theres a drain somewhere in my car...

[newaccorddriver]

well, after letting my car sit for 2 days, the battery is officially drained.

ive used a test light with the car off and checked all my fuses and everything, and nothing in that area is on, and nothing within the engine bay fuses are on. ive pretty much exhausted all i know on how to find a drain. what else can lead to a drain?

[shepherd79]

how old is the battery?
it is possible for old battery to drain itself if the weather and moisture is right

[newaccorddriver]

how old is the battery?
it is possible for old battery to drain itself if the weather and moisture is right


its roughly 1 year old OEM sealed maintenance free battery. its been accidently drained once or twice before, so that might have killed its entire life though.

[1ajs]

one of the door lights or trunk lights? or psoibly one of the lights in the dash.............................

[speedpenguin]

I can't speak to the accidental draining of the battery, since I'm not even sure how you could drain a maintenance-free battery by accident.
What you have is probably a slow leak. It's basically a small short that doesn't necessarily affect the function of your electronic functions but will slowly drain juice from the battery. You can test for this by disconnecting the negative battery terminal next time you have to leave the car for a couple days. If it starts without a problem when you come back, then you have a slow leak.

[kcaudill]

Remove the cables to the battery, After 2 days see if it is dead? If it is, your battery is toast. If not you have a short , or a light is on in your car or something. Start pulling one fuse at a time to find out what is. It will take a while to find though.

[speedpenguin]

If a light's on, then he didn't disconnect the battery terminal. The lights don't work without the battery

[w261w261]

If the battery froze after it was discharged its a goner. I've had that happen a couple of times and each time the battery wouldn't hold a charge afterwards.

[A20A1]

My old battery drained itself after 3 months of not using it... prior to that it was fine.

[ghettogeddy]

yup battery's are funny like that u leave them sitting for a couple of mounts and pow there dead speacily if u leave them on concret alwas leave your battery's on a shelf or at lest a peice of wood on the ground

[FORFREE]

yea because the earh is all negative chages adn it sucks all the postive chages out of the battery.

[A20A1]

Gawd dman earth... i want my money back. :D

[Accordaone]

If it is a short, leave your positive(+) connection on the battery, remove the negative(-), connect your test light between the battery post and the negative(-) cable end. If it lights up, remove the fuses one at a time until it goes out, and you will have found which circuit the short is in. Good luck.

[88Accord-DX]

Clocks, stereo memory, & ECU's use a "parasitic draw" on the battery, not much.

If your worried about the battery itself. Charge it up fully or have it done at a parts house. Then do a "load test" on the battery before & after you put it on the car. (might need to borrow one at parts house)

[newaccorddriver]

well, as it stands right now, i disconnected my negative battery terminal and left it for 2 days with the positive terminal still on. it would spin the starter but it wouldnt actually latch onto the flywheel. the dash lights up, but barely.

im not an expert on eletrical problems cause i hate them so much, but i take it my battery is dead?

[g2driver]

Yah, but that might not be ur only problem.

[newaccorddriver]

Yah, but that might not be ur only problem.


anything else you might be able to add to what i have said? eletrical problems are my downfall

[TheWatcher]

Gawd dman earth... i want my money back. :D
Depending on the warranty and how old the battery is, you can get your money back or a new battery.

I went back to Sears (yes, Sears, don't flame me ... please) a few months ago w/ my dead battery (still under warranty) and left w/ a free (and new) battery (hint - bring your receipt).

BTW - Sears here sell Optimas. :)

So check your warranty A20A1, you may get your wish (money back) or a new replacement battery.

Peace.

[newaccorddriver]

hmm... whats weird is, when i went to charge the battery, it was full at a little over 13v.

im gonna disconnect it all together and see the voltage in a couple days. if its going down, then i know for sure its the battery thats dead. if not, ill take it to a shop to fix the eletrical problem since i dont know much on how to fix them. the parasitic loss shouldnt drain the battery in a day or so, so it might be something serious

[AccordEpicenter]

Do this... put a voltmeter on the battery, with the engine off a good battery will read between 12.3-12.6vdc. Then start the car, and the voltage should jump to 14.2-14.4vdc if the alternator is working correctly. If the battery voltage is low before you start the car, then fine after you start it, the alternator is probably good and either there is a drain after the car is turned off or the battery is shot. If thats the case, get an ammeter and put one lead of the ammeter on the negative terminal (undo the terminal from the battery) and the other lead on the negative post on the battery. ONLY DO THIS IS THE ENGINE IS OFF AND EVERYTHING IS TURNED OFF AND KEY REMOVED!!! IF it reads more than 8-10mA or so then you have a problem with somthing draining your battery. Start pulling fuses in your fuse box until you see the current drop to normal then troubleshoot why that circuit is drawing more than it should. On my car when i had this problem it was in my coupe's seatbelt mechanism.

