RyanREX

I drive my FD about once a week on Sundays. About 4 times it has completley died on me. I have jumped it but the power never stays. I took the battery into Sears a month ago and they said it was new and charged it for me. What the hell is wrong? The first times, it was either the door was left open or a light was on but I think I haven't done that since I rechargeed the battery. Any ideas?

CantGoStraight

Do you have the fan modifacation installed in your car and if you you do then it's possible to run the battery down by leaving it on. You may want to take it to another place to see if the battery is good. If you bought it at Sears and it needs to be replaced they may not tell you it's bad.

RyanREX

Well the owner before me bought the battery a month before she sold it. (Yep, she was a girl with a FD!) I don't have a fan mod yet, but I am getting a Greddy turbo timer installed soon.

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

I did have a short in my FD somewhere, which shut off the stereo, trip counter, interior lights, alarm, etc... They would come and go with no real reason (no big bumps in the road, car shifting weight to one side, nothing really in particular).

Well, when I had my exhaust installed, the short had those parts off so the shop left a door open since there were no lights or sounds going off. While the car was sitting at the shop over a weekend those circuits came back on, leaving the interior light going all weekend and killed my battery. Of course, I got it jumped at the shop and it charged back up and held the charge.

My battery is dead now because I put it in back in '98. I got some good use out of it.

Have you noticed anything not working or shorting out in the car?

Sounds like something is still drawing power while the car is off...

JConn2299

It probably IS the battery, no matter what Sears told you. Sometimes when a battery goes completely dead, they never seem to charge up fully again.

I just went through this with a battery in another car. This '7 year guarantee' battery wouldn't hold a charge even though it was only a year old. I took it back to AutoZone. They have this great charger/tester which is on a roll around cart. It can tell if your alternator is putting out enough current, or whether it's your battery which has gone bad. They gave me a new battery for free. I'd have your battery tested for its ability to hold a charge.

djantlive

Sometimes it drains slowly and sometimes it just doesn't get charged to full capacity so when you don't drive/charge it often, it dies.

Get a new battery or have the shop replace it. Most shops don't provide good warranty so I just go to Costco now. It's only $30 for a good battery and I can just replace one at the first sign of deterioration.

RyanREX

I think I found the problem. The ash tray in the center has a light when it's open and I'd been leaving it open. By the way, Mahjik, my CD dosen't work.

branca

iTrader: (1)

Sorry, I don't think that's your problem. My ashtray light being on or off has nothing to do with the lid being open or closed. It comes on with the marker lights/headlight switch. btw, my battery kept getting weaker even after I recharged it twice. Since my car sits in the garage for a week or two at a time during the cold weather, I went ahead and bought another one. good luck......

c00lduke

Why hasn't anyone mentioned that it could be the alternator?

RyanREX

God I hope not!

c00lduke

its like 100 bucks or so, and very easy to instal

RTS3GEN

Hey Ryanrex, when the car DOES run do the panel lights show dimly, ie the low coolant indicator, low fuel indicator and low oil level indicator? It does sound more like the alternator is going bad, a very common problem with these cars. Just pull it off and bring to an autozone or something and they will test it for free. Better than buying a new battery and finding out the alternator is the problem.
Art