The battery can be discharged at idle if the electricalloads are very high. This is true for all vehicles.This is because the generator (alternator) may notbe spinning fast enough at idle to produce all thepower that is needed for very high electrical loads.A high electrical load occurs when several of thefollowing are on, such as: headlamps, high beams,fog lamps, rear window defogger, climate control fan athigh speed, heated seats, engine cooling fans, trailerloads, and loads plugged into accessory power outlets.EPM works to prevent excessive discharge of thebattery. It does this by balancing the generator’s outputand the vehicle’s electrical needs. It can increase engineidle speed to generate more power, whenever needed.It can temporarily reduce the power demands of someaccessories.Normally, these actions occur in steps or levels, withoutbeing noticeable. In rare cases at the highest levels ofcorrective action, this action may be noticeable to thedriver. If so, a Driver Information Center (DIC) messagemight be displayed, such as BATTERY SAVER ACTIVE,BATTERY VOLTAGE LOW, or LOW BATTERY. If thismessage is displayed, it is recommended that the driverreduce the electrical loads as much as possible. See DICWarnings and Messages on page 3-73.Inadvertent Power Battery SaverThis feature is designed to protect your vehicle’s batteryagainst drainage from the interior lamps, trunk lamp,glove box lamp, or the garage door opener. When theignition is turned off, the power to these features willautomatically turn off after 10 minutes. Power will berestored for an additional 10 minutes if any door or trunkis opened, or the courtesy lamp switch is turned on.Battery Run-Down ProtectionThis feature helps prevent the battery from beingdrained, if the interior courtesy lamps, reading/maplamps, visor vanity lamps or trunk lamp are accidentallyleft on. If any of these lamps are left on, theyautomatically turn off after 10 minutes, if the ignitionis off. The lamps will not come back on again untilone of the following occurs:• The ignition is turned on.• The exterior lamps control is turned off, then onagain.The headlamps will time-out after 10 minutes, if they aremanually turned on with the ignition on or off.3-37
