2G Horrible Battery Drain (think it's the alternator/fusebox wiring)

[ishnish]

Hey guys. So this problem has been occurring since 2012 and was one of the many reasons I just didn't drive my car. After I did a ton of work to get my car running again, the battery issue still persisted. I think it's in my relocation I did to the trunk. And I wanna say it specifically has to do with the wiring in the fusebox that are related to the alternator. I am horrible with electrical and I think I might have messed with the wrong wires.

My car will start just fine on a new battery. And I notice when I drive on the freeway for a few miles, my battery does pretty well staying healthy. But if I drive in the city, the car has a harder time cranking to start Everytime until it just won't crank anymore. Or if I let the car sit for a week or so, the battery completely dies.

I did a parasitic draw test with a multimeter but not sure if I did it completely correct because both times I didn't get anything that pointed to parasitic battery draw. The multimeter was borrowed from a friend and it was an expensive one that worked a little differently so it was kinda confusing.

Anyway, so to the wiring. When I first did my battery relocation, the two terminals highlighted were completely removed and I replaced them with 4 gauge wires that ran straight into a distribution block which from there ran to the battery in the trunk (0 gauge wire). These two pics depict the same wires.

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Here is the fusebox which depicts which wires were replaced.

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I've seen on different threads describing white wires that people replace from the fusebox to the distribution box and I'm just not sure if I replaced the wrong ones. I will try to mock up a diagram today and post it up and hopefully it helps.

If anyone can let me know though if I even routed the fusebox wires correctly that would be great.

Additional details: I took the stock wire from the started and soldered extra 4 gauge wire to lengthen it and run it to the distribution box in my car by the passenger side. So, all together, I have those two wires from the fusebox and the wire from the starter going to one side of the distribution box, and a 0 gauge wire going all the way to the trunk to the positive battery terminal. I grounded a 0 gauge wire from the negative battery terminal to the chassis in the trunk .and from that same spot on the chassis, I ran a 4 gauge wire from the trunk to the engine bay and grounded it on the chassis in the engine bay. There is also an additional ground on the same spot in the engine bay going from the chassis to the block and I believe that the starter is grounded to that same spot on the block.

Any assumptions on what my issue could be?

Sorry, right now I know it's not much but I'm trying to provide as much info as possible .

 

[ishnish]

UPDATE

Although I haven't gotten any feedback on this, I'm gonna keep updating it since I've been battling this issue since 2012 or so and I figure this may be important to someone out there in the future. The issue still isn't resolved but has gotten better.

I ended up buying a new alternator thinking that would fix the issue. In short, it didn't. But the new alternator is a 97 Galant alternator and is a great addition in general. What seemed to GREATLY improve the horrible battery voltage issue was actually fixing the damn battery terminal clamps!! Turns out, buying really cheap battery terminal clamps from O'Reilly's has negative side effects. Believe it or not, the clamps come painted red and grey. Well, turns out the ENTIRE positive side clamp was painted red so there was NO metal to metal contact! Getting a pocket knife and scraping most of the paint off made my voltage shoot up greatly.

NOTE: Before, my battery was hovering around 12.8-13.0v at idle, now my battery hovers around 13.5 at idle but drops to as low as 13.3 or spikes to 13.6v at random spots. So, although great improvement, it's still too low and not where I want it to be.

What I did notice was that voltage at the alternator with the car running was around 14.0-14.1. I then checked the wires from the alternator to my fuse box at the 100amp alternator fuse and they were reading the same as the alternator. When checking the wires on the other side of the fuse (labeled choke), they were also the same values. Here's where things get a little confusing and I'll try my best to explain. The wire on the choke side of the alternator fuse was originally two smaller white wires that were replaced with one bigger 4 gauge wire. That 4 gauge runs into my distribution block in the car. The other two white wires that were supposedly to be extending to the distribution block as well were also removed and replaced with a 4 gauge wire that now runs to my distribution block. Well, checking the voltage at that wire I was getting less than the value of the alternator. I was getting 13.7-13.8 volts. The thing is, this wire is attached to the side of a "Headlamp Phares" 40amp fuse. Does anyone know why these wires had to even be ran to the battery? Or in my case, my distribution block? I'm wondering if that's the issue because when checking my voltage at my distribution block, here is where my battery volts dip to the 13.6v value...
Also, I noticed when I remove that headlamp fuse, all my interior lights, gauges, wideband all then off, the car runs like crap but battery voltage jumps to 14.4v.

Lastly, would it be smart to run a 4gauge wire from the alternator straight to the distribution block? The distribution block if fused as well so it shouldn't be an issue. I just need to replace the stock ANL fuse with a 100amp one. I'm just trying to narrow down if that could be the issue.

Thanks if you are reading..

 

[ishnish]

Again, this is what I'm talking about.

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[evil_eagletalon]

What kind of readings did you get during the draw test.