I'm cursed

[Igovert500]

Ok, first the rim, alignment, and tires, and now my battery. So over the winter my car was sitting for awhile, the battery died. I jumped it a few times, kept it on for a half hour each time, drove it around, it kept dieing if left for more than a day. I bought a new battery, drove down to Philly(200 miles) no problems. I did the gear oil change, and some other general maintenance, and left the keys in the car all day, well it died again. AAA jumped it this time, once again it worked fine for a week. I drove around, I drove back to NY, no problems. I drove it for a few weeks, up here, no problems. Well I didn't have the money to fill up the tank right now($44 bucks) so I was letting it sit for the week. Last night I went to drive it and it was dead, the alarm wasn't working. I tried jumping it, and had no luck. Now the wierd part, usually when the battery is on its last leg, and I disturb the doors, or hood or something, the alarm goes off, but it is really weak, (quiet, off-pitch and and slower) well the alarm didn't go off, but then when I closed the hood, the alarm went off(full strength). I disarmed it, locked the doors manually, and gave up. Now I am guessing the it is the alternator, but why havn't I had a problem driving. If the alternator is bad, wouldn't the car have died while driving at some point in the last 500 miles. It only dies when I leave the car sitting for awhile. I monitored the voltage charge while I was driving the last 2 weeks, with my turbo timer, and it was always 12-14, looking good. I got in the habit of turning off all electronic devices everytime I turned off the car, well after awhile, I thought the problem was over and stopped doing htat. So basically the electronics were on, the car hasn't been moved for maybe a week, and the battery is dead. Any diagnosis would be appreciated. I think I am going to take it to Autozone, once I get it jumped and running correctly, and have them test everything(supposedly they do it for free) but any help now would be appreciated.

[Getsum3kgtsl]

I don't think it is the alternator. If it was you wouldn't be able to drive the car. the battery starts the car and then the alternator keeps it running. Your car will only run about five min. if the alternator is bad. It may be the battery. I usually keep the lights on when I cut off the car and then they go out when I take out the key, but one time the lights must not have gone out so it killed my battery. So now I cut off everything when I take the key out, just in case. Autozone usually gives me no help when it comes to batteries and alternators. It is always everything is fine and we'll put your battery on the charger. You then come back to find you need a new battery cause your old one won't charge up. Always get the lifetime warranty from them too, cause some of their products can be defective.
Oh, yes they do test batteries and alternators for free. Hope I helped.

[Igovert500]

That was my assumption as well, I didn't think it would drive fine if the problem was the alternator. But this is the 2nd battery to die. This battery is only a few weeks old and has died 2x now. It is still under warranty, so that wont be a problem, I just want to find the source of all this drainage. I guess it may just be that I leave too much stuff on when I turn off the car and leave it for long periods of time. But it still seems to me that the battery is dying far too quickly. Any other ideas?

[BB1970]

sounds like a dead cell in the new battery geoff, to test your alternator you should be getting anything between 13.2 and 14.5 volts on tick over with all ancilleries off. then test it with some lights and the heater blowers on, it should be slightly lower than the previous reading but still in between those figures (13.2-14.5v) you can kill a battery if you drain it completely, i.e leaving the door open or lights on, it loses the ability to remeber to take a charge. i sell hundreds of batteries a year and no matter what make i buy in, you always get a few faulty ones. dead cell is my bet.

brian.


i would seriously look into the new battery you have purchased, it sound like that to me

[sLADe781]

Do you have anything connected to your battery directly? Because if you do, it could be draining your battery.... Anyways, that happened to me before but my problem was the alternator. My car kept dying so I bought a new battery for it like on Friday. Everything was fine over the weekend and come Monday while I'm on the freeway, my car dies outta no where. FREAKY!!! So eventually we just changed the alternator, jumped the car, ran it for about half an hour, and everything was fine again. But since you were able to drive it around for a couple of weeks, I don't know!?!

[Igovert500]

Yeah its odd, Brian, my first thought was a bad battery as well, but the previous one died as well, that one I had left out in the cold for over a month, so I could understand that, and it died everyday after that if I didn't run it for awhile each day. This new battery has died 2x, so I will take it to Autozone and get it charged/replaced, it is still under warranty. Slade, I do have 2 or so wires running directly off the battery other than the positive and negative cables. One is the alarm, the others I am not sure, possibly for the sound system? That is my only logical guess. I would assume they are draining it, but I was told that they shouldn't drain it enough to kill it that quickly. And I definantly didn't leave lights on or a door open.
Brian, I have been monitoring the voltage after this happened a few times, and it remains in the right range. Here's a basic list of electronic accessories:
Radar detector, head unit, equalizer, amp, 12 disc changer, python alarm, turbo timer. I usually leave all of them on until the TT turns the car off. Thanks for your help. ~ Geoff

[sLADe781]

My friend had his sound system installed drawing the power directly from the battery and his car died once, but after he got his battery replaced, he never mentioned the problem again. I too had my system drawing power directly from my battery but it's never drained my battery to the point of killing it. Maybe your system is just too powerful!?! I'm not too sure about the alarm thing though...