I left my key in the ignition today and killed the battery...very dead.

AAA came out and gave it a jumped it and it started right away. Now 2 things are happening.

1) Air Bag Light Is On

2) On my 20min drive to charge the battery Im not getting an alternator whine...sound you get when something is not ground correctly. Like where the pitch changes as the engine revs change? Could this be because the battery is still not fully charged?

Please help on both.

He AAA person did have to put the jumper in the fuse box to pop the hood to get to the battery.

I know worst case the dealer can reset the airbag light but it's the grounding thing that has me worried.

Thanks!

 

How old is that battery? If not too old, recharge the thing at home and then see if the error lights clear. If it's more than several years old, I'd just replace the whole thing and see if the codes clear. If you go the replacement route, don't go to the dealer, go to Sears or Walmart or Autozone and save yourself some cash. And still end up with a better battery than OEM.

Re: alternator whine - you mean on the radio? I only used to hear that on my old cars. Not sure what to tell you here...

 

+1, charge your battery overnight and then see what's going on. Once you know your battery is good then start diagnosing the other issues.

 

The alternator is not what I'd use to recharge a very low battery. For one thing the alternator needs battery power as this is used to energize the field coil which is needed for the alternator to produce electricity.

The whine is probably the alternator flogging its brains out to recharge the battery.

I'd replace the battery with a new one.

And let the alternator go back to doing what it is intended to do: Top up the battery from what it loses from an engine start. If you need to recharge a battery use a proper battery charger.

 

Agree - OP asked the same question on RL 3 days ago and that's exactly what I suggested - replace the battery. These cars start to act strange when the battery is on its last legs.

 

Thanks for all of the input. Everything is back to normal now.

 

And the fix was.......

?????????

 

The whine sound went away once the alternator charge the battery totally full. The airbag light had to be reset quickly by the dealer. Took about 30 seconds.