How are you guys doing? Ok I have a major problem, I let my car sit for 2 days without starting it then when I tried starting it it wouldn't even click to attempt to turn over. So I checked everything else and noticed there wasn't any lights on. Ok so I assumed it was the battery so I took the battery out (Red Top) and went and replaced it with a new one. Took my car to the car audio shop and had them take EVERYTHING audio out. I couldn't pick it up after they was done so I told them to lock my car up inside until tomorrow. So today they called me saying they took everything out but the battery is DEAD down to 4volts a brand new red top!!!! So what could be draining the battery? In addition when I took it the shop yesterday we had the car running and he disconnected the battery and it kept running so he said the alternator was good. I guess when the car sits it drains, but thats a major drain I think.
New Red Top Optimum 1 Day Battery Is Dead
- Thread starter nortyhat
- Start date
1LoudLS
Dedicated LVC Member
pull one of the battery terminals, and put a meter in line with the car and battery (dont turn anything on) and see what the reading is (in amps) then start pulling fuses one at a time until the current drain disappears, one its gone, you know what circuit the drain is on.
If you don't have a good amp meter you can do it with a volt meter if it's a decent enough draw. Pop the battery teminals off and measure voltage at the battery with nothing hooked up. Then hook the battery up, and see how many volts you have. It should drop a volt or so if you have any amount of heavy draw. If not, this method won't work. But if you do see the drop, you can then start pulling fuses like LoudLS said. If the problem is a circuit behind a fuse then you'll see the voltage across the battery change.
It's still not as good as an amp meter as you need a fairly decent draw to make the voltage change across the battery. I've also seen a trickle charger with a built-in amp meter used to find current drains. Just need to make sure you start with a full battery so that you don't end up chasing your tail.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
Normally, I caution everyone to wait for half an hour before checking the reading to allow the various electronic modules to go to sleep. In this case, however, you don't need too because you must have a drain of several amps to kill the battery in one day. Where ever that power is going, it should be creating enough heat to detect it that way too. I once had a similar issue with a Grand Marquis. In that case, it was the driver's door module. It would get hot enough that it made part of the interior door trim panel hot. That made the issue easy to find.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
No, a fuse is not your problem.
The advice to remove fuses was so that you could isolate where the problem is. If you remove a fuse and the current reading remains about the same, then you know the problem is not that circuit. When you do remove one and the current reading goes way down, you now have found the circuit where the problem is. Unfortunately, you still don't know exactly where it is because most fuses feed power to more than one module.
Yes, a bad ground could cause high loads because it might keep some modules from going to sleep.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
Maybe. Also there are some alternator faults that would allow it to charge the battery and power the car with the engine running, but still discharge the battery when the engine is off.
Mark8Murder
Dedicated LVC Member
:Bang
tripwire1124
Active LVC Member
sounds like what mine was doing...i too had a yellowtop battery and it drained after a day, there is a fuse in the trunk that is an alternator fuse, or something like that. I pulled it and it had been blown...i would check there, it will take ten minutes or so to do...
Was it a remanufactured alternator or a junkyard one? If remanufactured, what brand was it? Remanufactured alternators can be extremely hit or miss, even with good remans like at Napa. I've been through quite a few reman alternators that were marginal out of the box.
What he said +1. Had a regulator fail that caused this before.
chris2523
93 Mark VIII
yep. +1