Dead Battery in less than 48 hours
11-01-2018, 09:10 PM
#1
Dead Battery in less than 48 hours
Appreciate any help you guys/gals can give me. I am really frustrated...
I have owned a 2005 manual convertible for about three weeks. Last week I drove the car on Thursday, went out of town and came back and tried to start the car Monday and the car was completely dead...not even interior lights. I went and got a new battery and put it in Monday night. Drove it to an awesome repair shop close by for a exhaust install on Tuesday. Picked it up Tuesday night and drove it home.
Tonight, roughly 48 hours later, the battery was completely dead again. I was going into the garage to hook up my new ctek trickle charger (ironic, I know) and the battery was dead again. I hooked up the charger and it is charging the battery, but now I have no confidence in taking the car anywhere.
-I am putting it in reverse and setting the parking brake.
-There are no interior lights stuck on, including glovebox, trunk, or hood.
-It didn’t do this when I first brought it home.
-Only thing I have gone electrical to it was install two new OEM door pads to open the doors.
Anyone have any thoughts I can try before paying someone who knows how much to troubleshoot? Is there a scanner or something that the car computer can talk to to tell it what is draining the battery?
I have owned a 2005 manual convertible for about three weeks. Last week I drove the car on Thursday, went out of town and came back and tried to start the car Monday and the car was completely dead...not even interior lights. I went and got a new battery and put it in Monday night. Drove it to an awesome repair shop close by for a exhaust install on Tuesday. Picked it up Tuesday night and drove it home.
Tonight, roughly 48 hours later, the battery was completely dead again. I was going into the garage to hook up my new ctek trickle charger (ironic, I know) and the battery was dead again. I hooked up the charger and it is charging the battery, but now I have no confidence in taking the car anywhere.
-I am putting it in reverse and setting the parking brake.
-There are no interior lights stuck on, including glovebox, trunk, or hood.
-It didn’t do this when I first brought it home.
-Only thing I have gone electrical to it was install two new OEM door pads to open the doors.
Anyone have any thoughts I can try before paying someone who knows how much to troubleshoot? Is there a scanner or something that the car computer can talk to to tell it what is draining the battery?
11-02-2018, 09:28 AM
#2
Parasitic draw with one of the modules or two not going into sleep mode when the car is shut down.
Tech II makes quick work of finding the problem, but if you have digital meter, then can use it instead.
Set the meter leads to amps, set the meter to amp readings, then disconnect the battery positive cable, and wire the meter leads in between the battery post and battery cable to show the amount of amps the car is pulling (do not try to start the car). The car should be pulling about half a amp to start with, then should drop down to around .01 amp'ish range when all the modules go into sleep mode in a few mins.
If the amperage does not drop, then start pulling fuses one by one in the engine fuse box, then the Passenger foot well until you get the amperage to drop in the .01 range.
Hence we are killing the power to each module one at a time, to find the one that is not gong into sleep mode and causing the parasitic draw.
Most of the time it going to be some after market device installed in the car the problem, or if you have an XM or On start module with no subscription, be suspect of them as well. In the case of On star, even with out a subscription, it will try to call home on off house, and until is connects, it will keep trying.
Also, the 05's had a re-flash firmware upgrades for a couple of modules like the RCDLR if they would not going to sleep mode, but if that was a problem, would have figured that the modules would have been re-flashed upgraded a long time again isntead.
Tech II makes quick work of finding the problem, but if you have digital meter, then can use it instead.
Set the meter leads to amps, set the meter to amp readings, then disconnect the battery positive cable, and wire the meter leads in between the battery post and battery cable to show the amount of amps the car is pulling (do not try to start the car). The car should be pulling about half a amp to start with, then should drop down to around .01 amp'ish range when all the modules go into sleep mode in a few mins.
If the amperage does not drop, then start pulling fuses one by one in the engine fuse box, then the Passenger foot well until you get the amperage to drop in the .01 range.
Hence we are killing the power to each module one at a time, to find the one that is not gong into sleep mode and causing the parasitic draw.
Most of the time it going to be some after market device installed in the car the problem, or if you have an XM or On start module with no subscription, be suspect of them as well. In the case of On star, even with out a subscription, it will try to call home on off house, and until is connects, it will keep trying.
Also, the 05's had a re-flash firmware upgrades for a couple of modules like the RCDLR if they would not going to sleep mode, but if that was a problem, would have figured that the modules would have been re-flashed upgraded a long time again isntead.
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Powelltc1 (11-02-2018)
11-02-2018, 09:55 AM
#4
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Member Since: Jan 2006
Location: Smyrna/Vinings, Georgia
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Disconnect negative battery cable. Hook standard test light between cable and battery. If test light on, proceed with disconnecting fuses until light goes out or dims.
11-02-2018, 10:25 AM
#5
So with the amp meter between the positive battery terminal and cable, can watch how much the car is pulling is amps, and then check to see what factory module is not going to sleep mode, and even put it into sleep mode manual to make sure it making a differance.
Also,trick from the start, is to get the battery fully charged, disconnect the battery positive cable for about 15 mins, then reconnect the battery. This will hard reset all the modules in the car, encase one of then glitched during the low voltage period and why it not going to sleep when the car is shut down.
As for the Onstar and XM modules if in the car and do not have a subscription to them, they are disconnected for the car. The on star module has it own fuse that you can pull in the BCM to keep it from powering up/pulling power, and as for the XM module, snap to just pull it connector isntead.
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