2005 alarm going off when starting

[Marianne]

I recently had my Bird go into limp mode and was stranded on a busy road, with my emergency blinkers flashing for 6 hours. The battery went dead but the tow guy charged it enough to get it on the truck, and at the auto mechanic it was charged up. I only drove the car a couple of times for short distances, and it has been sitting in the parking lot for about 3 days.
When I went to start it up today, it was very weak and didnt turn over, then the alarm started sounding. I turned it off and waited a minute or so, tried again and nothing from the engine but the alarm went off again. This happened 3 times and now I'm waiting for roadside assistance. I said I had a dead battery, but the alarm going off has me worried it may be something more.
Any ideas? I need advice. Thanks

 

[biddle]

First thing you need to do is have the battery tested. What does the round sticker say in the battery for the Month/Year it was made?

If the battery is okay, you may have a battery drain problem which you can troubleshoot by removing fuses starting with the radio fuse.

 

[Marianne]

Thanks for your advice. Turns out my battery was over 5 years old. Plus I was stranded a week ago and had the warning blinkers flashing for 6 hours. So it was time for a new battery. Hope that’s it. I also learned that the alarm is common when the battery is dead.

 

[Anewaltj]

If you are not going to drive your car very much in the winter, as I didn't, get a 10 amp charger, it keeps your battery charged. I used to let mine sit for over a month at a time trying to keep the odometer under 50k.....now I'm driving it every week and it fires up right away. it seems everything works better when I drive mine all the time. I finally realized that the cars are meant to drive and not just be a garage queen.

 

[1984shovelhead]

current rating of charger is irrelevant you need a maintainer /tender like a deltran battery tender plus. 10 year warranty and Will NOT overcharge your battery. you dont want to use a conventional charger unless your wanting to recharge the battery at a faster rate to use quickly. a tender is a device whos output is low in current capability but meant to maintain a battery as the name implies.yes even a tender is capable of charging a dead or severely undercharged battery the trade off is it takes a lot longer due to its lower ampere rating.

 

[biddle]

Will NOT overcharge your battery.

Pretty much all modern chargers have chips in them that prevent overcharging.