After accident battery dies over night.....
 

I got into an front end collision two months ago. I hit a tree only going 5 MPH so the damage is only body but after that when ever I leave the car over night it doesnt want to start the the next day. I would then have to get it jump started, I dont know what the problem is. to get around ive been disconnectin the battery everytime i park it and re-connect when its time to go. can someone tell me whats wrong. its similar to when you leave your lights on and your battery dies but all the lights are off

maybe one of your connections was loose, and when u hit, it jarred loose, check your cable... oh yeah dont drink and drift

Headlight motors are more than likely the culprit, if they get jammed they'll constantly run and drain the battery.

sorry if you see another thread like this, I just thought it didnt go threw since I d/c so ignore the other one. My headlight did jam in the accident, the left side is busted up. I think that might be the problem tnx ill check it out and get back to you guys. tnx AE

:rlaugh: you should check for a good grounding.,

i've heard of this before and most of the time I believe it has to do with your headlight motors constantly trying to go up or down and they can't. try pulling the headlight retractor fues (I think) and see if that gets rid of the problem

tnx guys ill try that. sry if you see another thread like this. Ignore this one

Disconnect the motor and try to raise it by hand and leave it up for now until you can free up the track/body panels/etc, but leave the motor disconnected otherwise you'll continue to drain the battery.

you could also have bad cells in the battery. It's not uncommon to have a cell or two go bad after a major impact.

You can check to see if it is the battery by after charging the battery, disconnect the ground from it and put a multi meter between the + and - terminals on the battery.

The battery should read 12.6 volts. If it is less (like 10.5 volts, or 8.4 volts) then you have a bad cell in the battery or two.

Ditto on the headlight motors. It has killed my optima battery before.

I've answered at least 4 threads exactly, almost word for word, like this one... always the headlight motor, pull the fuse for it.

Even if it's 2mm out of place the motor will try every couple of minutes to try to push it up or down... and it never stops trying.

--Gary

^^^ yeah, he got me straightened out when my motors were doing this. By the way my car is all fixed and everything is great! If it would just stop raining so i can wash it...

battery drain
 

You can check where the drain is by disconnecting one side of the battery and putting a test light between the battery post and cable, if the test light comes on you have a drain-pull the fuse on the suspected circuit and if the light goes out your on the right track.

No NO NO NO, a test light only shows that there is a battery and a car. It does not show a current draw at all.

Hell a test light won't even light up if there is a 50 mA draw...

Current draw tests should only be done with digital multi meters.

Test lights are only good for poking yourself in the finger and being used as a ice pick, because they have no use in modern automobiles.

Exactly. Batteries can go bad after impact because the impact causes portions of the plates to fall to the bottom, thereby shorting the cell. Quick and easy way to tell if the battery has a bad cell is to disconnect the positive terminal when you let it sit over night. If the battery is weak in the morning (after reconnecting the positive terminal), it probably has a dead cell.

JP

Can anyone tell me what plug to pull to disconnect the motor for the left head light. Is it that like switch box that has all those other switches for light by the battery?

well if left (drivers side) it should be down there beside the battery around some stuff, its like a kinda thick looking white cylindrical shaped plug, its kinda hard to get a hold of but its down there

heres a picture if you can see what im talkin about...
[IMG]http://img130.echo.cx/img130/6575/mo...ctor9da.th.jpg[/IMG]

If one of your headlight motors isn't working or draining the battery, turn on the headlight washing switch which will put them both up (as high as they can go at least) and then take out the fuse in the fuse box next to the battery on the driver's side. It's labeled headlamp fuse or something? I don't remember exactly though,

That will leave them up all the time... I leave mine up, do that because I haven't had a chance to replace the faulty motor in one of mine, so I took it out and ziptied it up and leave the other one up all the time so it doesn't look funny... but if I turn the switch off it looks like my car is winking. ;)

--Gary

ok guys I took the switch out and both lights are up, ill have to get a new battery since it got drained and I hope that does the trick. Ill get back to you guys after i test it with a new battery and if it drains it or not.

tnx AE

Er... or you could just jump the car and let it run for a while and recharge that battery??

:confused:

--Gary

I can but ive been having bad luck lately, the damn garage door broke off its rail and the damn thing doesnt want to come up. so on top of my car problem i have to replace my garage door in order to get my car out to get it jumped.