1996 850 Battery/Alternator Problem

[joecbloom]

I have a 1996 850 GLT Sedan.

I have been having a problem that part of which, from reviewing the posts here, seems very common among 850s; the battery dying while parked.

But there's been a twist recently.

The first time, the car had been parked for 3-4 weeks, and was dead as a doornail when I tried to start it. Absolutely nothing happened when I turned the key. I jumped it, drove it around for a while, and parked it overnight. In the morning, dead again.

I replaced the battery, and took it on a nice long drive to fully charge the new one. It worked fine for the next couple weeks, when I was driving it on a regular basis. Then, having been parked for maybe a week or so, it was totally dead again.

I talked to a mechanic who told me that obviously I had something draining the battery slowly while it was parked, and that a cheap and easy fix would be to get a battery disconnect switch and just disconnect the battery when I parked it for a while.

That seemed like a great idea, until yesterday, when I jumped it, and then the lights dimmed and the car shut off on my way out of the parking lot. Luckily, gravity and Neutral were on my side, and I rolled it into a safe parking spot.

What seems like the obvious culprit it the alternator, because if it was a battery problem, there's no reason it would die while the engine was running, is there?

I'm not very experienced with automotive problems, but I wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar experience, and get some advice as to what I can do diagnostically to identify the problem.

[kevin S]

Yeah i had the same problem with mine at first. i got a new battery and that didnt do it. i finally took my alternator out and got it tested by autozone. (any place like that can test them) i found out it was the altenator. I dont know about u but im only sixteen and was able to do this myself u just have to take power steering pump off first.