Hi, i'm having a big problem with my battery there is something draining the battery very bad and i have sent it to local volvo dealer and they couldn't find anything and here what is happening to me if i left the car for couple of hours it will hardly start and is started it will crank and receive ANTI SKID service required and i changed the battery and the car was doing great for 2 weeks and when it drained again the same thing happened, any one can help me with that?

 

Currently there are two threads all about battery drain scenarios...

 

Have you checked that your alternator is charging the battery? Battery cables clean and connections tight? You should see about 12 volts engine off and 14 volts engine running.

To find a drain you first check how much it's draining when off and sitting still by using a multimeter set up as an amp meter connected between the battery + and the red battery cable. Normally stuff like the radio memory and clock use only a few milliamps.

If your car is pulling a couple of amps with no lights on (interior lights, etc) then start pulling fuses one by one until you find the amp draw decrease. That will tell you the circuit the problem is coming from. Then it's a matter of checking each power user on that circuit.

 

Sounds like a good candidate for a check of the alternator output. Many auto parts stores will provide a test of the battery and charging system in hopes that you will then purchase the needed parts from them. They may even be able to perform a parasitic draw test as Houdini suggested by using low amp clamp instead of having to pull a battery cable. Parasitic draw should typically not exceed 50mA to keep the various vehicle memory functions alive.
If your old battery was being charged correctly by the alternator then it too should have kept a charge for more that a couple of hours. Since you replaced the battery and everything was good for several weeks then it would indicate that you old battery was not receiving a charge. New battery with full charge has enough stored energy to start car and run things for quite a long time but without a recharge it too ran down after time.
How long is vehicle driven or allowed to run once started?? It takes at least 15 to 20 minutes of run time just to replenish the energy lost to start vehicle in the first place.

 

I have had two cars, a Volvo and an Audi that as they got older had trouble with the vehicle locator/recovery/tracker systems draining the batteries, but that was over days not hours. I did have a Mercedes that would drain the battery over a couple hours it turned out to be a temperature controlled electric fan in front of the radiator that was seized(so I could not tell that it was being turned on until I chased the drain with a multimeter) but would get turned on occasionally long enough to drain the battery.

 

do you have sirius satallite radio. s40 have a problem with the sirius draining the battery

 

same problem did you solve it