Suspect drained battery on my Tata Punch leaves me stranded on highway

To my utter horror, this time the car wouldn't start. It's a new car, less than a year still and up to date, I've had zero problems with it. It kept saying "smart key not in range".

BHPian blitz_normad recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

We left early at around 6:45am. The plan was to have breakfast at around 8:30 on the way and reach the destination by 2:30pm. I've done this trip several times over the last 6 months, since I got my new Tata Punch. Generally a pleasant uneventful journey - only this time, it wasn't. Usually, I always travel with water bottles and some snacks, especially when traveling with my elderly mom who has Parkinsons. As I was turning the corner of my street, I realized that I'd forgotten the water bottles and biscuits at home. Since I was already en route, I didn't want to turn back to get them, thought I'll just buy them when we have breakfast (This turned out to be a monumentally stupid thing to do).

In about an hour, we'd crossed Hosur and were on the way to Krishnagiri, when traffic came to an abrupt halt. It turned out that protests had broken out near Krishnagiri for Jallikattu. 100s of villagers had blocked both sides of the highway. Later I learned in the news, there was stone pelting et all... but we were quite a bit of distance from the spot, maybe a couple of kilometers, where it was relatively calm except for the huge traffic pileup. I was hoping that things would clear up once the police gets there. An hour went on and then another. My mother by now hungry and weak had to be given her medication, but without her meal, I was reluctant to. Now it was almost 9:30 and my heart sank - there was no sign of anything clearing. I had nothing in the car - no food nor water. I decided I needed to do something. I left my mother and her caretaker in the car, and handed over the keys to the caretaker with some instructions. I'd turned off the ignition but had the A/C running for them and decided to take a quick look around to see if there were any shops on the outskirts of the nearby village which seem to be about 1.5-2km away. The car was already parked in the leftmost lane towards the end of the road. So I figured even if the traffic starts, it shouldn't be a problem. I'd walked for around a km and as the road curved saw that I'd still have to walk further. Asked a few people who seemed to be returning by walk on the other side of the highway and they told me I'd have to cover quite some more distance. Not wanting to leave the car too far behind, I decided to return. By now, some vehicles had started turning back using a large gap in the divider in the highway, several cars and trucks were taking this turn now and as a result, some traffic movement was beginning to happen. I quickly got back to the car and decided to get in queue to this turn to navigate back to Hosur, so that I could get food and water.

To my utter horror, this time the car wouldn't start. It's a new car, less than a year still and up to date, I've had zero problems with it. It kept saying "smart key not in range". I placed the key right near the handbrake where it is supposed to be placed in case of low battery and it still kept saying smart key out of range, then suddenly that message disappeared and the accessories etc came to life. But the engine wouldn't crank. There was some knocking kind of sound (not from the engine but from the audio system) each time I tried to start the engine - there was also some sound like the car was ventilating and then it would simply not start. I then got a message in the dash - something along the lines of 'one-hour mode activated'. Frantically took the manual and tried to get some suggestions from there on issues that could be wrong, but had no luck. Got some help from a few others on the highway, one of them had a Punch (my car is a Tata Punch) and he couldn't get it to start either. By now, the car was completely dead. Not even accessories would turn on.

Called Tata's roadside assistance, and they sent a mechanic with an ETA of 90mins - it was already 11:30 am by then. The map showed I wasn't too far from Hosur - may be about 12-15km. The block seemed to have been cleared and traffic was beginning to move - though the highway was still fully crowded due to the huge pileup. Considering that it might be 1 pm by the time the technician comes, I decided to seek help from passing cars to see if I could get some food and water for my mother to give her meds. Two good samaritans helped. One family who had nothing but a 5l water can, which they promptly handed over to us, said they will buy themselves another on the journey forward. A little later another offered us the food that they had packed. This person after moving on a distance must have parked somewhere, poured us some coffee, and walked all the way back to our car to hand it to us. I'm eternally grateful to these folks. We were able to give Mom food and medication and a cup of coffee to the caretaker. The next time you pass a stranded family in the highway, apart from the obvious need for a mechanics help, do ask them if they require food/water, especially if they have elders on board. They may just be in a fix wondering whether to ask or not. Such a gesture goes a long way.

