1986vert

I was out of town since last Friday and today my battery was dead again. This has happened in the past when it sits for 5 days or so. I have checked at night and there are no lights interior, under hood or anywhere on, and I am at loss as where to start looking. It has to be a low drain as it will still start if it
is only 3 days. Any ideas ??? By the way, this is a 1984 if that makes a difference.


[Modified by lee.anderson, 5:28 PM 9/14/2001]

65Z01

Interior lights would have been my first suggestion. I currently have an intermittent "door ajar" signal.

You can disconnect the +bat lead, connect an ohmeter between that cable and ground. You should see some fairly low resistance value. Then successively pull each fuse and look for a sharp jump in resistance. Of course the ECM, clock and alarm system pull current even with ignition sw off.

92TripleBlack

Do you have any aftermarket electrical items (alarms, sterio, radar, etc) on the car or is it stock?
92TripleBlack

1986vert

There are no extras, everything is stock . I have already checked interior lights
or options that may have been on, found nothing.

1986vert

Could the ecm or alarm be drawing too much ?? How would one figure that out if it was ?? Also could it be the battery itself, I don't think so as it only happens when it sits for a length of time.

jackdaroofer

I had an Alternator go bad and go to ground

Jack

Muffin

Have you had the battery tested. It is entirely possible that the battery is not taking a full charge or is internally bleeding its own charge off. This is not uncommon even with almost new batteries.

jfb

How old is the battery? At the end of their life (guarantee period), batteries are discharged by plate material flaking off and building up on the bottom until they touch the plates. You can measure the discharge current by placing an ammeter in series with one of the battery terminals. Leakage current should be under 10 milliamps. When first measuring the current , you will have to wait until the inside lights time out when you make connection. Start your ammeter on a high setting so you don't harm it by starting it at say 100 ma full scale. When first connecting a large transient current will flow along with the interior lights. Start with the highest full scale amps. Also, if you are recharging the battery, it should be charged for at least 4 full days to get to its rated amp hours. Charged only overnight and left to sit again , the battery will not last very long because it is not fully charged. If you measure low leakage current, I would suspect a battery at the end of its useful life.

88sk

had fixed this problem in my truck& last week in my 88 it was the alternator both cases . :rolleyes:

skeet

When the battery in my 85 kept on going dead and evidentually killed my battery I could not find the reason until one night as I turned off the garage light I noticed through the glass top that my vanity mirror light was on. The lid on the mirror would sometimes close enough to turn off the light and some time it would not close tight enough to turn off the light. I would have never found this if I did not have a glass top.

steve1ph

I to had the door adjar light on as well as the lights, some times going down the road, replaced both door switches like 15 bucks from the chevy house. what i noticed on mine was that they were getting wet when it rained or when i washed it. did fix the problem. if you were going to start anywhere start with the driver side . i would also check the switch that controls the inner hood lights.