Jump starting

[mldavis2]

I don't know where to put this so admins can move it to where it belongs.

Went out this morning to start the GT2 and it was stone dead. Not even an LED display or dome light. Dead as a door nail. Flipped open the owner's manual for expert instructions (?) on how and where to connect the jumper cables. Tiny little thumbnail picture shows contact points on both the left and right sides of the engine compartment. My GTO was on the right side so I used those designated contact points, one bolt sticking out of the fender liner, and the positive contact under the fuse box cover. Totally no result. I didn't have much choice on the positive side so I started trying other ground points. Finally found the bolt attaching the engine compartment brace was a good solid ground and get it started.

So I took it in to have it checked for computer code, parasitic draw and battery function. Nothing found. We agreed that one of two things probably happened.

When I drive into the garage and stop, when I forget to turn off the engine Start/Stop function, the engine will die as intended by Kia engineers to save a precious sprit of fuel. When my wife got out of the car, the dash was still lit up so she took her foot off the brake as she pressed the magic silver button to turn the display off. That put the car into Accessory mode rather than turning the car off. There is an electrical "kill" circuit that turns electrical stuff off like headlights, dome lights, door locks, trunk lid, etc. Apparently that kill circuit does NOT kill everything and if the AV is left ON, it runs the battery down below a certain voltage threshold. If the voltage is not sufficient to boot the computers, the whole thing is dead even though the battery has a charge.

The other possibility is that the electrical kill circuit did shut power off to everything but for some reason failed to energize when the door was opened this morning.

There are two morals to this story. One is to make sure the car is OFF when leaving it if you forget or intend to leave the Start/Stop functioning The other is to keep your foot on the brake when you stop the car. (Yet another is don't let your wife drive your Stinger.)

 

[Waynerm002]

I always make sure that thing is off when I get out, only ever had issues with the hybrid as it is so quiet that I get out with it still on but it beeps at me when the key leaves the car. On our Volvo, if the car was put in park when it was stopped and the Auto Stop/Start was active, the car shuts down when you open the door. I like that way of doing it.

 

[Clearly Canadian]

I'm guessing the car did beep but was ignored?

 

[MerlintheMad]

A wife might know more than a husband about cars. But probably not. Either way, the "beep" for getting out while the thing is still ON should be sufficient warning to turn around, get back in, check that the car is OFF.

My shut down procedure is to pull up till my forward sensors show yellow and red; with foot firmly on brake, put it in Park, engage parking brake and push ON/OFF button, then open the door.

This business of the GT2 putting itself into Park is problematic to me: how can you tell that everything has been done to shut down?

 

[SKStinger]

A good reminder about the price paid for convenience. A good old fashioned key in the ignition mitigates this issue.

Don't get me wrong, I love the smart key but there is a learning curve attached to them and because they're so convenient, they tend to cause us to not think about our actions.

 

[rocket23]

Yup, a sequence is needed when ya park........not so much when ya leave.