matty

Something is draining my battery. I don't mind putting my trickle charger on it but I worry that overcharging the battery is bad for it and will ultimately shorten it's life.

I have a couple questions
1) is it bad to keep a trickle charger in a battery?

2) what is this thing in the pic below? It has to do with the car audio id guess. There are flashing blue lights on it even when the car is off. so I wonder if this is what's draining the battery?

3) is there anything I could do with the power fc to see what's up? I think I have read things in the past people are able to see how many colts are being drawn.

Thanks in advance.

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

The good battery maintainers have circuitry in them to prevent over-charging and actually prolong battery life. I have Deltran's Battery Tenders on the FD and an antique car that sit a lot.

Not sure what that is in the picture, but you can put a Multimeter on the battery and start unplugging stuff to narrow down the draw.

TomU

iTrader: (11)

Looks like a capacitor. Only needed if you are running high power audio

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

Yep, capacitor. Some high end car stereo setups use a cap in between the battery and the amp - when the amp has a large power draw with a big bass hit or whatever, it pulls the extra juice it needs from the cap. Keeps the lights from dimming when the bass hits.

9 times out of 10, parasitic power losses are from aftermarket electronics, specifically car stereo stuff. The lights staying on shouldn't be too worrisome, since the cap has a large reserve of power that it's discharging over time. Most likely if you unhooked the amp power wire it would stay on for quite some time as well.

Dale

MSilk

iTrader: (1)

On the capacitor there should be a place to hook up a small wire (usually right near where the power and ground wires are) Hook the remote turn on wire to it (if the cap has a terminal for it it should be labelled REM or REM+12) that will turn the cap off when the car is turned off.
The remote turn on wire is the small wire that runs to your amps and is hooked up in the same terminal block as your power and ground wires (it is usually blue or blue with a white stripe) If you are having difficulties finding it post a pic of the power wires going into your amps and I can point it out.

Who installed your stereo? the reason I ask is that if it was installed properly everything should shut off with the key.
Do your amps turn off?

Is the light in the steering column that lights the ring around the ignition turning off when you close the door (I have read that can stay on) same with the light in the drivers door to illuminate the key hole.

Mike

seven1997

iTrader: (2)

check your glove box light switch is working correctly!

matty

I will check the glove box light switch. In fact I leave that open on occassion. I didnt realize there was a light in that stayed on even when the ignition is off? that true?

So yeah this capacitor thing needs to be recharged. It said "lo" awhile ok and now it flashes "--". So i also wonder if that has something to do with it. I wonder if its not installed correctly either as its not turning off when the ignition is off. In any event I dont know how tro charge this nor do i have the resistor so I guess I need to take it into a car audio place.

TomU

iTrader: (11)

Pretty sure the glove box light is powered on with the headlights and is then activated by the switch, i.e. if the switch is broke the glove box light won't come on if your headlights (or parking lights) are off

cewrx7r1

iTrader: (2)

The stock alarm system is always drawing power.

MSilk

iTrader: (1)

you can use a 12 volt light bulb to recharge the capacitor, but it should not go dead unless the battery is dead as they are hooked up in parallel so if the battery is dead then the cap will be too. On the same note when you recharge the car battery you will be recharging the cap don't need to do anything special.

If you decide to unhook the caps +12v feed be careful as they charge very fast and will make one heck of a spark when you go to hook it back up, when you hook it back up put a 12 volt bulb (a 3157 bulb works) between the power wire and battery (or power wire and cap) once the bulb goes dim or out then hook the power wire to the cap, again be careful the bulb will get hot. No need to go to a car audio shop to recharge the cap if you unhook it (I used to install that stuff for years )

Mike

matty

Thanks for the post mike. But I am
Not following too clearly. Are you saying that when I recharge the battery the digicap should recharge too? I don't think this is happening.

Also I am back to leaning that the capacitor is the main culprit for the battery drain. Do you think the blue led lights should flash when the car is off?

The other culprit could be the viper alarm system

In any event. The battery is draining in two weeks time.

