Battery does not stay charged!!!

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GermzD74

GermzD74

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(Someone is stealing my battery power lol j/k) :lol:

Hello my masters lol Well, eventhough its exciting fixing my car, this one isn't too cool haha!

I left for the weekend and didn't run the car for a few days. The car has a new battery and when I came back. That battery wouldnt turn the car on. There is something somewhere somehow draining the power off the battery while its not running. What could it be???

I have the Haynes manual that gives me a few possibilities but this forum makes it much fun'er haha.

If I drive the car daily or every other day, the battery will have enough power, so im guessing the alternator is charging so the problem isnt there?

Ummm here are a few causes...

Battery defective internally (dont think so, its new)

Electrolyte level too low or electrolyte too wak due to leakage (whats that? lol)

Plate seperators no longer fully effective (dont know what that is)

Battery plates severly sulphated (ok...?)

I think there is enough current flow to keep the battery charging its just not holding it.

Thanks.

batteryterminalwire.jpg


battery.jpg


engine.jpg
 
On the second and third pictures, it shows a THING on the left side of the battery, which has some wires connected to it but they are held with another wire not by its required clip things lol WHAT IS THAT THING? And also what is the grey box with the orange sticker on it...just trying to get to know the parts of the engine little by little. Thanks Yous!
 
Don't overlook a defective alternator. A bad diode in the alternator will cause the battery to discharge over time.
 
Any thing from a short to a bad radio or clock could also cause this problem along with the Diode in the alt. like Dotmann metioned. I would start by testing the alt. If that checks out then I would disconnect the radio and clock (if you have one) If you don't then I would start to look at a short somewhere in the system. I would pull the battery cable and put a test light between the post and the cable and see if it lights up with the clock/ radio disconnected. If it lights up there is a power draw. Then it is time to start searching for the problem. I have seen an ignition switch cause this problem once before also.
 
what is that in the second and thurd pic!! It is a starter relay.
Turn your key of and check for any power in the car there will be power to your
dome lite and to your door lite switches,If you have a bulb there take it out and then check voltage draw at the batery like BJS said,
I had a dart that had a bad brake lite switch some time's it would stick and I did not notice the brake light's stayed on.And check your underhood light and make sure it alway's go's out or like I said just take it out then retest for short.And make sure you do not have volage to your coil when the ke is off.
And don't forget about your trunk light.
the more you look the mor you will understand.

would a good starter relay leak voltage to chargin sercit??
Hope this help's and injoy your car :thumbup:
 
BJS thank's and I hope GermzD74 get's it fixed
 
Go score a meter and start bird dogging.You'll find it.Also pop the hood when it's pitch black outside and start moving and man handling your harnesses you would be surprized what pops up.Good luck.
 
another quick check for a bad ground or short is to check your negative battery terminal to chassis ground. If you see any voltage on the meter you probably have a bad ground or short somewhere.
 
Had the same thing happen to my daughters car.It turned out to be a defective trunk light switch.the light was staying on in the trunk.If you have a trunk light or one under your hood pull the bulbs out and see if that fixes the problem.Good luck Bill McLeese
 
I had seen back a few year's ago, someone cut the wires in the trunk and rewired them back wrong. They had the turn and brake lights on one side backword's!!And then flasher would bleed thowe to the otherside depending on the turn signal position,and it would heat up the flasher and take it out or flash real fast
check the ground wire in the trunk next to your tail light's in your trunk.
and if ther is any splicing make sure it is the same on both side's.


hope he get this behind him
I have been ther before and it can be agravatin. :pain10:
 
BJS racing said:
Any thing from a short to a bad radio or clock could also cause this problem along with the Diode in the alt. like Dotmann metioned. I would start by testing the alt. If that checks out then I would disconnect the radio and clock (if you have one) If you don't then I would start to look at a short somewhere in the system. I would pull the battery cable and put a test light between the post and the cable and see if it lights up with the clock/ radio disconnected. If it lights up there is a power draw. Then it is time to start searching for the problem. I have seen an ignition switch cause this problem once before also.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot BJS really helpfull information, how do I check if the alt diode is good? And will a "poor" starter relay be the thing that drains the battery.

