Electrical Problem Battery goes dead
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 24
Likes: 0
Electrical Problem Battery goes dead
Need help. Am about to go nuts. Bought new battery 30 days ago. Wouldn't start 6 days later. Got another new battery. Would start 2 weeks later. Now won't start every other day or so. Battery and alternator were check and ruled okay. He said had a drain somewhere. Where/how to do I start?
Race Director
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 14,604
Likes: 3
From: Glendale, AZ
i don't know if my suggestion will work (i suppose theoretically it would)
get a digital multimeter set it to amps and see how the battery is sitting.
have someone pull fuses and look for the amps to change.
go through ALL the fuses in the fuse block and if nothing changed and you went through all of them, look into add ons, stereo, anything electrical that is NOT standard.
and do me a favor - if it works, please let me know, as i said, it's a great theory, but i haven't put into practice.
get a digital multimeter set it to amps and see how the battery is sitting.
have someone pull fuses and look for the amps to change.
go through ALL the fuses in the fuse block and if nothing changed and you went through all of them, look into add ons, stereo, anything electrical that is NOT standard.
and do me a favor - if it works, please let me know, as i said, it's a great theory, but i haven't put into practice.
Advanced
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 74
Likes: 0
From: Bloomingdale Illinois
in order to check for a parasitic drain the easiest way is to:
disconnect the negative battery lead,
get a multimeter, set it to DC amps scale,
connect one test lead to battery negative cable,
connect the other lead to the battery negative post
if you have a drain you should see a reading on the meter, if the meter reads zero, then change the meter to the miliamps scale
once you get a reading, you will need to determine where the drain is coming from, start pulling fuses one at a time, once you pull a given fuse and the reading goes to zero, you have found your problem circuit.
once the circuit is identified (read fusebox cover) you will be able to determine exactly what on that particular circuit is causing your drain
hope this helps
disconnect the negative battery lead,
get a multimeter, set it to DC amps scale,
connect one test lead to battery negative cable,
connect the other lead to the battery negative post
if you have a drain you should see a reading on the meter, if the meter reads zero, then change the meter to the miliamps scale
once you get a reading, you will need to determine where the drain is coming from, start pulling fuses one at a time, once you pull a given fuse and the reading goes to zero, you have found your problem circuit.
once the circuit is identified (read fusebox cover) you will be able to determine exactly what on that particular circuit is causing your drain
hope this helps
Eventually tracked it down to the lumbar side bolster deflate switch. Had a hell of a time tracking it down. Best of luck with yours. 