I guess we all agree that we can rule out the glove box light as this is only on when the lights are on.

adam c

iTrader: (2)

My problem with battery drain was my Clifford alarm. I hooked up a separate power switch for it and my battery drain problems disappeared. Now if I want to use the alarm, I just flip the switch, and use the alarm normally with the remote. It was an easy fix.

MSilk

iTrader: (1)

Yes when you recharge the battery the cap should charge too, if it is not charging then you would want to bring it to a shop if your not comfortable checking wires ect, if you want to check out the wires let me know and I can post on how to do that

Like Adam said an aftermarket alarm can draw a battery down as well. Especially ones with a bunch of options (2 way remotes ect)

How old is you battery?
and is this

How old is the battery?
How long ago did this start happening?

matty

When I bought the car it read "lo". Now it says "--". The blue lights have always flashed. From what I can tell its hooked up incorrectly as it doesn't shut off. Sounds like we agree on that?

The alarm is a viper alarm. It is two way.

The battery is 9months old.

MSilk

iTrader: (1)

yeah it sounds like the cap is either hooked up wrong or is faulty. most caps with a display have three terminals, two large ones and one small one. One of the large ones we will call +12v goes directly to the battery with a fuse as close to the battery as possible (while still looking good but try to keep it within a few inches max of 12 for my comfort level). The +12v has another lead that goes to your amps.
The next large terminal is the -12v, it gets grounded to the chassis with a wire that is large enough to handle the current from both amps (if you have two 4AWG power wires feeding the amps then use a 2AWG wire to ground the cap) Make sure the chassis ground to battery is the same size (ie 2AWG)
Then there should be a small terminal, this ones gets hooked up to the remote turn on wire from your cd player (it is usually blue) this is the same wire that goes to your amps to turn them on. It will be right beside the power and ground wires going into your amps.
With the outta the way lol
The alarm could definitely be a culprit, but same with the cap.

Here is what I would do if I was in your shoes.

1. Unhook the cap, (when you disconnect it, use a light bulb to discharge it, hook one side of the bulb to the +12v on the cap and the other side to ground if there is voltage in the cap it will make sparks if it shorts out) leave it unhooked for a week or two and see if you are still having battery issues. If not then we know its the cap and can go from there, if there are still issues..
2. Unplug the alarm, leave it for a week or two, if the problem is gone then go from there if it is still there...
3. disconnect the cap again, use the discharge direction from step 1, then like Sgtblue said, start pulling fuses to see which is the culprit. To do this disconnect the negative battery post, put your multi meter to DC Amp hook one probe to the ground post on the battery and the other to the ground wire or chassis ground. When you first hook it up it will show high draw but give it a few seconds and it should settle, you should have an amp reading somewhere in the .01 to .05A if it is higher then pull a fuse and re check the multi meter. Do this until you find the culprit.

I am leaning towards a faulty cap but I have been wrong before lol.

Sorry for the long winded response.

Good Luck
Mike

matty

Ty

So I put car on charger and while the battery charged the cap did not. So all things continue to point to the cap.

I will screw around with it this weekend.

Thanks again.

IRPerformance

iTrader: (41)

Like Dale said, poorly installed aftermarket stereo and electronics are notorious for battery drainage problems. That is a capacitor for the sound system. I would have the installation checked by a reputable stereo shop. If you are ever in the area we use Precision Motorsports in Metuchen.

A battery tender will not harm the battery and can be left plugged in indefinitely.

The power fc itself puts a very slight drain on the battery. I recommend any rx-7 that is going to sit for more than 2 weeks have a battery tender kept on it.

newbbe

one way to troubleshoot would be to get a multimeter / ammeter that does DC amps up to some reasonable amount (say 5 amps at least). many don't do high DC currents so read the specs carefully before buying! but i did see one online that goes high that is $30 for example. (note the 'clamp' on a multimeter is for AC current only and won't work for this.)

hook up per the manual of the meter, it will say hook it in series with the battery. Don't crank the car with it hooked up or you will blow a fuse in the meter. no reason to even have the key in the ignition.

You'll then see the parasitic current load, how much it is in amps or milliamps. next, i would one by one take out each fuse and put them back in and note the change. this will tell you which subsystem is the problem. if multiple things on one fuse, you can then go downstream and put meter between a given device and its power source to pinpoint further.

good luck