Left ignnition switch on, dead battery, won't......

[dosMarkos8to's]

Made the mistake last week of not fully turning ignition switch off and went out to start the car ( '96 base) ystrday, battery dead....recharged it and tried to start 'er up. Wouldn't catch a fire. Question: are there potential consequences to leaving the key in on position besides draining the battery? If so, please give me some suggestions to resolve the problem(s).
Thanks
DosMarkos

 

[unity]

Did you pull the battery to charge? If not, disconnect for 10 minutes and try again. Also have the battery tested, you may have killed a cell or two. So voltage may read, but amps will be down.

 

[dosMarkos8to's]

Thanks unity,
Did not disconnect it. Will try that way.

 

[Bangster]

I don't think leaving the switch in On would cause anything fuses to blow or things like the coil packs to go bad, I really just see it killing the battery.

 

[dosMarkos8to's]

I'll have time to try to start it again today. The first try, I charged the battery (not disconnected) and it turned over for a couple of minutes before battery started going down without giving a hint of firing up. Maybe a less than full charge is the culprit.
Thanks Bangster

 

[dosMarkos8to's]

Put in a fully charged battery.....it cranked for 30-40 secs. and then fired up.
I wonder if the battery going to full discharge caused a loss of computer parameters and that caused the failure to start after recharging of the dead battery, like maybe not enough juice to get default settings reestablished?

Any way...back in the saddle!

 

[unity]

^ Yeah, "brown-outs" can cause some issues. The Mark VIII is not super susceptible to to the issue like some cars are, but it may have been the issue. That or your battery is indeed on its way out and this was just a lucky start. I would keep an eye on cranking times.

 

[dosMarkos8to's]

Will Do...and thanks for the input.