phil74501

I bought a new battery, Duralast, earlier this year. It keeps going dead. I hooked it up to a charger, and it charges up fine. I started it as late as last Monday or Tuesday. I go out to start it today and it's dead again. It's a new battery, It only sat there for less than a week, what's wrong? Could the battery be bad?

b5audia4

Maybe is your starter. I had similar symptom on a 2yr old CAA (AAA) battery. Didn't last long. Changed that out for a new one. And one day my starter died too.

phil74501

I can recharge the battery, its good if I start it every day, but if it sits for a week or so it goes dead. Kinda strange.

DarylJ

No really strange - not on these cars. You have a parasitic battery drain.

Get a volt/ohm meter and meter what you're drawing with the car off. Start pulling fuses until you find the culprit, then track it down. Just about all of us here have had to do it (probably).

I'm sure many can help...you just need to start narrowing it down.

jsaindc

I had an alarm that was draining power even when the alarm was not armed. I by passed the alarm and the problems went away.

oldjammer

All batteries are not created equal! I thought my old (at least 5 year) battery
was getting tired so I traded it for a new Napa.I was better off before.at least the old one would hold a charge. I wish I had saved my warranty/receipt on this one!

phil74501

I hooked it up to a trickle charger. Started up fine. I don't remember it doing this with my previous battery.

JasonV

I have the same problem now. Where do I hook up the volt meter to test what's stealing power? Would this also cause my starter to not turn even when I've got it jumped to a running car?

alordofchaos

+1 on the parasitc drain

In my case, it was the door switch; cleaned it up and all was well. You can eliminate this by checking window operation,

edit: couldn't find the post. Here's one I found that i posted earlier

basically, the door switch is stuck "in" - symptoms would be:
- your overhead lights won't turn on, and
- right after you shut the engine off, your windows have power for a bit until you open the door - if, right after you turn your engine off, you can open the door and your window operates, it's the door swtich

shlby123

subscribing. Future reference.

klamer

Just wanted to say thanks for this info. I've been struggling with a battery drain and I can't lock it down. A multimeter was only showing a drain of 10 milliamps which from what I've read isn't much. After replacing the switch, not only did I regain my dome light when I opened the drivers side door, but the drain dropped to 9.6 milliamps.
I'll be keeping an eye on it still but this is a step in the right direction.

Thanks again.

944Time

10 milliamps is (almost) nothing. Your radio will draw that.
I just measured mine at 30ma. I have a keyless entry system and power door locks.

Gratuitous Duralast picture:

JohanvdWalt

What is an acceptable draw on the battery?

klamer

I'm aware of that, just reporting on the results I found.

I read somewhere that with more current vehicles it's not uncommon to see a draw of 25-35 miliamps.

karlfrevans

I had the same problem. It ended up being a glove box door that did not shut completely, so the glove box light slowly drained the battery.

I almost changed my alternator over this issue, because some car electric 'expert' shop told me the alternator voltage was low under full accessory load. It was BS!