my car is sucking out the life of the battery

WideKyle · Post by **WideKyle** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:41 am

I have an 04 sxt and Something has to be sucking out the life of my batteries. i just bought a battery maybe 6 months ago and it died on me for no reason. It happed again with another battery i got from walmart that only lasted about 3 months. but i thought the reason why it died that time was because it was a cheapass walmart battery. i got new ignition stuff 6 months ago as well: coil pack, wires and spark plugs. If anyone knows anything about this i would gladly take any help.

Thanks
Kyle

Wizzard~Of~Ozz · Post by **Wizzard~Of~Ozz** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 12:42 pm

My Brother in law had a Topaz that would eat batteries. The Alt. was 1/2 dead. It would drain the batteries w/o the car even being on.. (and it would still charge w/ the car running).

If you have the car off, and an ammeter available.. You can take a fuse out and connect the ammeter to each side of the socket, it will measure the current draw with the car off (everything should be very low/zero).. If it's reading 1A or higher, then it would be another good place to look. (just look on the index to see what it is..) If not, then it could be a bad alt. belt or a bad alt.

That's how I'd start hunting the problem.

Post by **occasional demons** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:07 pm

A test light will do the same thing. The stuff you have to elimlnate form the search are things with a parasitic draw (PCM/radio or anything that has memory) Since your PCM has already been "reset" from a dead battery, just disconnect the positve terminal, pull fuse 10 in the fuse block (PCM), fuse 2 (radio) and connect the light to the battery and the battery connector that is removed. If the light illuminates then some thing is drawing from the battery. Just start pulling fuses till the light goes out and you'll have a general idea where to look. The output from the alternator may be corroded in the alternator case creating a resistor to ground.I had this happen before the bakelite insulator was intact, but there was enough crud built up that the voltage was going to ground instead of the battery. Good luck with your search. I'd have the alternator checked first though.

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:47 pm

get the alternator checked first.

i just went through a similar problem, i had to jumpstart my car just about every day. it turned out that my trunk light was staying on and draining my battery