[newaccorddriver]

well, i just took a test light and hooked it up from the negative terminal to the negative battery post. its an audible test light, so itll make a sound when its a complete circuit. the battery was at roughly 13V when i left it and now its at 12.5V. im doubting its a dead battery cause the battery is pretty much new

apparently i keep hearing it tick and such, so im guessing that theres a slow drain somewhere on the car. i figured it would have been the ECU/clock fuse, so i went to pull that out, but it kept ticking, so the drains obviously not there. ill be figuring it out tomorrow as its late now and im tired. hopefully its nothing too serious.

[newaccorddriver]

i just took out the sw retractor fuse, the ECU/clock fuse and the door lock fuse. thats when my test light stoped ticking cause there was no current draw. im guessing its one of those circuits thats causing the drain...

[newaccorddriver]

Do this... put a voltmeter on the battery, with the engine off a good battery will read between 12.3-12.6vdc. Then start the car, and the voltage should jump to 14.2-14.4vdc if the alternator is working correctly. If the battery voltage is low before you start the car, then fine after you start it, the alternator is probably good and either there is a drain after the car is turned off or the battery is shot. If thats the case, get an ammeter and put one lead of the ammeter on the negative terminal (undo the terminal from the battery) and the other lead on the negative post on the battery. ONLY DO THIS IS THE ENGINE IS OFF AND EVERYTHING IS TURNED OFF AND KEY REMOVED!!! IF it reads more than 8-10mA or so then you have a problem with somthing draining your battery. Start pulling fuses in your fuse box until you see the current drop to normal then troubleshoot why that circuit is drawing more than it should. On my car when i had this problem it was in my coupe's seatbelt mechanism.


with the engine off, my batter read something like 13.6V on DCV setting and roughly 12.6V on the battery load setting on my digital multimeter. it jumps to around 14.4V on the VDC setting after the engine is turned on, so im guessing my alternator is still good.

does a regular ammeter read in the mA range? i can get an ammeter easily, but im not sure if they come in the mA format rather then just amps.

[newaccorddriver]

i wasnt aware that my multimeter has a built in ammeter, but apaprently it did.

i connected the ammeter like it should have been and pulled out all the fuses. i started sticking them in one by one and the ECU/clock fuse made a huge jump by around 7mA. the total mA that was read was 13.06mA.

im not too sure about where to go from there. does anyone how many mA a particular circuit should draw?

[88Accord-DX]

Nevermind..

[sjsjbb]

had same problem your alternator has a short in it take to get checked i replaced mine from auto zone and two weeks later my battery would go dead from sittintook out alt. and replaced and was fine. its not your battery

[newaccorddriver]

That test with the multimeter is used to test the altenator to see if it is charging right...
To test the parasitic draw from the car, you need to use the multimeter in series off the battery from the positive terminal.


my multimeter had a setting that tests for the parasitic draw. when i pulled out all the fuses from the engine compartment fuse box, it read 0.00. when i started putting them in, it read up to 13.06 or something for the draw. the main one was the ECU/clock fuse though

[newaccorddriver]

had same problem your alternator has a short in it take to get checked i replaced mine from auto zone and two weeks later my battery would go dead from sittintook out alt. and replaced and was fine. its not your battery


not sure about my alternator, but ill take it to go get it checked when i pull my motor

[sjsjbb]

9 would check alt. before pulling motor

[newaccorddriver]

how would i be able to check it? my multi meter was reading around 14v or so in the dc mode when i tested it out. not sure if it would make a difference by taking it to the shops for testing

[sjsjbb]

they can put a tester on the car battery at auto zone and it will tell how many amps u are putting out . mine was only putting out 13 when tested and was supposed to put out 65 amps. ther was a short inside alt. might work for only a few minutes of ur time to get it there.

[88Accord-DX]

Get a little technical, Oscilliscope works too. ( wave pattern from alt.)

[newaccorddriver]

i tested my alternator a while back before it sat in my garage for the 5 speed swap. it checked out good putting enough 65 amps. i think it might be my ECU with its excessive draw rather then my battery since i left it at 12.28V and its still the same.