mysterious battery drain
 

what in the hell is goin on. its piddly stuff like this that i cant figure out that pisses me off the most.

my damn car wont start again cuz of a dead battery. i just replaced the old one w/ an optima, and its dead. i make sure all my electronics are off before i leave, and the dome light and EVERYthing. but if it sits for more than a few days, the battery dies. WTF. the only thing i can think of that i added to it would be my amplifier and my electric fan conversion.

but the light on the amp isnt on, cuz its wired into the stereo lead.

and the fan is wired so its on when the key is on. so, its not On when the car is off.

anyone have any ideas? if i had shorts in the wiring, the fuses woulda blown, right? its pissin me off, and this REALLY isnt a great selling point on my car. no ones gonna buy it if they cant let it sit for more than a few days w/o driving it.

chris

Recently a fellow at work had a similar problem. His was the altemator had a bad diode in it. Try disconnecting the wire(not the plug) from the batt when you put up for the day and see how it does the next time you try to start it in a couple of days.

me had same problem
 

come to find out i had a striped wire close to the head light almost under the battery(my assumption ) is that maybe some acid from battery melted the plastic on on wire. (not that i can guarranty this is your problem )but worth a shot. let me know if it was..:D

get yourself a real cheap voltmeter. I'm sure you can get one for under $20 at radio shack or Pepboys. get the car started and hook up the meter to the battery you should see 13 v. turn on you headlights the reading should drop momentarly but return. if this happens its not your alternator. you have a wire that is grounded and causing a parasitic drain on the battery.

The post I made about the diode in the altenator was not to imply that the altenator was not functioning, but there is a diode that is to prevent the juice from flowing back from the battery into the altenator and causing a discharge condition. The altenator may very well put out and still be bad. Just wanted to clarify. Diode, as in blocking diode.

is the diode integrated into the alternator... like, is it inside the case? or is it external?

the alternator could have worn out a little quicker. i used to suck MAD amperage from it when i had my 4 12" subwoofers wired into 2 ohm mono, sucking 945 watts.

would running my stereo really hard and draining the battery like that wear out my alternator or anything?

I'm not saying the altenator is worn out. There is the possibility that a blocking diode has gone bad. Why? Heat, Jumpering the car with another car and the cables connected wrong, crummy part, who knows? Just try taking that wire off overnite or a couple of days. Its just a 8mm nut holding it on. And again, your problem could be something totally different. On the other hand this is a known cause of a battery going down or discharging. Yes the diode is in the altenator. Don't go out and buy a new alternator just because of this post. Try disconnecting the wire or get a amp meter and see if there is current being drawn. This is just a possibility, one of many.

ok,ill try disconn. the wire, and let it sit for a few days. if that doesnt stop the drain. then ill disconnect the amplifier, and see if thats got some kind of bad diode in it. it does have a direct connection to the battery. so who knows.

any idea which connectors in the engine bay that i can plug into to use as a 12v source for a relay? not the battery source, that obviously goes to the batt, but the source that allows the relay to be active to switch on and off. right now, ive got my 12v + wires plugged into a Green connector w/ 6 female pins, thats attached to the pass side strut tower. and they are plugged into the pin that is Key On. so the relay switches on as the key is on.

im just not sure which of these open connectores are safe to use for relays and 12v sources. im pretty sure these are the connectors used to diagnose or test parts on the engine.

UPDATE.

i jumperd my car, and let it run for about 20 min. and revved it a few times. i zip tied my electric fan wiring, which gave me a chance to look for any shorts. this was something i wasnt totally sure of the work quality. its ok tho.

so everything was working ok as far as i could tell, and then, while i was driving down our stone driveway, the Radio cut out! completely! no sound, no light, not even the clock on the radio was on. i checked all the fuses, and none of them are blown. i turned the key on and off a few times. i pulled the stereo and disconn and reconn the wire harness, checked the inline fuses on the wire harness, and they were ok. im gettin SICK of this freakin car! anyone have any other ideas what would have gone wrong w/ the stereo??? i have a feeling this could have been what was draining the battery, and then the little glitch got worse and just cut out the radio.

all my wiring is top rate, so are my connections. none of the wires are bare, all are taped, and have good connections. this is a professonal quality job. so i know its not my speaker wiring or the radio harness wiring. god im so freakin clueless when it comes to chasing down shorts.

it IS an after market stereo, installed w/ all the proper parts and connectors. all the speakers are suitable replacements w/ proper wiring. im gettin pissed off here.

as soon as i can get EVERYthing to work at the same time, im SELLING IT.

chris

LOL, potential buyers wont be too happy to find this thread about this car…

zombie thread.

i had a battery drain problem on my s5, it was because of the factory alarm system that came with it. maybe this is your problem?

Timur, check out the last post date before you lol ..... potential buys for this are long gone and have already baught the car lol...

I am just wondering but does anyone bother looking at the dates when they use the search feature? lol