Cass944

even if i let my car sit for like an hour and a half my battery will be dead. if i drive the car around then turn it off, then start it again its fine. but if it sits for only an hour or so its dead.

is this just my battery? its about 2 years old.

slang

Could be. That's kinda early for a battery to fail, though. You might try hooking up an ammeter to the battery (remove cable and hook in series) to see how much drain exists when the engine is not running. It should be less than 1 Amp (probably much less, I haven't checked).

Also, make sure something isn't shorting the battery out, like a loose wire or part touching the positive lead. Check for torn insulation where a wire passes thru the firewall or other body part. If the hole doesn't have a rubber grommet, that may be the culprit.

Then, you can always stop by a WalMart, or someplace that sells batteries, and get a free load check on your battery.

Good luck!

. . . Steve

billybones

car off, put a meter on battery should read at least 12.5 if not your battery has a bad cell. Provided that the alternator is working properly. start car and at idle it should read higher to at least 13+. 14+ is optimum. IF there is no change the alternator is not working enough to charge the battery. This is sort of off the wall. I once had a battery issue. My brake pedal was sitting on the light switch and killing the battery.. this was in a mustang though... HTH..

Cass944

yeah if i jump the car then drive around for a while everything is fine. i noticed lately that whenever i touch the brakes or turn on my headlights the battery meter jumps a little but doesnt drop below 13. but yeah as soon as i turn it off it seems to go dead very fast.

944S2NUT

Its possible ur alternator is hooped. Working backwards and draining ur battery. Get it tested. Its possible u need a rebuild.

Cass944

i tested the alt and its fine. the people at autozone also said my battery is fine. but they dont knwo **** about anything except hondas so i dont knwo what to beleive.

were do i start looking for shorts. i was looking around by the firewall and everyhting looks fine.

Cass944

i mean what the hell...

even if i left my headlights on the battery wouldnt be dead in an hour and a half. even if the IGNITION was on for an hour and a half i think i would still get more juice out of the thing. all i get after a few hours is a little "erehhh...." and thats it. my dash lights barely come on.

it started doing this probly a week or so before i did my timing belt change. I remember having to jump my car a few times before it died on the road one day...

i hate my car...

Yabo

heh, dont say that. mines been equally a pain in the *** the last few months since i bought it. Do you havvew another car or a parents car around to steal the battery from for a few hours? try that, see if it works. (btw, make sure the battery you are taking has the right terminals on the right side cuz otherwise the cables wont reach, i learned that after spending time to undo the other cars brackets and carry it to the back and crap).

Just as a precaution, and you never know.. if you have a battery terminal cleaner, or sandpaper or even dremel with wirebrush tip, take of battery wires and clean everything up real good.. i have had some instances like that because of corrosion

Yabo

and i guess you could also check if something like your rear hatch light is switched on.. but i dont think that would do that in that short of time, UNLESS, the battery isnt charged well, which it soundsn like it isn't? how long do you drive it for after jumping it? to be sure, put a full charge on the battery and try it then. Is it possible you have a radio like mine that will stay on after the car is off? you could make sure its not on with the speakers down. Did you install an amp lately? did you run it right to the battery and not to the power wire on the radio so it shuts off? just a bunch of things to consider... i'm assuming if you shut it off and turn the key a second later it still has battery right?

Chris_924s

Did you replace all the battery cables? voltage loss will occur if the positve and negatives are bad.. Try using a better meter (a multimeter that goes .00 or 2 decimals)

buckshot

number one, check the battery voltage, i had a bad cell that caused this same problem last summer. if you are certain that it is ok, put an ammeter
in series with the positive cable, and see what draw you have.
if there is a draw, and it should be quite high for the battery to go down that fast, start removing fuses one at a time and see if you can find which circuit is actually drawing down the battery. in troubleshooting, sometimes the way to the answer is to find what is not the problem and eliminate possible sources. once it is narrowed down, it may be easier to isolate..
good luck, it can be a pain in the @@#$ but keep with it, you will find the problem!
buckshot wi

IceShark

Do as Buckshot says. You need to find out what sort of amp draw you have at rest. And if it is high (you should be well under an amp, the car running probably only draws 6 amps) start off by pulling fuses to narrow down where the draw is. I doubt it is bad battery cables shorting since you haven't started the car on fire yet but I suppose you could get a minor short via a liquid that wouldn't be conductive enough to melt things but good enough to drain the battery quick.

Be careful with sticking a run of the mill ammeter in series off the battery for your testing. The cheaper ones may not be fused and probably can't take the load you must be drawing. You will melt the meter into a blob of electronics.

Another idea is to take the car to an automotive shop that has a good electrical system tester and have them tell you what the draw is when the car is off. Then at least you have a baseline of what your problem is.

dgz924s

Sound like in all your repair work lately you have a wire shorting somewhere. Take another look at the areas worked on and see if you can identify anything. It was not doing this prior to work on the car was it? Dal

Zero10

Sounds like diodes in the alternator to me.
Had an old mazda that did exactly the same thing. The alternator would charge properly, but it would kill the battery when the car was off. Would take about 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Tom M'Guinn

Don't trust them. The people at Kragen's said my battery was fine, but it had an internal short that would drain itself within a an hour or so. The machine at Kragens (same as AUtozone I believe) did not test for internal shorts. Do this, charge up your battery with a nice long drive. Then disconnect the battery and let it sit overnight. If it does not start when you reconnect it the next day, then it's the battery (provided it would have started right after you shut it down).