battery drain!

[SiennaLover69]

Basically I come out monday morning and find my battery dead. I get a jump and head out to work only to have my car die on the middle of a very busy intersection lol. Me and a friend manage to get my car to a nearby parking lot and get a new battery (thanks to wal marts 2 year replacement warranty on car batteries). So everything is fine, I go to work for a few hours then head home with no issue. The next day I come out and the brand new battery is already drained.
At first we thought maybe it was the alternator (before we got the battery replaced) But I only drove maybe 10 miles with the new battery and had no issue with it and found it dead overnight. So we figure its gotta be something draining the battery while the car is off. Im not sure what it could be, there are no lights on as far as I know (theres not one in the trunk is there? Ive got empty boxes from moving like 6 months ago cluttering it up back there lol), I had an after market alarm disarmed that night (although the stock alarm is still working and was armed, but I havent had this issue before).
Any idea on what it could be?

 

[Brunoboy]

There's a light in the trunk. I would take a multimeter and watch the voltage on the battery with the car off.

 

[SiennaLover69]

I checked the voltage with a multimeter as soon as I put the new battery in, then after driving about maybe 4 miles (to my work). Both times I checked it, it was at 12.5volts. I then checked it a couple hours later before I left my work and it was still at 12.5v, I then drive home (about 6 miles). And in the morning the battery was dead reading, idk 2.5 or 5.2 (I mightve gotten the numbers mixed up lol.)

 

[SouthCaliVR4]

Disconnect the neg battery cable & hook a test light, preferably one with a standard bulb, to the cable & the terminal. It should light up bright for a couple seconds then fade to barely lit. If it stays bright you have a drain.

Make sure the doors & trunk are closed. yes, there is supposed to be a light in the trunk. It's on the bottom of the package shelf. you can check to see if it's staying lit through the rear seat armrest hole.

If the light stays lit bright, start removing fuses. when you pull the one that lets the test light dim you have found your shorted circuit.

 

[FlyingEagle]

No warning lights in red on the dash when the engine is running?
Have you checked the voltage with the engine running, across the battery?

 

[SiennaLover69]

So we did some testing today to try to get this figured out. We started with checking the drain with the key off and it was reading .06 A. Please correct me if I am mistaken but I read online that it should be around .035 when off. So I started to remove fuses to see if anything was causing the problem. I disconnected my alarm first and that only took it down to .05, then I took out the fuse for the interior lights and that brought it down to .04 but I couldnt get any other fuses to make a change. I tried every fuse in the car. I know its not the trunk because when you open it the reading jumps to .45 and back down when you close it. So as it sits with every thing connected I get .06 A draw.

Any other ideas on where to look next would be awesome.

 

[mikus]

Don't worry about exact numbers, we're working in ranges here.

50-60mA is an acceptable drain level, any healthy battery could handle that for normal vehicle use. I'd suspect either:
- your alternator has a bad diode - this will cause a drain that won't appear in teh test you conducted
- your alternator has some other failure, and the new battery had enough juice to get you home but then fell down overnight from the (normally acceptable) parasitic drain of 60mA.

The former can be tested easy enough but I'm not up to snuff on details. The latter could be tested in field by a jumpstart, and longer drive to see if it dies in operation.

 

[grocery_getter]

what is battery voltage with engine running?

 

[SiennaLover69]

Well, as I was driving home and the battery light and brake light came on (the abs light also was on, but that has been on for a while, maybe like a year and a half ago?? since I changed the brakes).
So, im guessing its the alternator. Im gonna pull it and get it tested. Hopefully thats the issue so I can get on to driving my vr4 without any issue, lol.

 

[SiennaLover69]

Turns out the alternator was bad, I took it to a Kragen and I guess it wasnt pumping out the right voltage. So anyway I got a new alternator (99.99) and was about to install it when I noticed this.

Im not too car savvy so I was wondering if I accidentally did this when I was pulling the alternator (seems most likely) or if it was already like that and was somehow messing with the electrical system (Im guessing its a bit of a long shot, I just dont want to install the new alternator and still have my battery die every night lol)

 

[gramkrakr89]

That wire connects to the low oil-pressure switch, (your oil-pressure dummy light won't work now) Trim and strip that, and crimp on a new spade connector, and you're good to go. Easy peasy.

Installing the new alternator is the next step, do it.

After you've charged your battery and installed the new alternator, check for current draw when the car is off.

 

[SiennaLover69]

sweet thanks!

 

[SiennaLover69]

Alright ive got the alternator installed, getting to the alternator was harder than getting it out and installed lol.
Ive got the ol galant up and running, I checked the voltage before starting the car and it was at 12.43, right after turning it on it was at about 14.39 and right before turning off the engine it was at 14.17 and when I checked it with the engine off, the battery was at 13.04.
Now I guess I should just check in a few hours and make sure that the drain isnt there anymore! lol