Superchicken

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my CEL appeared and I didn't feel comfortable driving the car from where I was, so I arranged for a tow and was able to get it back in my garage. Fortunately, I had just picked up an ODBC scanner, and pulled Ignition Coil and Spark plug repair codes. Through other transportation, I picked up the coils and plugs and, replaced everything pretty easily within 30 minutes, then erased the codes with the scanner before restarting to check my work. Here is the weird part. The car wouldn't start. Just the clicking sound from a dead battery. Using a 500amp portable power station, the car fired right up. I let it run for about 10 minutes, then shut it off. :45 minutes later, I restarted the car, no CEL, but the ESP light is on. At first the car seems to run fine, again no engine light, but again the ESP light is on, then the RPMs drop to <1000 and the idle gets rough, and the lights flicker as though the car is losing electrical juice.

Is there any possibility that this is at all related to the coil and plug replacement, or just extremely coincidental and timely that the battery is toast or something else all together??? The battery is a 5 y/o AAA battery.

Thanks!

Superchicken

I should also mention that I did check, and nothing had been left on overnight in the car that would have drained the battery.

lyleswk

Clean your connections, check the voltage without the car running (should be 12ish volts) and then with the car running (should be 14ish). If that checks, it should be something else.

obtw way, If I remember, the ESP light clears as soon as you turn the steering wheel lock to lock...