battery going dead

Have a 94 3.1 the car will run fine, start fine and all that and sometimes ill come out to start it and it will be dead. I had the alt. checked, fine, had the battery checked, fine. how can i determine if there is a short somewhere? i guess thats what it has to be

hey l had this problem to, was running came back 30cens later bat wouldnt even turn over, But l had a code is was engine running cold So that tells the alt to shut off hence making the bat go dead
turned out to be the connect temp sence in the lower plemtum un cliped
but also l thorew a charger in my battery the day after l think it was also a case of l let it run down and never had a really good charge, did so left it charging on a 1A tricle charger for 72hours straight been 3weeks battery aint showin 1 ounce of being dead


Brad

Have the battery load tested at Autozone for free. What kind of battery is in it? And how many cold cranks? Sounds to me like you have a craked plate in the battery.....common problem on less quality batteries. Also, check the obvious....make sure there is NO corrosion on the terminals. Side post battereis have a HUGE problem with corrosion and the only way to see it is by actually taking the terminals off. Corrosion resists battery current, so if you have so much corrosion between the terminal and the battery, you will not get any crank. These batteries are a pain in the butt to get to, underneath the washer tank.

If no corrosion is present like Carwhiz mentioned, and the problem occurs when the vehicle has been driven, then you attempt to re-start it after a short time, you need a starter. The starter is developing a bad spot on the armature, and is shorting out when hot. It may also not start when cold if you are unlucky enough for the starter to be sitting on the bad spot when you attempt to start it. Normally it will take a few turns of the key with just a "click" until the starter moves off the bad spot before it will turn over.

Buy a multimeter with an ammeter. Disconnect your negative terminal on the battery and place the leads on the negative terminal and the chassis and see what your current draw is. If it is above 100mA, you have a short somewhere