Here's the situation: I bought a new battery for my car (2000 lx sedan) back in march. Worked fine until recently. The battery for some reason becomes drained if I leave my car unstarted for more than, lets say, 8 hours. Now I cant figure out what's draining the battery, or if it's the battery itself that is faulty. All I can say is it only started happening after about a week ago when I ran my car into some snow off of the interstate which required a wrecker to pull me out of the snow. The car ran fine afterwards, but I did notice the headlights would dim periodically and the heater fan would slow a bit at times. Now I am left with the predicament that I previously mentioned: a car that starts with a battery that consistantly loses charge. The headlights no longer turn dim, and the blower seems fine, but the battery continues to lose charge. If I had a working windows pc I could use my carchip to monitor the voltage, but seeing as I lack the necessary tools, this is not feasible at this time. So does anyone have some suggestions on where my power is going? Suggest a tester for me also if this tool seems to be handy for a diagnosis. Thanks in advance, your knowledge is valuable to me.
Last edited on Sat May 3rd, 2008 09:54 pm by docinsano
I bet some wires got pinched and something is staying on while the car is off.
Try removing the neg. battery cable next time you're parking it overnight, and see if the battery drains. If not, then that's your problem. Finding WHAT is staying on will be tough, but look for a damaged area perhaps under the car either where the wrecker hooked up or where you hit the snow.
If the battery IS drained when you go to start it, it's the battery.
____________________ Project FocusFast
'06 ZX3- Intake, exhaust, mount
'01 ZX3- Salvaged, SOLD
'01 ZX3- Repo'd several years ago
'80 RX7 SA- Where the f*** did THAT come from?
well, I had the battery on the charger for about six hours and the charge gauge on the charger says the battery isn't charging, but how accurate are those things? Looks like I'm going to take the battery in, I'm sure it's still under warranty, as the battery is less than 4 months old. If the problem persists, I'll try the ol' remove the neg. cable trick.
I don't know about the accuracy of those charger gauges. If it didn't need a charge maybe it wasn't charging? Obviously it will hold some sort of charge if you can get it to start.
I'd check for wiring problems in the lighting circuit, maybe a shorted wire that's causing a drain, especially since you had the "light dim" issue.
____________________ Project FocusFast
'06 ZX3- Intake, exhaust, mount
'01 ZX3- Salvaged, SOLD
'01 ZX3- Repo'd several years ago
'80 RX7 SA- Where the f*** did THAT come from?
So I had my electrical system checked out recently, apparently the problem was because my key is stuck in the ignition the car's computer stays on while it is off. So I could get it replaced which I think is pointless since I had it replaced already. In other news my purge valve canister thing needs replacing. I was just wondering two things: what does this thing do and is it safe to drive with this broken? the mechanic said it would be fine, but my fuel mileage would suffer. I'll check back later. Thanks for the help so far.
That sounds right. Your mileage won't really "suffer" maybe 1mpg...
____________________ Project FocusFast
'06 ZX3- Intake, exhaust, mount
'01 ZX3- Salvaged, SOLD
'01 ZX3- Repo'd several years ago
'80 RX7 SA- Where the f*** did THAT come from?
