Fob dead? Car died. Came back to life.

[RonRPH]

First, put in a new 12 volt battery on November 10th - and I've been using the car sporadically. Today (12/27/2021) I decided to go out and get some wonton soup- a favorite when I'm sick. Ran down to the local Chinese food restaurant to get some. Came out to the car- and the car was totally dead. I've never changed the fob battery (it tested at 20% when I tested it on my battery tester) - and thinking that might be the problem I used the physical key , pressed the fob against the column spot- nothing. All the lights that I believe that are normally on- like the parking brake light, were not. Tried the headlights- nothing. My brother ran down a 2032 battery to me, and again nothing. So I thought best to check the main connector, 12 volt battery connections. We opened the front hood with the cord, took out the frunk - and as we removed it the alarm started going off, and everything powered up. The car came up with the same message that appeared after I had changed the battery- that I needed to set the time and date. I will set a schedule to change the fob battery, but I don't think that was the main problem. Any thoughts would be appreciated- as I don't want this to happen again while I'm far from home.

 

[alohart]

Maybe a loose 12 V battery cable that you disturbed when removing the frunk.

If an i3 is locked with the burglar alarm on and the 12 V battery is disconnected, the burglar alarm will sound. The fact that everything powered up afterwards is more evidence of a loose battery cable.

Better check on the tightness of both the negative and positive cables to determine whether one or both are loose before you're stranded somewhere.

 

[RonRPH]

Art-that was the first thing that I did. Checked to make sure that the orange connector was fully closed, and then that both battery cables were tight. I'm still baffled. Car is sitting in the garage now, where I can take a better look at them today as the frunk box is still out. Otherwise I don't know what else would be going on. Right now just hoping it is/was a one time "glitch". I do have a 12 volt battery monitor- I may mount that on the back motor compartment terminals- that I think would tell me if I'm losing 12 volt power- somewhere.

 

[RonRPH]

Art- got a chance to look at it today. The positive terminal may have been looser than it should have been. The other day I couldn't really pull up on it- but that may have been due to how crowded that battery area is, and just checking it quickly . Today I could rotate it a bit though, so I tightened up the nut a bit more. I think that may have been the problem- at least I hope so.