In another 30 mins, the technician arrived on a bike, all that he bought with him were some batteries to jumpstart and a meter. He checked my car's battery and said it was weak. Jumpstart, worked right away and the engine came to life. However, the dash showed the 'engine' and 'abs' lamps on. He asked me to take the car to the service center in Hosur, which I did. All the way through the ABS and check engine lamp remained on, but by the time I got to the service center, the ABS lamp turned off. In the service center, they hooked the car to a laptop and did a diagnostic check. It threw a few errors, but the technician said these were temporary - so he cleared them and redid the test, this time no errors showed up. The dash check engine lamp also turned off. He said I could proceed back to BLR and get the vehicle checked by my regular service center, as he didn't see anything major showing up in the computer. But I was worried as to why the car shut off in the first place, but he wasn't quite able to state anything of substance and said it should not happen again and I could get it fully checked in BLR. Said he could do it in his center too but that would mean I'd have to break the journey. I didn't think that was prudent, given my mom also being there, so decided to return to BLR. All through the drive I was worried if I kill the engine it wouldn't start again, but nothing of that sort happened - the car ran absolutely fine without a hitch.

A few questions linger in my mind regarding the car - was the whole thing caused because I let the A/C run with the ignition off for about 10 mins? Considering it's a new car, I'd have expected at least a low battery warning in the dash but nothing like that showed up until it suddenly died altogether. I will indeed get it checked fully at the service center again, but any thoughts on the check engine lamp and abs lamp that was on for a while? If it was indeed a low battery thing, what are the chances of that occurring again. Any advice?

Here's what BHPian Turbohead had to say on the matter:

Running the blower on ignition quickly drains the battery. In such scenarios, it might be safe to leave the engine running and ask the occupants to lock the car from the inside until you get back. I don't think there's any indicator/ warning that exists for low battery in most cars.

Thankfully, you came across some amazing folks who helped you out in time of need. God bless them.

Here's what BHPian shankar.balan had to say on the matter:

Felt sorry reading this post. I will not add to your woes by giving superfluous and gratuitous advice now that you’re safely back.

You left the car ignition on in ‘Acc’ position and probably left the Blower fan on and not the AC. I don’t think any car’s battery can power the AC.

I think the battery just drained and with the undue stress a cell or two must have weakened.

I have experienced this non-starting and that ‘khat khat’ sound from the car’s electricals when long ago my battery had become weak and died. (Old Maruti 800 in 1997).

You may need to change the battery. I would also have all the electricals of the car checked thoroughly once along with the state of all the fuses. And I would also have the wiring inspected. Just to be sure everything is ok and safe.

All the best.

Here's what BHPian DCEite had to say on the matter:

Well TATA cars can be fussy for no reason.

I was in a similar boat as you , around couple of years back while we were still within city limits and crusing comfortably at 60-70kmph in Tigor AMT (2017 manufactured), I suddenly noticed power loss and the car would not pick speed and slowely started decelarating. Even though within city limits, it was at a national highway (Delhi-Meerut expressway), and somehow navigated the car to the side.

What was concerning for me that my family including two little kids were inside and it was record breaking heat outside (If I remember something like 45-47 degrees), and we had run out of food/snacks and water. On national highway you don't have any eatary or resting place, atleast on the strech I was on. All the warning lamps were ON including the battery indication. Though I came to know from this forum that 2017 manufactured Tiago and Tigor's do have some issue with Fuel pump, that generally shows up its ugly face when the running time as well as outside temperatures are high and car is being run for sometime continuously (around 1.5 hrs, similar to mine).

But the issue vanished after switching on the engine after half an hour. However, what was more disappointing that during these 30 mins or so I tried to get in touch with TATA roadside assistance helpline but the response was very lackluster. Their response almost reminded me of the movie Dhamaal's famous aeroplane crash scene. The TATA roadside emergency assistance response was similar to this ATC.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.