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Old 10-09-2015, 08:43 AM   #1
draynoe
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Battery drain question - please help!

Hi there and thank you.

Car: 2002 Nissan Xterra XE 6 Cyl 3.3L

Original issue: Battery started draining overnight/after several hours after having it in the shop for other repairs such as radiator/water pump/intake manifold etc. It doesn't happen all the time, but I would say 90% of the time. They replaced the battery with a new one at the time.

Steps to resolve: Shop first said I had the wrong size battery and replaced it. Then, when that one died, they said it was the cables or connections going to the battery, so they put a temporary cap on the negative lead. Then, they just said "You probably need a new battery!" and left me out to dry. I replaced the connectors that meet the battery posts but the issue still persists. I also tried a completely different brand new battery and it was drained within a day or so.

Other information:

The problem is that most of the time my battery will be completely dead when I try to start my Xterra after it sits a while. I have to jump it with one of those jumper packs I bought almost every morning, and sometimes when I go out for lunch. Other times however, like this morning, it started right up. Most the time though, it is dead. I tried a new battery and the same thing happened. I had the alternator replaced a year ago. I'm fairly certain nothing is pulling a lot of power either when the car is off as this started after the shop and nothing has really changed since then.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
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Old 10-09-2015, 09:25 AM   #2
Crvett69
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Re: Battery drain question - please help!

easiest way is to get a test light. unhook one of the battery cables and hook the test light between the post and the cable. if light lights up nice and bright you have a battery drain. make sure everything including dome lights are off when you hook light up. if it is bright you can start unplugging fuses and relays in the fuse box under the hood until the light goes out. once you know what circuit the drain is on you will know where to look
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Old 10-09-2015, 09:52 AM   #3
draynoe
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Re: Battery drain question - please help!

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Originally Posted by Crvett69 View Post
easiest way is to get a test light. unhook one of the battery cables and hook the test light between the post and the cable. if light lights up nice and bright you have a battery drain. make sure everything including dome lights are off when you hook light up. if it is bright you can start unplugging fuses and relays in the fuse box under the hood until the light goes out. once you know what circuit the drain is on you will know where to look
Great, thank you!

I hadn't thought of that before.

Is it weird that occasionally the car will be just fine and crank right up like nothing is wrong, even overnight (pretty rare though)? Would this lead you to think it could be a loose connection with the battery wires or something like that?

I will try out the light, and thank you again!

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Old 10-09-2015, 09:58 AM   #4
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Re: Battery drain question - please help!

usually if its a battery cable it would not want to start most of the time because of a bad connection, if it will start up again right after you shut it off several times its probably not a bad battery connection. you can also unhook the battery and let it sit overnight and then reconnect it to make sure the battery doesn't have a internal drain. if it wont restart right after shutting it off then you might have a bad connection or alternator is not working correctly
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Old 10-09-2015, 10:02 AM   #5
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Re: Battery drain question - please help!

Great that makes perfect sense.

I will give the light a try and see if I can find it.

Thank you!
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Old 10-09-2015, 04:20 PM   #6
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Re: Battery drain question - please help!

So I checked out a couple of videos online on how to check amps running through using a voltmeter just as with the test light and hooked mine up between the negative wire and the battery.

I set it to 10 amps (only a 10 amp meter) and it was registering over 2.35 which I know is insanely high for everything being off. I messed with a few fuses in between disconnects and nothing affected it inside the car.

So, I opened up the fuse box under the hood and remembered the car guys telling me that the air conditioner fuse in there was kind-of wonky... My a/c would go out sometimes and I would have to click the a/c fuse back into place a little to make it kick back on.

So, I started messing with that fuse with the meter hooked up, and the amps dropped down to 0.20 to around 0.40 max.

I took the fuse from the fog lamps (I don't use them) and placed it in the a/c fuse slot and the amps stayed the same, so I'm hoping that it was the fuse itself in the a/c slot!

I haven't had a chance to test it yet (or wait until the battery dies again), but I'm hoping that that's the source of the problem!

Thank you for your help! I will report back if it isn't fixed, but hopefully everything is okay for now!

Thanks!
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