[fatmike]

so here is the rest of the story:


I flew home on Friday after traveling all week on business. I put the key in the door and window didn't slide down. I think, hey that's weird. Put the key in the ignition and...nothing. Uggh. Dead battery.

So I make the call to the security folks and ask for a jumpstart. I pull the little thing out of the fuse box so we can attach the jumper cables and open the front trunk so we can access the battery. We attach the cables and BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM the car alarm goes off. No big deal, I put my key into the ignition and turn the switch -- nothing. Alarm is relentless. Until you deactivate the alarm the switch for the front trunk is not activated.

I also try the key in the door, no luck at all. My car doesn't have a clicker in the key, so that wasn't an option. Turns out there is no way to get to the battery from the parking lot of airport. Worst design ever. Just give me a damn manual lever.

Eventually I give up and call AAA.

It gets better, so the tow truck guy says "where are you", I tell him. He says "I can't get in there, so you'll need to get out past the tolls". I tell him, "dude, my car is dead. that is like a quarter mile away, why do you think I called for a flatbed". He says "I don't know push it or something". I just laughed at him. You can't make this stuff up.

Ultimately the flatbed driver found me, we took the car home. It didn't take :30 seconds to jumpstart the car with the portable battery. Some power to the cigarette lighter allowed me to pop the trunk and the car jumpstart right away.

The culprit was the ignition switch. It allowed the dim amber night light to stay on and killed the battery. I hope I am all good now, but what a frustrating weekend.