What is draining my battery? & 1 other question

My altenator is fine, it's been checked. Something is slowly draining my battery every night. Nothing will be left on in the car at all. If I get up in the morning & my battery is dead & I have the key in the ignition switch, with it turned on and lift the hood, I hear a "TICK, TICK, TICK". noise. When I take the key out of the ignition, the sound stops. You can take the positive battery cable off & barely touch it to the post & there's a slight spark, letting me know that something is staying on, just every so slightly. What are some possibilities that could be causing this? I got a new battery & it started just fine for a while. Then one day I accidentally left my radio on (It's not hooked to go off w/the switch) so it drained it. So now it's being drained every night. But it boosts right off w/a booster pack. Someone said it may be some kind of relay switch staying on or something, but I can't get anyone to take time to look @ it for me. (I know very little about cars)

And I have another question, I've tried to do a search & can't find exactly what I'm looking for. I replaced my transmission computer (automatic, the comp. was bought from a junkyard) when I first got my 95 Eclipse, because while driving, it would kick out of gear completely, like it was in neutral. That seemed to fix that. Here I am, around 6 months later. Now I'll be going down the road & it won't want to change out of first gear at all SOMETIMES. Sometimes it drives just fine. And other times, it will seem to be driving just fine, but then when I hit like 55 MPH it won't change gears, it will just rev the RPM's. And at times I'll be going down the road fine & it will jerk & kick back down like it's in first gear. When any of this happens, I turn the ignition switch off & right back on (while going down the road) & it will jerk, but go back into gear & do fine for a while. Could this be the transmission computer box again? Or is my transmission going out? Or is there another explanation? I really appreciate any help I can get. Thanx!

have you charged the battery since you drained it? or just boosted the car every time? i would put a full charge back in the battery (with a battery charger) and that should solve your problem with the "dead battery"

as for the transmission, was it doing it before the battery went dead, or did that start when you killed the charge in the battery? all this could be linked to the fact that your battery it still dead. cars dont charge batteries, they provide a charge for the car to run off of once it's running, but the car alternator won't completely charge the battery. try charging the battery up fully and then come back and let us know how it goes.

Here's a long shot. I'm going to take a guess and say that you have subs in your car, and possibly who ever hooked up your deck was a little iffy about proper wiring hook up. My thought is that your amp's remote turn on is hooked directly to a constant positive power suply. If this is the case, find a blue wire coming off the back of your deck (should be labeled "remote") Then wire this to the amp powering your subs. If this was how it was hooked up, your amp would be on all the time causing drain on your battery. Just a guess.

i had the same problem with my battery (from what it seems). My battery was working fine one day... i drove to a freinds house, turned the car off to wait for him... 3 mins later tried turning on the car and it was dead. i cleaned the terminals and such and it was fine for a couople weeks. But then it started to act up again. Every morning and when i got out of school, the car would barely turn on, but it would. after driving it, it was fine. until the next morning and so on. And one day it just stopped working. so after this story of mine, it might just be that ur battery has had it. from waht ur story sounds like, kinda sounds like what my battery did. i changed my battery with my friends (month or so ago) and my cars been fine since. Try just getting a new battery from somewhere. but then again, you could be draining it with your radio or something like that. good luck and i hope i made sense... :eek7:

mine was doing the same thing about two months ago, then i just got pissed and pulled out all the fuses in case something was stuck on, then put them back and havent had the problem sense.

