Dead battery

First off, happy Father's Day to all our SJ dads out there.

Anyhooo, I had an early morning as my lady friend called and alerted me about her Highlander Hybrid being dead. I figured it was a quick fix - just use the cables with my car and jump start it. Oh, but no. Every time I attached the cable to the ground, the alarm would go off. Her keyless entry would not work either. So, hitting her panic/alarm button on it to shut it off did not work. By the third time of trying this, we said, 'screw it' and I just drove her to work and put her expensive belongings in my car until I get home from work (driver side window was down). Plus her neighbor gave us some disgusted looks through the window (huge apartment/condo complex in town).

When I get back I'm going to try again if someone else doesn't have it figured out and make sure all of the inside locks are locked and then try to unlock them with the manual locks and hope it shuts off.

Am I forgetting anything? I've jumped a good amount of cars in my time and have never ran into this problem. It has the push button to start it as well.

 

My car battery died on me a couple of weeks ago. Try as I might, I couldn't start the car at all.

I called Triple A to come, hoping that all I needed to do was jump start my car. The guy tested it and it turned out my car's battery had about 20 of whatever it was left from the 500 it started with. Sure, he could have jumped it to get it started, but I would have needed to replace the battery anyway.

Thankfully, I got the battery replaced and was good to go. And I notice a big difference now when I start my car.

 

Tell her to stop being a treehugger and buy a real goddamn car.

 

I had a Mercury Mystique with an after-market car alarm and whenever the battery went dead (it happened 2 or 3 times), the alarm would somehow arm, whether I had it activated or not. But you couldn't shut it off until you had charged the battery for a while because the alarm was using the power of the jump to squeal...but that wasn't enough power to get the mechanism to shut it off (Don't ask; I never understood it).

The other problem was the occasions when the battery in the remote died. Then you couldn't deactivate the alarm or start the car until you replaced the battery (which was a camera battery).

After about the third time of that, I never activated the alarm again. I was happy to get rid of that car and I took a huge loss on it. Bought it for $5K and dumped it for $800 three years later because I wanted to get rid of it so badly.

 

Call it a day: Obviously, another Highlander paid a visit and there was a quickening.

"THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!"

 

In light of Toyota's unintended acceleration issues, this is just a safety precaution to prevent the problem from happening. If the vehicle can't start, it can't take off on you! ;D
On a more serious note, do any of the electronics work? Like, do the lights turn on? Does it sound like it's trying to crank? If no, my bet would be dead battery. Though being a hybrid, I don't know if the hybrid batteries could go bad to cause a problem or if that would be a separate issue altogether.

 

Haha, some of these replies made my day - that's how much 'fun' it's been with work and other misc. crap.

Either way, a neighbor helped her when she got home from work and he just let his truck run, put the cables on his car first and then the Highlander. The alarm went off and then she started it up as quickly as possible and it shut off. I was thinking of trying that but never really wanted to put the cables on while one car was running.

Regardless, problem solved.

 

FWIW, you always leave your car running when you jump start the other car.

I had my battery die on me last week and when AAA came, I noticed the guy had batteries and I said off hand "got one for me?" and he said of course. So instead of a jump I got a new battery with a AAA discount, installed (which is not as easy as it looks with new cars), and a 3 year replacement warranty which comes with AAA coming out to change it.

 

Also as an FYI...Advance Auto Parts tests batteries and will replace one for you at no additional charge right there on the spot. They will install install new windshield wipers which is a godsend for a little ole' helpless woman like me!