Bad timing or perfect timing? Car battery died the day before a big road trip. 🗺️

better now than in the middle of nowhere? Was it just old or is there something unexpectedly draining it?

Sounds like bad news if it was planned for a long time. Was this on the Element?

@odd Yep, on the Element. It’s old, figure things like this will happen.

Sounds like perfect timing if a 1/2 hour stop at a car parts store gets you a battery test, a new battery, a $1 wrench to install it. If you discover there’s a slow drain somewhere in the electricals, well, that’s never fun.

@kimonostereo Much better than in the middle of nowhere. Don’t think anything drained it unless I did something very wrong replacing the stereo.

I hope not! The battery would die every year and half in my wife’s car. I couldn’t figure it out until I unplugged the subwoofer! The battery has been fine ever since. Luckily they kept replacing it under warranty, but glad to not have it happen!


Perfect. You have an expectation on the vehicle to even decide to use it for the trip. With battery replacement, that expectation gains fresh eyes.