Notice how my starter relay has that one AC looking thing and there is a cheap thick wire going across the little holes and a wire is in between which is being held by the tick wire. And its all loose.

As for checking for a short/power draw, im not sure there is one that i could of tell from doing the electric tester thing. I placed the wire end on the neg. wire and the other end on the post and the light did not turn on.

Heres the weird thing. Lol :lol:

I got frustrated of not even knowing how to use the tester or what to test lol

So i did a super pro fix. I removed the battery cables, lifted the battery, wiggled it lol, set it down on the floor, i put the battery back on after a few minutes while i cleaned off that white carbon thin on the battery wires, then i put the battery back on, tighten the wires tight since they wernt tight at first. And the car turned on. :wav:

WHAT THE HECK. So im guessin i have poor cables and wires on the battery!
If i renew all those cables will it stop any drainage?

Now that the car turned on by tightening and cleaning the cables up. Im scurd that the battery will still get discharged. I dont get it.

starterrelay.jpg
 
memike.1 said:
I had seen back a few year's ago, someone cut the wires in the trunk and rewired them back wrong. They had the turn and brake lights on one side backword's!!And then flasher would bleed thowe to the otherside depending on the turn signal position,and it would heat up the flasher and take it out or flash real fast
check the ground wire in the trunk next to your tail light's in your trunk.
and if ther is any splicing make sure it is the same on both side's.


hope he get this behind him
I have been ther before and it can be agravatin. :pain10:
Click to expand...

Thanks! I will have to see if my battery still gets drained when i renew the cables.(well im not even sure if it was drianed actually lol) Maybe it wasnt drained? it was just poor loose cables? hmmmm :-|
 
Excessive corrosion or a loose battery cable will keep your car from starting. If that doesn't fix your problem, don't be too sure that it isn't a bad battery. Did this problem exist before you had this battery? If it did then it probably isn't the battery. I had this same problem a few years ago with a brand new battery. Thinking that it couldn't possibly be the battery I replaced the battery cables, checked the alternator, and checked everywhere for a short. Turned out the battery I bought was no good.
 
75greenduster said:
Excessive corrosion or a loose battery cable will keep your car from starting. If that doesn't fix your problem, don't be too sure that it isn't a bad battery. Did this problem exist before you had this battery? If it did then it probably isn't the battery. I had this same problem a few years ago with a brand new battery. Thinking that it couldn't possibly be the battery I replaced the battery cables, checked the alternator, and checked everywhere for a short. Turned out the battery I bought was no good.
Click to expand...

Well when I had the old battery on, it happened once, the car wouldnt start, i would just hear a "cluck!" in the starter, i removed the battery and sort of cleaned the ends and the car turned on.

Then one day i had a important doctor app. it happened again, nd i just didnt know what to do cuss i needed the car, so i bought a new battery nd it worked fine, not sure if i tightened the battery cables good enough or not but when i didnt use the car for a weekend or more the car wouldnt turn on again so what i did yesterday was again...

removed the battery wiggled it lol and cleaned nd tightened the cable ends, nd it worked.

How can i know if the alternator has a bad diode? should i just replace it?
 
If you take it to any parts house that can test ( I prefer NAPA) They can check it on the car and tell you if there is a bad diode or anything wrong with it. The can also bench test it if you take it off the car and carry it in. If you take the feild wires off the alt and put your test light to it with the ign. off and there is power on the terminals then there probably is a bad diode in the alt. And to answer your question about the relay. With the key off there should be no power on any terminal but the BAT terminal. If there is then it is possible that the relay or maybe even the key switch is bad. I would check that and then let us know what you found.
 
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