[chrishup]

I have a 2022 Tucson gasoline model with under 4000 miles that I have had for about a year with absolutely no issues. Recently went away for two weeks leaving the Tucson in my garage and returned to a completely dead battery such that I had to extract the metal key from the fob and open the door manually to pop the hood open. I had turned everything off (as far as I know) and locked the car. Had to have it jump started and drove it to the dealer I purchased it from. They kept it for a day, charged the battery and declared that it had been drained and was perfectly good to go.

All well and good, but when I asked why the battery drained and what I could do to prevent this in the future, the answer was essentially all of the electronics drained the battery and there was nothing short of having someone come in and run the car for some undefined period of time to charge the battery back up.

Not exactly the response I was expecting. Searching online, I have found little on battery drain on gasoline Tucsons (perhaps I have not phrased my questions correctly) beyond the following:

1. If you have a key FOB and the car is not locked, the two constantly ‘ping’ each other and introduce an accelerated drain on the car battery.
2. The Hyundai bluelink system is always draining the battery a bit.
3. Turn the "auto on" light switch to the off position to prevent battery drain.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on what I should do to prevent the battery from draining in the future? Thanks.

 

[hd908]

This is a known issue with hyundai/genesis. Your only option is to buy a better battery.

 

[Alan Sh]

If you know you are going away for a while, put a trickle charger on it.

 

[Tampa8]

If you know you are going away for a while, put a trickle charger on it.

That does seem to be an answer if you park where you can do it. A family friend with a one-year-old Honda is having the same issue if he leaves it parked for a period of time, and my neighbor has a Nissan just a little older doing it.

The things you listed probably do contribute to it, a car should hold a charge longer than that. That said, my 2006 MX5 since I have owned it, no matter what batteries I have used over the many years for replacement can't sit much longer than two weeks without having a battery too weak to start the car. Way back we did some testing to see what/why but there were a few others also having the problem so I just live with it. Then the other extreme we recently sold a 1999 Altima and that car would start literally 4 months after sitting. Go figure.

 

[Alan Sh]

I got stuck in Australia at the begiining of the Pandemic. When I got home after 7 weeks, My BMW X3 (late 2016 model - so 3 1/2 years old at the time) started straight away. That had a sim card in it. I would expect any car to shut most things down after a week of non use.

If you have a Hybrid or PHEV, then you can use the EV battery to start the engine. But not, obviously, an ICE model.

 

[OldArtist]

Is it OK to charge the battery while the battery is still connected to the vehicle using a smart charger such as a NOCO?

 

[Alan Sh]

I do that with my motorcycles. No issues in over 10 years.