Battery keeps running dead on TGP

[Dark Ride]

If I leave the TGP sit for more than two weeks (happens all the time unfortunatly ) the battery is completely stone dead. The battery is good, no question there. I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem and what they did. Any other thoughts/ideas appreciated.

[Hairdo12]

Right now my Lumina is sitting in the garage for winter and if I let it sit for two weeks it either has a hard time starting or won't start at all. It can still power the radio and gages however. To solve the problem, I bought a 1.5 amp trickle charger from Walmart for $18. It keeps it charged nicely and when its fully charged it goes into a "maintain" mode. You could also try to disconnect the battery to keep it from draining as your car pulls from the battery even when its off.

[1990lumina]

You must have a draw somewhere, or the battery isn't as great as you think it is. My Lumina sat May-September and started perfect without even trying. There are some draws on the battery but they are should be VERY minimal.

[Garrett Powered]

new battery cables and charge wire should give the electrical system the boost it needs.

 

clean up all the grounds and the electronics work better and it will give you a better charge. thats what fixed mine.

 

I bypass the stock charge wire and run a 4 gauge wire directly to the aux post from the alt.

[Addicted To Boost]

My TGP does the same thing.. I put mine away for the winter on the first of November and I tried to move it around in the garage in the beginning of December and the battery was COMPLETELY dead. I replaced the battery this July with a brand new one too! At least it has a 1 year warranty on it But yeah it takes one month of sitting to kill the battery in it.

[joey b]

I'm not the type of person to immediately chime in with a "SEARCH!!!!" response, but if you would simply search "dead battery" you would get a plethera of responses that are very relevant to your problem. We've had a couple of threads here in the past couple of months that can't be but just a couple of pages down the forum.

[19Cutlass94]

Mines been sitting for a month and still has 12v. You have something wrong.

[Garrett Powered]

I tell you whats wrong with it.

Its a TGP.

 

they have the crappy CS130 alt.

 

and the stock charge wire sucks.

 

battery to core support ground wire sucks the way they installed them. and they are too thin.

 

running too many accessories driving at night in the rain is too much for the charge system.

 

the car wont charge at an idle with the stock chip.

 

all these factors will run the car into the ground with time and all your switches, relays, wires will be strained and fail prematurely.

 

I recommend the CS 130 D alt. and modify your chip to idle the car at 1100 rpms.

[gp90se]

Garrett, I know you love your cs130d alternator, but I can promise you that isn't the fix for every electrical issue on a TGP.

 

Sounds like a slight draw coming from the car itself, or the battery is on its way out. stick a voltage meter between the post and the terminal and see what kinda draw you have. if it's above X volts (someone fill in for X for me, I cant remember), go fuse by fuse until you see a voltage drop, it will be in that circuit you have a problem.

 

[Dark Ride]

its not the alternator, because if I drive the car everyday I don't have this problem, I'm going to charge it and do a draw test and see what I come up with.

 

Nick once I find out was draining the battery I'll let you know

 

What are those things that are attached to the seat belt on the door, cuz I unplugged the drivers side one this summer because it seemed like it was shorting out (really hot) I'm going to unplug the passenger one to see if thats causing it.

[rockfangd]

the x is ideal at 12.6 volts. which is 2.2 volts per cell

[gp90se]

X as in acceptable draw from the battery when the cars off (clock radio, ECU, ect)

[Garrett Powered]

Garrett, I know you love your cs130d alternator, but I can promise you that isn't the fix for every electrical issue on a TGP.

 

 

 

 

I know, I wasnt saying it was the fix for every issue.

 

I was saying that the 130 was the root of all problems.

 

you dont agree? I think if they had a better alt back in 90 all tgp's would have less electrical problems. because if you use lots of accessories the alt will heat up and stop charging.

 

I unplugged the seatbelt harness on my doors on one TGP. I know that was part of the problem, but what caused them to F/U in the first place? was it operating a car with too low voltage then having parts fail from too low voltage and built up resistence or just opening and closing the door too much and having a wire break in the door or what?

 

the switch is getting a 10-11 volt signal to do something and that takes more time then if it were 12v so the wire heats up and even less voltage can travel through it now. progressively gets worse until you give it clean power. very simple. cs130d may not fix the wires you broke or the relays you toasted or the motors you burned up, but its a start.

[Schurkey]

stick a voltage meter between the post and the terminal and see what kinda draw you have. if it's above X volts (someone fill in for X for me, I cant remember), go fuse by fuse until you see a voltage drop, it will be in that circuit you have a problem.

That'd be an AMMETER not a VOLTMETER; pulling fuses while watching the ammeter is still valid--although some drains are not on fused circuits. As for the value of "X" you need to go by whatever the spec in the service manual says. If there is no spec--or you can't find one--I would regard anything over ONE AMP to be suspicious. On some vehicles, 1/2 amp is an issue. This is with all electrical accessories shut off, including interior lights and such. There will be some draw due to computer keep-alive along with radio memory. Older cars might have z-e-r-o drain.

 

Don't forget to clean the battery case; plenty of batteries self-discharge through the conductive slime that builds up on them from acid leakage and/or road splash.

 

The only (and I do mean ONLY) way to know for sure what's going on is to perform a full Starting/Charging Team test; you verify battery condition with a load test, you test alternator output, starter draw, voltage drop on both the positive and negative cables, and you measure the drain on the battery. It's not at all uncommon for a defective battery to cause problems with the starter or alternator; or for a defective alternator to cause problems with the battery. Testing the ENTIRE SYSTEM is the only way you're going to find ALL the problems.

 

This used to be about 1/2 hour labor at any auto shop in the country including low-level gravy suckers like Sears, Midas, etc. Well worth it, in my opinion.

[Addicted2bass]

I just started my TGP after it had been sitting in storage for about a month and a half. I was actually surprised it started right up lol! My battery died on me several times over the summer when i had the stareo playing with the car off, and once just cuz the door was open for awhile. And the battery is a Bosch Premium Plus and is less than a year old.

[19Cutlass94]

I started my car up for thw first time in a month on friday and she started right up and ran good. Despite the fact that the gas tank as been on E for about 2 months