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Old 03-15-2009, 05:07 PM
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J-Ri J-Ri is offline
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Re: 2001 Cavalier Battery Drain Problem - HELP

Did you ever check the electrolyte level? It should be to the bottom of the 3/4 way around "tubes" that lead from the top of the case. It's normal for it to drop a bit, but you should never let it get below the top of the plates. Also check the electrolyte with a battery hydrometer to make sure you don't have a weak cell. What brand of battery is this? Some of the cheap ones sold by a large nation-wide chain will never start the car past a year or so, regardless of the free replacement warranty. A lot of other cheap batteries are bad too, but those are by far the worst. Get an Interstate/Duralast/champion. They are all made by the same manufacturer, although Interstates seem to be the best of them. Possibly because that's what we sell, and our customers almost always come back to us for everything, including oil changes. With the oil change we check/fill the electrolyte, so most of the interstates I see last longer. I have a Duralast in my truck that I bought in '02. I always keep the level full, and it still passes the load test 350A for 15 seconds and it doesn't drop below 10V.

That small of a voltage drop overnight is normal, but would be less on a fully charged battery. .01A rise may just in the meter, although if a device is using "X" watts, when the voltage drops, amperage has to increase to keep the same power. last night you were using .9808W (12.26v*.08A=.9808W), and this morning you were using 1.0953W. I would attribute that to inaccuracy in the meter .1145W is very little.
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'04 Cavalier coupe M/T 2.2 Ecotec
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Poly engine/trans/control arm bushings
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