Oi,

Had my 96'-V6 (~300,000 km) parked outside the past 7 days without use. The temp was about 3C while parked and when I went to start it today it was dead.

Battery is 1 year old. Only cause I could imagine other than being a bad battery is that lately my door ajar light on my dash (not the domes) has been staying on recently due to my hatch not closing all the way (separate issue....). I don't believe that light could have cause it but i'm looking for some advice?

I took my multi-meter to the battery and it was 9.44V (see attached).

Any thoughts? Is the cause the dash light or did i get a garbage battery (I know its mastercrap but 1 year)?

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same thing happened to me a while back, the filament type bulbs can drain a battery overnight very easily. I've replaced the all interior dome bulbs with leds and have a few times let the inner light on accidentally . still cranked fine the next day. With the older filament style its enough to drain it.

By the way ( i learned this from my last battery failure) as the battery drains in cold weather the battery acid can disassociate leaving water and acid separating in different levels in the battery, once water separate and this freezes ( Acid freezes below -35deg depending on concentration) the lower parts of the cells in the battery get damaged (normal lead acid style) the AGM style battery are somewhat resistant to this, which is why i switched to that style. once this happens you will not be able to get it to hold charge (i've tried)

Try the Motomaster eliminator AGM ...good bang for the buck if you are shopping at canadian tire and dont want to get the Optima red tops.

On the last dead battery I had on a vehicle that had sat for a week, I decided to measure the current draw with a multimeter after I charged the battery.

It was some ridiculous number. "Wow, that's a big short", I thought. Just about the time I began to mutter and start popping fuses to see which circuit the mystery draw was on, I noticed the dome light was on with the door closed.

You could measure the current draw with the hatch light illuminated, and then with someone pressing the hatch light button, and see what the difference is..

Before you start hunting for the ever elusive uber-mysterious "electrical gremlin". Why not charge the battery and have it tested? In 38 years in the car industry I've never seen a battery last forever, and I've seen a whole lot that didn't last very long at all.

That was the reminder from that experience. Do the basics first, before going down the road chasing things that may not be there.

I agree with Iball.
Charge it and test it.

7 days with a small bulb on might do it.