Battery Drained Overnite

[Grip]

Ok guys so I have ran into a problem with my car that needs to be resolved as quicky as possible. As always I appreciate any help or advice.


Recently I woke up and wanted to go for a drive. I went to turn the car on and got a click. Batery was dead as they come. So I pop the hook and check all the connections, when I removed the battery terminals and put them back I heard the door dinger beeping. So I went back and turned the key and it was back to a click, no power. I went out and got a new battery because the one that was in it was extremely old. Installed the new battery and the car fied right up so I let it run for a good while to see if the alternator was going to hold the charge. It did fine. I shut the car off and went about my day. Go out the next morning and the same issue. Batterys dead but this time removing terminals or wiggling has no effect.

My immediate assumption would be that something is draining the batter when the key is turned off, and when I go to start it in the morning the battery doesnt have enough charge to kick over the car.

If anyone could give me some ideas in referance to how I should attack this problem I would appreciate it greatly.


-Grip

 

[99BoostedRS]

Stay inside the car when it's off and see if any lighting stays on or anything like that.

After that do a parasitic drain test.

DO NOT TURN ON THE CAR WHILE DOING THIS!!!!!!!

What you do is disconnect the negative battery cable and get a DMM and set it to amperage. Then put the red lead to the negative battery cable and the black lead to the negative battery post and read the amperage. If its over .5 amp then you have a parasitic drain. What your doing is completing the ground circuit for the battery.

While the DMM is connected start pulling fuse's. Once the amps drop that's where your problem is. That circuit is staying on for some reason.

 

[gsxxer]

Stay inside the car when it's off and see if any lighting stays on or anything like that.

After that do a parasitic drain test.

DO NOT TURN ON THE CAR WHILE DOING THIS!!!!!!!

What you do is disconnect the negative battery cable and get a DMM and set it to amperage. Then put the red lead to the negative battery cable and the black lead to the negative battery post and read the amperage. If its over .5 amp then you have a parasitic drain. What your doing is completing the ground circuit for the battery.

While the DMM is connected start pulling fuse's. Once the amps drop that's where your problem is. That circuit is staying on for some reason.

^^^ good info.
You can also start by checking obvious grounds, like at the firewall, starter, etc. This won't fix your short if that's what you have but it'll make taking readings easier and more accurate.

 

[H4G64T]

You can check this even simpler. Take your negative cable off, get a multimeter, plug the probes into the unfused setting, switch to DC mA and run one probe to the battery terminal and one to the cable. You want to see between 20 to 50 mA.

 

[1983gsp]

You can do the same thing with a test light in place of the dvom. When the light goes out after pulling the fuse with the paracitic circuit, you've found the drain. Main causes of paracitic loss are dome, vanity, or courtesy lights, stereo amplifiers, bad alternators, and anything not wired to keyed ignition position on. The door being half shut will drain the battery as well.

 

[redpit]

Also make sure your battery terminal are not carbonized. Dark grey or blackish in color

 

[luv2rallye]

You can check this even simpler. Take your negative cable off, get a multimeter, plug the probes into the unfused setting, switch to DC mA and run one probe to the battery terminal and one to the cable. You want to see between 20 to 50 mA.

With negative cable removed put negative probe on battery negative post and + probe on negative cable. Start off meter in the highest range (eg. 10A or 20A) so you don't blow out the meter and work your way down.

 

[Boostinsideways]

The most likely cause is a bad hatch or door trigger. I deleted my hatch trigger (thing that turns on lights when pop the hatch) because you had to slam the bajeezuz out of the hatch to get to "close"

 

[Grip]

*Update*

I didnt find any parasitic draw with my VM, I did find a problem though. Basically when I hook up jumper cables from a charged battery and I can start the car immediately. When I remove the jumper cables the car will run for a few minutes and shots off. At the point I check the charge on the battery and its dead as a door nail. So my conclusion would be the alternator. In which I removed last night.(and was a BEETCH with the AC fan motor still on)

 

[brian102]

Sounds like a good idea to take it in and have it tested. Charge battery up before you put new alternator in to.

 

[luv2rallye]

(and was a BEETCH with the AC fan motor still on)

Well...remove it before reinstalling

 

[Black-Out]

Stay inside the car when it's off and see if any lighting stays on or anything like that.

After that do a parasitic drain test.

DO NOT TURN ON THE CAR WHILE DOING THIS!!!!!!!

What you do is disconnect the negative battery cable and get a DMM and set it to amperage. Then put the red lead to the negative battery cable and the black lead to the negative battery post and read the amperage. If its over .5 amp then you have a parasitic drain. What your doing is completing the ground circuit for the battery.

While the DMM is connected start pulling fuse's. Once the amps drop that's where your problem is. That circuit is staying on for some reason.

.5 amps = 1/2 an amp.....Still too high when your car is off and everything powers down then you should draw no more than about .020-.040 amps or 20-40 milliamps.....of course this depends on the electronics added to the car other than factory...
William-

 

[Token11b]

I'm having the same problem with my 91 talon tsi. Posting so i can watch thread. Im taking my alternator to get tested tomorrow. if all goes well with that Ill be doing a the testing in hopes of isolating the problem.

 

[GodNero]

A quick note about testing an alternator out of a car, sometimes NOT always though, when an alternator s bench tested they can be found to work just fine when they do infact have a problem. Had this issue with the 90 GST before when my friend still owned it, went to three shopd before we found out the problem was infact where we had started. Good luck however

 

[luv2rallye]

The only place to have an alt tested properly and completely is an alt/starter repair shop. The auto store testers are near worthless.

 

[spoolngsx]

did anyone figure out the problem??? my 97 gsx is havin the same problem!!! ='( need to figure out so i can tune it already!!!