Door not quite closed

[Bluepearlgirl]

I washed and detailed the my car Sat, including the inside and I didn't entirely shut the car door, thinking I was going to do more inside, and ended up not doing anything else and forgetting.  I didn't go anywhere all day Sunday and this morning when I got into my car the door opened a little easier than usual and I remembered I may not have closed it all the way Sat.  It closed enough to latch but not shut tightly.  The car started up fine but I'm wondering if that could have possibly been a drain on the battery.  Does anyone know? 

[wtdash]

Hi,

Did you verify nothing was stolen from your car? Thieves will leave the door ajar....from my experience. :-(

 

And if started up OK your battery is strong....but you could check it by seeing how 'closed' the door needs to be to turn off the interior light and the dash 'door ajar' light.

 

Either way, it didn't hurt anything.

 

My only concern would be if you drive the car sparingly or have a <5 minute commute the battery may not get a chance to fully recover.

 

TD

[Bluepearlgirl]

Thanks, wtdash, my car is in my garage overnight and I live alone, so I know it was only me getting into it.  I drive about 13 miles to work both ways each day so that is enough to give the battery use.  The dome light was not on but the dash light may have been showing the door wasn't closed all the way, I was wondering if that little bit of energy/light would be enough to impact the battery.  My car is a 2011, 35k miles and I'm still running on the original battery, so I tend to worry about it.

[wtdash]

Tulsa can get HOT and that can shorten a battery's life, but depends on how much time it's exposed to the heat. Get it tested @ shop, as they can give you a fair idea of its current state.....or just replace so you don't have to worry!:-)

 

Td

[Bushwick]

If it started on it's own, then it wasn't drained enough. If you did this constantly, like say every day for a year, that constant drain might be enough to weaken the battery to the point it wouldn't hold a full charge.

 

Normally, when a battery starts to get weak, the engine when cranking will be slower. A fully charged battery should give a strong, loud, consistent cranking. A weak battery (under 12v after sitting for 2 days, like say 10-11v) will give a somewhat quieter, and sluggish cranking effort.

 

If you really want to stay on top of your battery's charge, you could buy a cig lighter voltmeter OR have someone install an actual voltmeter gauge into the car. The cig lighter variant plugs into the 12v receptacle (cig lighter if they even make them anymore, otherwise it'll have a plastic cover or cap instead) and with key ON (before cranking the engine) it'll show the battery voltage, and once started, will show what the alternator's output voltage is. Other way is to buy an actual voltmeter, and probe the battery routinely.

 

Normally, once the engine is shut off, battery voltage will be around 12.4 volts, and will gradually drop to around 12.0 to 12.2 volts. After a week, it might be in the high 11.8 range or whatever. If you have a strong electrical drain on the system (like something you installed that's staying active after engine is off or dome light on, etc.) it might be in the lower 11v range after a day of sitting w/o running. 

 

After time, if you had a cig lighter volt meter, you'd get a good idea if/when the battery was dying. Also, if you were ever driving and the alternator started dying (alt running is typically in the 14v range and high 13v range with heater, lights running, and all of a sudden it's in the 12v range with engine running, you'd know the alt was on the way out.

[Fairtax4me]

Newer cars have timers on the interior lamps to prevent them from killing the battery of you leave a door open.

Didn't harm it a bit.