Something is draining my battery and now that I think about it I have a feeling it's a short.

I my old battery was running fine then up and died on me soon as I turned it off. Got a jump and drove home and the whole time the guage was flickering back and forth so I keept her running good so she didn't die. I got home, switch batteries with a friend and then replaced my pos. terminal and she ran fine. Running good for about two weeks now exactly. His battery was 100% dead when I went to leave the club. Got a jump and it ran fine, had to watch the guage and it did the same thing. So I don't want to say it's my alt for sure because it is charging the battery enough to still run while it's running but not enough to keep the battery alive. When it's off I think it's getting killed and a friend brought up a short. What chya think?

 

First with it running Check with a meter Voltage from ground and the Big red wire on the back of the Alt.
You should have atleast 13.5 Volts or a little more.

If that is all good next check the battery. Charge the battery. Then with the meter connected crank the car over and watch the Voltage on the meter and see what happens. It shouldn't drop much at all.

If that checks good then you need to check for a Parasetic Draw.
To do so your meter needs top be able to read Amps. Then you will hook the meter inline with the positive cable. With all the doors closed hook it inline. What I do to prevent a spike that will blow the fuse in the meter hook one side of the meter on the nut for the terminal. Then the other one in the middle of the terminal on the battery itself.Then slide the terminal up and let it sit on the lead on the battery itself.

See what the Amps are being pulled. It should be at or below .05.

I am posting a pic of how I set up the terminals with the meter.

 

Okay well I decided to take it up to peps boys just because for $20 I could get everything diagnosed, battery charged and they had all the good tools and knowledge to do it and I had nothing...lol. Anyways guy says everything checks out fine and said he cleaned up the neg. terminal and she runs perfect again. So I baught and replaced that terminal. I still feel a little iffy about it because the terminal wasn't even that bad and I know both of the terminals have seen worse days and ran fine. Guess I'll see if it dies on me again here in two weeks. I feel a bit stupid for what the cause was...guess maybe over time the battery just had enough of corroded terminals so now BOTH of my terminals are brand spakin' new and shinny!

 

i am always leary of the pepboys "mechanics"

 

Let us know how it goes.