Every morning battery is dead

[SloRegal]

Hello Guys,

I've had this problem for awhile but just now getting to it. The problem is that my battery dies overnight or within 8-10 hrs. I've charged the battery and had it tested. Its good. The car runs fine, no blown fuses. How hard is it locate a short or to find what's draining the battery. I'm skilled with a multimeter, but never used it for this. Where do I start? Or is it best to take it to a pro. No changes on the car were made, it started all of a sudden. Thanks Carlos

 

[microELVIS]

My guess is the blower motor starts running, do you have the digital climate control ? Try unplugging the little circuit board next to the blower motor under the hood. Its in the top corner.

 

[Blazer406]

Are you sure you don't have a light staying on? ... i.e. trunk light... or underhood light? .... or an interior light....


Any of them could wipe a battery if left on overnight....

What about the radiator fans? The big relay on the drivers side fender is notorious for letting the fans come on and run while no one is near the car.... You can just unplug it....

HTH

 

[SloRegal]

No digital climate control, I've checked all the lights; interior, under the hood, trunk, glove box everything is ok. My fan relay was doing that problem about a year ago and I just unpluged it when it started acting up. Thanks for your help guys....Carlos

BTW, the car is dead again.

 

[jpwalt1987]

disconnect the positve battery cable. put one lead of your DVOM on the pos itve side of the battery and the other on the cable. use some clips. set your meter to amps. with all the doors shut and everything off(including the underhood light) there should be 0 current draw. If you have .5 or so volts then you need to isolate the circuit. easiest way to do it is to pull each fuse one at a time and see if the current drops to zero. if it does that is the circuit you need to look at. if it doesnt then move on to the next fuse/circuit.
hope this helps, jeremy

 

[GNTIM]

disconnect the positve battery cable. put one lead of your DVOM on the pos itve side of the battery and the other on the cable. use some clips. set your meter to amps. with all the doors shut and everything off(including the underhood light) there should be 0 current draw. If you have .5 or so volts then you need to isolate the circuit. easiest way to do it is to pull each fuse one at a time and see if the current drops to zero. if it does that is the circuit you need to look at. if it doesnt then move on to the next fuse/circuit.
hope this helps, jeremy

You can also run a test light between the battery cable and battery post. If the light is on, there is a draw somewhere. Similar to what he said above, pull fuses until the light goes off.

 

[SloRegal]

You can also run a test light between the battery cable and battery post. If the light is on, there is a draw somewhere. Similar to what he said above, pull fuses until the light goes off.

Perfect that is what I wanted to know. I will try this tomorrow morning. Thanks for your help guys...Carlos

 

[gsgns4me]

You really should use a multi-meter and not a test light on a car with a computer.

Late model cars can draw up to .5 milliamps keeping "memory" alive in things like clocks, computers. Sometimes that's enough to get a dim light from the test light and keep you wondering.

Just a reminder, don't open the door to go pull a fuse with the meter set on the milliamp scale, unless you have extra fuses for the meter.

 

[norbs]

The switches in the GN hood light sometimes allow a bit of current to flow, even though the light appears off. pull the bulbs right out of the trunk and hood lights and do your testing. The only other thing it could be is if you have an alarm system or the diodes in the alternator are leaking voltage. If all else fails unplug the alternator and see if your millamps are alot lower.

 

[jpwalt1987]

Its been a while since i have had to do that but i believe that i set the meter on the 20 amp scale. jeremy

 

[Jerryl]

Good advice.

I would look for a BIG "leak".
680CCA Drained at 12 hours is still about a 55A draw.
That type of current will fry most all wires, so start with the VOM on high.

Disconnect the wire from the alternator to the battery and make sure it is insulated. See what happens. Is the alternator warm after letting the car sit for about 5 hours?

 

[Tom Walker]

antenna

when my battery was doing that, turned out to be the power antenna. to test, unplug it from pass. side under hood. may be hard to find, mine was. seems antenna continues to run after it is in the down position. Good Luck.

 

[john saleeby]

Short Circuit

I had the same problem. Turned out my cigarette lighter was the culprit. Try removing the lighter and see if your battery stays charged.

John

 

[dougie]

Same problem. Removed the bulb under the hood. Problem gone. It's probably a light on somewhere. It can definitely kill a battery overnight.

 

[garyk1970]

every car with battery/memory circuts will pull a small amount.use the meter as described above so you can read the initial amount of drain and THEN see the drops as you start to pull fuses.drains are easy to find IMHO.

start uplugging lights first.then cig fuse, it controlls alot of circuts,then alt,etc.

 

[cabech984]

Hook up the meter like said above, put DVOM on mA. Should be less than .5mA. If not, pull fuses, relays, etc, one at a time, and see if the mA drops. If it does, whichever circuit is disconnected is your problematic source for parasatic drain. Hope this helps ya!

Chris