96 lesabre charging/battery issues

[shuteme00]

My wife's lesabre has been giving us problems with charging/battery for years now, but this most recent issue just started a few months ago. This car eats positive battery cables (corrosion) all the time, I have to take them apart and clean them every six months or less. The current problem is the battery likes to die out of the blue. Usually happens to my wife late at night when she gets off work, but has happened other times of the day. Every time with a jump it starts right up and has no problems for weeks. Last time I took the battery out and load tested it at AutoZone, it was fine. Today when it happened I checked the charging system after the jump start with my volt meter: 12.45 volts ign. off, 14.45 volts idle, no load, 14.2 volts idle w/lights, radio, heater, etc on. All readings across the terminals, verified by checking output of alternator as well.

About all i can think of is some sort of intermitant high amp drain, but because it is so random I have no ideas.

Any help is greatly apreciated.

[Bassasasin]

Perhaps the antenna is trying to go down and cant go completely down.
Try turning off the radio while driving. This may help some.

This has caused overnight battery drain in other buicks.

If you had air levelers (park avenue) they leak and try to refill during the night and often drain the battery overnight.
Glove box lights, trunk lights and underhood maintenance lights also have been a nuisance.

Battery corrosion is usually from the caustic battery vapors while charging. If your doing alot of charging or should I say re-charging, hence the vapors.
Sealed batteries usually help this. I suspect the ambient air flow directs the vapors while charging towards the positive post more than the negative, unless the positive post is leaking gasses. Have you changed the battery?

NET SURF RESULTS "Cooling fans, power seat belt retractors, radios and dome lights left on, alarm systems, and electric car antennas have also caused batteries to drain overnight"


Good Luck

Your voltages seem perfect.

[HotZ28]

Are you sure the battery is dying? Have you checked the battery voltage when it would not start? This problem sounds more like the cables/terminals are not carrying the amps required to turn the starter.

Once the cables corrode under the insulation, the corrosion tends to creep down into the wire and terminal crimp! The only way to overcome this condition is to cut off the original terminals and wire back far enough to expose a clean portion of wire. Get all new terminals (three) for the positive cables and the alternator wire, and then solder the terminals to the wires. (OEM terminals are crimped)! Notice also, the alternator wire is crimped to one of the positive battery cables! Piss poor design!

You can go to a stereo installers shop and get all the terminals and a gold plated battery post adapter that screws into the battery. The adapter has a threaded stud and a nut on the other end, to mount the terminals. Slide your new terminals onto the stud and install the nut good and tight. I did this on one of my cars five years ago and have not had a problem since!

[imidazol97]

Another item or two that might be relevant is certain batteries had trouble with the post breaking internally. They would work sometimes and not at others. If you can check voltages when it's dead before jump starting, it may give a clue.

If it has the automatic dual temperature control air conditioning (Limiteds?), the blower control module could be staying on, or coming on, after the car is parked. That will drain the car. I walked past a Park Avenue before the last body style change (1995?) and I heard the blower motor running softly inside the air intakes. I kept watching for the owner to come out to say something to them but they did not and I had to pick up a pizza at a nearby pizzaria. They probably have battery draining also.

Z28 has the most likely area covered. Didn't realilze you could cut and shorted cables and use replacement connectors with battery post adapters.

One radio mechanic says he's seen corrosion all the way down the battery cables to the other ends. Check both ends.

[shuteme00]

Thanks for the suggestions, I did cut the terminal connectors off cables the last time I had the problem and put a different style connector on the end. I will be sure to check the voltage the next time it wont crank. The old cables were corroded all the way through and at both ends, its probably been 2 years since the cables were changed. I did change the battery ~1 year before the current problem started so i may swap batteries between the cars and see what happens.

Thanks,
Nick