So far, I've taken the battery out & charged it with a charger. It's starting ok, so far. The radio & amp used to be hooked up totally to where it did not go off w/the switch. I had to cut it off myself. Then I got it till where the amp cuts off with the ignition, but the radio still stays on & I have to cut it off myself. It's ran to the battery post. For the past few days, I've left the radio unhooked from the battery post all together. But still, when you take the positive cable off & barely touch it to the post (with nothing on in the car) it still sparks a little. So there's still go to be something else that's using juice. Since the battery if fully charged now, it's starting ok, so far. But I heard it may be some kind of relay switch sticking or something, since it still sparks. And as far as my transmission problem...it's getting worse. It's kickin' to low gear quite often now & turning the ignition switch off & right back on is the only thing that will kick it back into gear. Sometimes it won't change gears at all, until I turn it off & back on. Would that be the computer for the transmission? What are some other possibilities? One of these days, it will be switched over to a manual, but I can't afford all of that right now. I need to just get it fixed enough so I can get back & forth to work. All ideas are welcomed & appreciated...thanx!

Why don't you just get everything wired correctly. Problem solved.

Why don't you just get everything wired correctly. Problem solved.

Are you referring to my radio? Having it rewired? Even though the radio wire has been unhooked from the battery for days, could it still be causing the drainage of the battery? And are you referring to this as far as the draining of my battery alone or including my transmission problem? It's obvious that I know very little about cars...that's why I'm coming here for help in the right direction. I don't trust a lot of garages out here to give me an honest answer. I'd like to have a little more insight, so I at least sound like I know what I'm talking about, when I go to get it fixed.

I was referring to the radio and any other stereo equipment you may have that connects to the battery i.e. amps. Those type of wiring need to be done by people who know what they are doing. The transmission problem is something totally different. They should have hooked up a remote wire so the radio turned off when the car turned off. I believe it's a blue wire.

Anyone have anymore ideas on what could be causing the transmission problem I described? (part 2 of my question) My b/f keeps insisting it's the transmission computer (which I already replaced once, when I first got the car.) Would going & getting a diagnostic test help? I just don't have much money now, that's why I'm asking on the boards before scrounging up the money to go to a garage. I don't want anyone @ a garage trying to screw me over, ya know. I appreciate all the advice...thanx

i hate to break it to you, but it sounds as if ur tranny is going. usually when u cant get out of a gear, or it wont go into a gear, the tranny is going, and that means only a matter of time before it just siezes and u cant even move the clutch at all. thats what happened to my friend the other day. try fluching out ur tranny and putting some royal purple into it and see if that helps. If not, sounds like ull need a new tranny. And yes i do think the wire is the blue one to have ur radio go off, as the kid above was talking about. Good luck with the tranny, i feel ur pain my clutch just went. now 600$ later, its running great again. except, trannys are a lot more. :uhoh:

My car is actually an automatic (I would like to flip it over to a manual, when I get the money). But it's an automatic, isn't that "Royal Purple" for manual tranny's only? I have an appoint @ a dealership set up for next monday, to have a diagnosit "inspection" done. But in the meantime, is there anything like the Royal Purple that I could get & use in my automatic, that may possibly help it for a while? I drove my car yesterday & it drove perfect. Didn't mess up not one time. This is driving me crazy %(

Does anyone have just a great interest is troubleshooting & helping? If there is someone out there who loves figuring things out & would be willing to help me with my problem, every step of the way (since my b/f obviously doesn't want to help)...could I have an ID to any of the messengers? I have AIM, YAHOO, MSN...any of them. I would just really like to find a friend who is really knowledgeable about Mits. Eclipses & would be willing to help me thru this. It's my only car. If there is anyone out there that would be willing to be put on my messenger list & help me through this, I would be greatful. thank you all for your time.

My first guess for the power drain would also be either an audio amp but that seemed to be ruled out... I have had similar problems with other cars in the past and it ended up being bad wiring somewhere in the car... sorry to say but it could be anywhere.... example with my old eclipse... I kept blowing a fuse and of course it was the last place I would ever have thought it to be... it was the garage door opener on the sunvisor that was grounding out from where the wire casing had worn away. Who'd a thunk it? not me! lol

As for your tranny, when was the last time it had a flush? Again an old car of mine did something similar to that and it was the filter that was in need of replacement. If the filter is clogged up it will really mess with the tranny's fluid pressure and could cause this problem.
Hope this helps.....