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HELP!!!


cj44

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Check for any drain in the battery.

 

Get a 12 volt light tester. Disconnect the alternator wire connector. Disconnect the negative cable from the negative terminal of the battery. Connect the 12 volt light tester to the negative terminal of the battery and the connect the other end of the 12 volt light tester to the disconnected negative cable.

 

If the light of the tester comes on steady, then there is a huge drain. Gradually remove one fuse at a time and see if the tester light turns off. If the tester light does turns off when you remove a certain fuse, then check the connections/devices of that fuse because that is where the drain is coming from.

 

Note: Car stereo's time clock also drains the battery but it is small amount. If you find out that you don't have a drain, your tester will blink once and turns off because of the car stereo's time clock which is normal.

 

Also, get a battery charger/booster so you can charge the battery yourself. A drained battery normally gets fully charged about 3-4 hours at 12 Amp rate. If you are relying on the alternator to charge a battery, it might take longer time to charge the battery and so it better to use a battery charger/booster.

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when i had a drain in the 89 i just sold recently it turned out to simply be a loose battery cable.......that really didnt explain the weird symptoms but whatever, it fixed the problem

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What slade901 said, that's some good advise. You are looking for a parasitic drain. I don't think it would be battery or alternator problem, more likely a previous wiring repair or add-on, possibly a pinched wire, something along those lines.

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Improperly installed afteramarket car alarm and aftermarket fog lights could cause this drain. They have their own fuses directly connect to the + terminal of the battery and not at the fuse box.

 

Since car alarm and car stereo are always ON, I would suggest disconnecting their fuses while you are trying to narrow down the drain source and check the battery a few days later to see if huge drain is gone and if not then continue finding the drain.

 

I have a similar issue with this drain (back 9 years ago). I did not know anything about cars and wants to charge us huge amount of $$ per hour by the mechanic just to find the drain. That is where I decided to try to follow the DIY guide first and started leaning things about cars :)

 

WAIT..

 

Could you have installed a high powered accessories that requires a lot of power just to use them? Most stock alternators are around 100 Amp and is sufficient for small additional low powered accessories including the OEM accesories/devices.

If you have accessories that takes huge amount of power, then it could be draining power big time and the alternator could hardly keep up to re-charge the battery?

You might need to buy a higher AMP rating of alternator or just disconnect the fuses of those high powered accessories and test it a few days to see if the battery is fine.

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