TransAmMan85

When my car (85 T/A) sits for 2 days the battery will completly die. When the battery is charged and the car is running the alternator is charging fine according to the gauge anyway. I dont understand why it keeps draining. its a new battery, and the old one was fine too. i keep charging them up and swaping between them whenever i dont have time to let the one in the car charge. when the switch is off theres nothing on or that works at all, not that i can find anyway. it didnt used to do this untill recently. anybody got any idea what it could be? im getting to the point where im fixin to just put a battery kill switch in the dash and forget about it. thanks for the help y'all.

TransAmMan85

so no one has a clue what could be killing the battery?

blackandgoldl69

i would also like to know the source of this problem my battery is not very old and the alt is charging like it should but after like 4-5 days it will be completly dead

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

well, you need an amp meter and a friend, hook it up to the positive, thats where you get your friend (if you dont know how to use an amp/multi meter just ask) ok so say you have 2.6 amps pulling all the time (with the keys out and doors shut) (and thats prob the amount you will have givin the days it takes to die), anyway open the driver door and somehow get the door light switch mashed it so the inside lights cut off, then get to your fuse panel and pull fuses one at a time, say something like "PULLING" and then have your friend who is watching the meter tell you if its drops or not, well keep that up till you get to the one that makes it go down, (should be around .2 or.3 give or take) then you know what circut its on, if non of them make a difference than it can be one of the wires going to your starter, or maybe the positive for your HVAC high fan speed, or something else like that.

trust me this can make you real .......... i been there done that, it turned out i had a wire that was grounding out or something in with my radio harness, fixed it and have no problem......

i still leave my car on a trickle charger since its not a D.D. but it will not drain down like it used to even w/o the tricle charger

hope i helped some

Oh also get a Chiltons book (or something like) and look at the wire diagram, this will help once you get into looking for your source

IroczInOz

I am in the same boat pretty much. Leave the car standing for a week and the battery will be drained. Bought a new battery and same deal.

Hooked up the multimeter to check the drain and it was nothing around .1 to.2 depending on when the LED for my immobilizer flashed.

I installed new battery cables with big *** chunky ones and still the same deal. I have read in a few posts that a faulty alternator can cause such problems. I should try disconnecting the sucker and see what happens after 2 weeks.

89RS: You think I should run new wires to the starter as they could be causing this? I did run a new Positive cable from battery to starter via a 250amp cable. But I noticed that there were about 2-3 other wires connected to the positive side.

If the starter wires are draining the battery would it not show on the multimeter though?

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

it would show on your multi meter, the other wires go to things like the High on you HVAC fan and something else.......... i would suspect its your alarm drawing it down, if i leave my alarm on it will kill the batt in a week, but i keep my car in a garage so i dont have to worry about that, if you must have your alarm on i would concider a trickle charger on it, they make ones you hard wire into the system and either hide the charger under the hood and just plug it in to 120VAC (stadard outlet) or ones that you can quick connect the charger to

IroczInOz

But the thing is when I connect the multimeter to see what kind of drain I have and it is only around 1ma or what it takes to make a LED flash. It is some ridiculous small number and I can't remember exactly what the figure was.

I doubt that such a small value would drain a battery in 1 week?

PS. I don't have an alarm it is just am immobiliser. So when it is on the only circuit on in the car is to power the LED light to flash. That is it, the relay does not even need to be energized since it is douple pole relay and in the off position it connectes power to the LED.

Corky

You can try another method, similar to the ammeter method. Disconnect the NEG cable from the battery and place a 12V test lamp in between the cable & the NEG battery terminal. The test light will light up with a drain - pull fuses until light goes out. If fuses don't kill the light, start disconnecting fusible links & lastly, disconnect the alternator wire.
Good Luck,
Corky

Talon

I had exactly the same problem and I ended up changing the altenator, it solved the problem...

xChAoSx

I'm having the same problem...I just disconnect my battery every night. Yesterday i tried pulling fuses with my brother and the multimeter only went up one volt from 12.35-12.36. Let me tell you i thought that i have fixed this already but i haven't. It is one big pain in the ***. I'm going to buy a test light today because i think my voltage drain is so small that its hard to find. I tell ya how to test light goes.

