how much power is drained from the battery if you leave your headlights on for about 3-5 minutes with the engine off? has anyone accidently leave their lights on with the engine off and you forgot about it?

 

I left my fogs on last week, with the radio blaring and engine off. It wasn't that long (maybe an hour or so), but even WITH my Optima battery, that was doing nothing but asking for trouble, cuz I found myself stranded at the park while all my buds went partying elsewhere.

 

I have left the headlights on many times on my max. Somehow the warning chimes for that is either not loud enough or not working altogether. Anyhow, if it's a short time (10 minutes or so) there's hardly any effect. Car start as if nothing happened. If it's left on longer, the battery would die completely and car won't start. Especially in winter where it's happened to me twice. When that happened, the car seem to be hard to jump start. The battery has to be connected to the donor car for quite a long time (10-15mins) before the car would start.

 

In all honesty, it has to do with your battery size, and headlights. I ran a 850cca (cold cranking amp) battery on my old 93, and never had a problem with headlights, but I would sometimes spend 15-20mins listening to my stereo (aftermarket headunit, speakers, 500watt amp, 2 subs and a capacitor) infront of school last summer (did summer school for social studies), didnt have a problem. If your battery is fully charged (over 12.6 volts) and you leave them on for 30mins you shouldnt have a problem. I've never left them on for an hour, but I would think you'd be pushing it but ok.

Hope that helps alittle.