97 eclipse gs non-turbo battery issue

[tommy bishop]

hey got a 97 eclipse.just bought it..for 900..anyway the car wont hold a battery charge the guy just put a alternater in and its still doing it and i got a battery and still doing it.is it the ecu ???

[SilvrEclipse]

Welcome to AF.

Please try and use a little bit better grammar, it makes your post much easier to read and understand. The better we understand whats going on the easier it is for us to help you. If we are going to take the time to try and help you, you can spend an extra few minutes making a good post. Diagnoising car issues over the internet is hard enough as it is. Also do not put symbols in the title, it makes the forum look shitty. Thanks

Now for your problem. You need to get a volt meter on the car while it running to see if the alternator is charging. Should be 13-14volts, if the battery light is not on when the car is running then the alternator is probably charging fine. If the battery is dying when the car sits then you have something pulling current when the car is off and its causing the battery to loose charge. About the only way to track this down is to put an amp meter in series with the battery. This will show you how many amps are getting drawn when the car is off. On a normal car this number will be very small, maybe around .1amps or so. If its more then that then pull fuses till the number drops. Your drain will be on that circuit

[ned032002]

If its .1 amps, what could be the problem? And how do you put a amp meter in line with the battery? I have a constant draw and don't know where to look. Not to jack the thread but more to relate.

[SilvrEclipse]

Pull off the neg from the batter and connect the amp meter + to the wire and - to the battery. It should be pulling a small amount of current to power things that stay on. Like the radio clock etc. It actually will probably be smaller than .1A I would think. Never had to do this so Im not really sure on what it should read. But if you have a drain then start pulling fuses till it goes down.

[ned032002]

I understand.

My dad told me to just see what the battery is when not hooked up. Then connect the wires and if the voltage changes then start pulling fuses until the volts come back up. What ever is ran off that fuse that caused the draw is where you want to look. I was considering just installing some kind of battery kill switch. Haven't decided what I'm going to do but I will consider the way you just described.

[SilvrEclipse]

That may work but the problem with that is the voltage may not really drop any unless its a serious drain. Something that takes a few days to kill the battery probably wont have much effect on the battery voltage. But you could try both ways. Wont hurt anything

[RSLaser]

Did you check to make sure the alternator was any good, just because it was recently replaced, doesnt mean it works.