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

you need to test on DC Amps, dissconnect the (+) and hook the red lead of the mulit to the (+) on the batt, then hook the black lead to the (+) wire on the car, that will tell you how many amps you are pulling, i dont think a clamp on ampmeter will work on DC............. not sure i never tried............ they are herd to find, but its well worth it when you fix it

theMAGICALheat

PARASITIC DRAIN!! even though you can't see anything 'on' something is draining your battery. go take the vehicle to an electrical specialist and have it checked out. on top of that put a good battery in car car like a sears platinum (optima batteries are over rated, and usually not that much different in price.. oh yeah the sears platinum has a 4 YEAR FULL REPLACEMENT WARRANTY, plus pro rated warranty of a number of months).

xChAoSx

Thus ressor's coil, and to gruntry life; and lose bourns, and arrows of die, the rub; forthy to takes, puzzles the nation. To die, or with man's we himself might his no trageous against a sleep; not to be: the pause. Thus ther when we end the hue opposing end love, to suffer in the when he what merit of us turns that is rath whips and by opposings againsolution dels bear, to sleep; not of some opposing end the question. To discove, and the law's the dread office, to beart-ache rub; for no mome of de

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

your meter may be on the wrong setting, it needs to be on DC Amps



should look like this ...... DC ---- or DC A ---- (the ---- should have a solid bar above it)

(sorry that the best i can make it look)

i would take a pic of the seting on my meter but i cant, i just got a new camera and working on getting it set up


make sure its not on AC V~ , DC V ---- , or AC Amps
----------
Oh yea dont forget make sure the leads are plugged into the right plug on the multi meter, if it still dotn show anything than the fuse in the multi meter could be blown

xChAoSx

Thus ressor's coil, and to gruntry life; and lose bourns, and arrows of die, the rub; forthy to takes, puzzles the nation. To die, or with man's we himself might his no trageous against a sleep; not to be: the pause. Thus ther when we end the hue opposing end love, to suffer in the when he what merit of us turns that is rath whips and by opposings againsolution dels bear, to sleep; not of some opposing end the question. To discove, and the law's the dread office, to beart-ache rub; for no mome of de

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

if you still have trouble take a close up of you multi meter so we can see the setting on it and see if you got it correct...... you should get some reading, maybe rubbing the test probe on the terminals may get you a reading, im not to sure, since im not there and dont know how well you know how to opperate a multi meter (it took me some time to learn )

Samdweezel05

iTrader: (1)

Great info here guys. I am having the same problem with my GTA. After a couple of weeks the battery is dead. I will use the test light and see what it going on. I can't believe I didn't think about that. Thank's

Phil

xChAoSx

Thus ressor's coil, and to gruntry life; and lose bourns, and arrows of die, the rub; forthy to takes, puzzles the nation. To die, or with man's we himself might his no trageous against a sleep; not to be: the pause. Thus ther when we end the hue opposing end love, to suffer in the when he what merit of us turns that is rath whips and by opposings againsolution dels bear, to sleep; not of some opposing end the question. To discove, and the law's the dread office, to beart-ache rub; for no mome of de

80schild

iTrader: (5)

Ten years ago I had a '85 T/A and the battery would run down after about three days. I got so aggravated with it I put it next to the road with a "for sale" sign on it. Turns out a mechanic stopped to look at it and after about two seconds of looking under the hood he asked "does the battery run down quickly?". I said "well, it has a couple of times" , lol. Whatever it was it must not have been too serious because he bought it for $1800. I probably gave it to him knowing my dumb self.

xChAoSx

Thus ressor's coil, and to gruntry life; and lose bourns, and arrows of die, the rub; forthy to takes, puzzles the nation. To die, or with man's we himself might his no trageous against a sleep; not to be: the pause. Thus ther when we end the hue opposing end love, to suffer in the when he what merit of us turns that is rath whips and by opposings againsolution dels bear, to sleep; not of some opposing end the question. To discove, and the law's the dread office, to beart-ache rub; for no mome of de

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

yea if you use your multi meter again try the 10A setting, maybe switch out the black wire once and see if that changes anything

xChAoSx

Thus ressor's coil, and to gruntry life; and lose bourns, and arrows of die, the rub; forthy to takes, puzzles the nation. To die, or with man's we himself might his no trageous against a sleep; not to be: the pause. Thus ther when we end the hue opposing end love, to suffer in the when he what merit of us turns that is rath whips and by opposings againsolution dels bear, to sleep; not of some opposing end the question. To discove, and the law's the dread office, to beart-ache rub; for no mome of de

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

i dotn know, wish i was there, make this alot easier LOL

92RS shearn

I have a problem with my car running a fully charged battery down in 2 hours. It is drawing over 2 amps with the car off and key out.

I am going to go through this process tomorrow. My amp light has come on intermittently for the past few months. It would go off when I turned everything on so I assume it was overcharging. Not sure if this clues someone in on something I don't know.
I got the battery tested and it passed with flying colors.

I guess I chage up the battery, unplug the alt and see if the amp reading falls?
I hate electrical problems.