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Posted by: oz371 Apr 25 2010, 02:14 PM

Hello all,

Met a few of you at the G&R swap and heard some ideas on my current issue.

Heres the deal..
New battery. draining down to nothing within a matter of hours. Checked the motors i.e. headlights, blower motor, lights are off, even pulled the stereo. With the car off I hear nothing.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the help my freinds.

Posted by: silver74insocal Apr 25 2010, 02:28 PM

do you have access to an amp meter? and when you say you "checked" the motors what did you do? i am a newbie so i cant offer any guru advice, but i am a low voltage electrician so can help you with process of elimination. i believe i met you todaay, i was commenting on your pull out tape deck(?) lmk, Dave

Posted by: gopack Apr 25 2010, 02:37 PM

Damn! if all the batter drains, you can't have any pancakes. How can you have any pancakes, if you let the batter drain?
Seriously, Maybe a short in an energized circuit?

Posted by: oz371 Apr 25 2010, 02:40 PM

Yeah I remember. Nice to meet you by the way. I just check to see if there were any motors running. Ron check the headlight motors and they are fine. Headlights are turning off. I did pull the radio because I know it is hooked up constant. I can get an amp meter I just need a lil instruction on what to look for.

Posted by: TravisG Apr 25 2010, 02:43 PM

Did this happen with the old battery? If not, could be a defective battery.

I replaced a perfectly good starter before because I had a "NEW" bad battery

Just a thought

Travis

Posted by: oz371 Apr 25 2010, 02:49 PM

The old battery was shot. Put the new one in about a month ago. The problem started last week.

Posted by: oz371 Apr 25 2010, 02:53 PM

So now I need to post a topic asking how to edit topic posts.

Posted by: TravisG Apr 25 2010, 02:55 PM

The old battery was shot. Put the new one in about a month ago. The problem started last week.
[/quote]


The problem I had started about 6 weeks after I put in a top of the line battery.

If you have another battery, switch it out, or go to an Advance Autoparts or the like and have them test the battery. It could have a bad cell that is draining the battery.

It is an easy test and it would at least rule out the battery.

Good luck,

Travis

Posted by: oz371 Apr 25 2010, 03:01 PM

[quote name='TravisG' date='Apr 25 2010, 01:55 PM' post='1309040']
The old battery was shot. Put the new one in about a month ago. The problem started last week.
[/quote]


The problem I had started about 6 weeks after I put in a top of the line battery.

If you have another battery, switch it out, or go to an Advance Autoparts or the like and have them test the battery. It could have a bad cell that is draining the battery.

It is an easy test and it would at least rule out the battery.

Good luck,

Travis
[/quote]

Will do! Thanks Travis.

Posted by: Krank Apr 25 2010, 03:01 PM

If the battery checks out, you could take out the fuses a couple at a time. There are some relays that could be stuck and draining down the electrical system. If you have access to a multimeter with a 10 amp ammeter, you could maybe try touching the leads across the fuse contacts to see if there is any current drain and find out at least what circuit it is.

Posted by: silver74insocal Apr 25 2010, 03:02 PM

it may be worth taking back to them and having them load test it before you start chasing gremlins in the car, but make sure they load test it which they probably do anyways if you tell them whats happening.

the amp meter would be a good starting point for process of elimnation. just put it between (or if its a clamp style clamp it over) the postive battery terminal and the positve battery cable. this will display the amount of current going through the circuit which (with the car turned off ) should be next to nothing. if you see a reading, start unplugging stuff until it goes away. its not that simple, but you get what i am saying right? lmk what you find, i can prolly give you a hand if need be neighbor. Dave

Posted by: SUNAB914 Apr 25 2010, 04:34 PM

What else have you worked on that might be the cause of this problem? Bulbs? anything that might have started this besides replacing battery?

Posted by: 904svo Apr 25 2010, 06:16 PM

The easily way to find out if you have a battery drain is to remove the plus terminal off the battery and connect a 12 volt light bulb in nseries with the
plus terminal. If the bulb glows there is a drain on the battery, remove the
fuses one at a time and find out which circuit is causing the drain. If it don't
glow you have a bad battery or a dead battery. PS the gen light should light
when you turn on the key, if it don't replace the bulb your battery won't charge
with a burn out bulb.

my $.02

Posted by: kg6dxn Apr 25 2010, 07:00 PM

Have the battery tested. To kill a battery in a few hours would take a serious load not just stoped car trickle. Do you have a trolling motor hooked to it?

Normal drain on a battery with the key turned off should be less than 0.5 Amps. This would include a clock, radio and ECU.

Posted by: sean_v8_914 Apr 25 2010, 07:27 PM

did you and Ron test voltage at batt when running?
turn everything off
remove teh batt neg
tap it onto post gently...
big spark or little spark?
place amp meter between neg and batt neg terminal. as stated should be less thsan 1/2 amp
im sorry I walked away, I know I could have fixed it
pm me , Ill talk ya thru it

Posted by: Krank Apr 25 2010, 08:31 PM

Just don't try to see if there is an arc when the car is running or you will blow the diodes in the alternator.

Posted by: SLITS Apr 25 2010, 09:37 PM

Battery was showing 13.56 volts @ idle.

Posted by: oz371 Apr 26 2010, 01:30 AM

When I got home from the Swap I parked it pulled the old radio and the in line fuse for it. The car has been sitting for 10 hours and cranked fine. Problem solved?? We will see, I will test again in the morning.
Thanks for the input.

Posted by: oldschool Apr 26 2010, 01:47 AM

So Sean with the car running what should i get on my meter? and whats a good setting? on the meter?

Posted by: charliew Apr 26 2010, 08:44 AM

I'm not Sean but with the motor running a volt meter should say over 14 volts on my cars

Posted by: oz371 Apr 26 2010, 05:37 PM

So the cause of my issue was the stereo. Its an old tape deck that Ron left in there so he could listen to his old Dr.Laura tapes.

It is no longer with us.

Posted by: SLITS Apr 26 2010, 05:58 PM

I throw bags of lit dogshit at Dr. Laura.