Car battery died after idling...
Ok I sat in a parking lot for about half an hour on my phone in 95 degree outside temps with the ac on high and the headlights on, radio on, and the cell phone plugged in. I went to take off and I couldn't put the car into drive no matter what I did. So I turned it off and tried restarting it and it went click click click like a dead battery. In addition nothing else worked, fan, power locks ect. The battery light never turned on. I checked the connections they are tight and completely clean like new. I got a jump start drove across the street to a parts store and got the alternator and battery tested. The battery came up 54%, not surprising as I had only had the engine on for maybe 5 minutes after the jump start. The Alternator was putting out 13.8 volts. So I believe that I couldn't get the car into park because there wasn't enough power to energize the interlock from park solenoid after idling for half and hour with everything running. I drove the car home about a 20 minute drive and was able to let it idle with everything on for about 5 minutes and then shut it off and restart it at least 6 times and never had another problem with the shift from park interlock either. Could it be that the battery meraculously recovered? Seams odd, never had a problem like this before, seams like it would be a bad connection but the alternator should have provided enough power to energize the shift from park solenoid. Could it be that there is a bad cell in the battery that seams to have recovered? It was hard to shift from park yesterday too after idling for a while, with headlights and AC on high, but I eventually got it into gear without shutting off the engine. I don't want to just throw money at it but autozone wanted way too much for a new battery to diagnose by changing parts. Can't imagine its the alternator since it recharged the battery so quickly on the way home.
