch) On the other hand that battery has been going strong for 6 years! (now that I said that it will not start next week :-) )