Battery dies randomly

[cb7rush]

So lately ive had this weird problem..mya battery dies randomly..things that i have and tested..new battery(bought late august), new alternator(bought 2 weeks ago, and new battery wire 0 gaue and new terminals..i work at autozone and tested my battery to see if that was it and it passed with flying colors..the alternator did too..i have no idea what it could be..is there something else i need to check? I know some cars came with a voltage regulator, but i dont see one for our cars..i daily it and need to fix this problem asap..info and help please..

[agol]

did you check the wires going to the battery. theres obviously a connection issue. your battery is not dying. im almost sure it has to being the wires going to the battery.

[tommi]

ur alternator check out fine? grounds?

[cb7rush]

My battery is i the trunk and the connections are fine..its grounded where the abs ecu ground was..i did sand it down more so it could make a better connection..i checked my alternator and it passed as i stated before..its brand new..im gona recheck my ground for the 5th time and go from there..it has happened twice and idk what else it could be..

[Mr.Sleepercb7]

Yea i can only recommend checking the grounds. Good luck finding your issue post back up what was wrong if you figure it out.

[SPLCB7]

The voltege regulator is in your ecu.... Id check my sterio if its wired to always be on it will drain your batt till its dead same with amps not turned off after the cars off just some food for thought best of luck

[djcaz_aom]

So lately ive had this weird problem..mya battery dies randomly..things that i have and tested..new battery(bought late august), new alternator(bought 2 weeks ago, and new battery wire 0 gaue and new terminals..i work at autozone and tested my battery to see if that was it and it passed with flying colors..the alternator did too..i have no idea what it could be..is there something else i need to check? I know some cars came with a voltage regulator, but i dont see one for our cars..i daily it and need to fix this problem asap..info and help please..

Okay if everything is checking out OK and passing with flying colors,, can you elaborate on what you mean by the battery dies.

- Does it need to be charged up when this happens?

- Give us some incite on exactly what is going on. Electrical can be very tricky. The more info you give us, the better we may be off assistance.

[stevediraddo]

connect the battery in series with an ammeter an the car (take off the ground wire, then connect the ammeter to the negative post and the ground wire) . leave the car off (starting the car can blow the ammeter at this point). if the draw is less than 100mA then the battery may have an internal short. if the draw is higher, something in the car is draining the battery.

keep in mind that it is the nature of lead batteries to suffer damage every time it is discharged for a short time. could be toast by now.

[cb7rush]

to answer some questions,

My stereo is not connected to constant power.

My battery has gotten to the point where it will not start the car and I have needed to get battery jumps 3 times..I got another one again last night..

I know batteries get damaged everytime that they need to be charged thats why I am trying to find the problem asap..

stevediraddo- I have access to an ammeter at work and I work tommorow, so I will check it then..As for now, I double checked the grounds and power cables and all check fine. I have brand new wires and brand new terminals.

Quick questions-

can my wire powering the alternator be going out? I dont have an extra wire going to my battery, I mean the stock one that charges the battery after you start the car.

Could there be a bad ground at the alternator? Its grounded, but IDK if something could be wrong with it..

I realized last night that whenever I step on the brakes my interior lights dim a little, I think its a ground issue and im going to add another ground to the battery and see if that helps.

Any other suggestions?

I dont have time today to check it, so il check everything possible tommorow before work.

thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it.

[djcaz_aom]

to answer some questions,


Quick questions-

can my wire powering the alternator be going out? I dont have an extra wire going to my battery, I mean the stock one that charges the battery after you start the car.

This is the one wire that most forget to upgrade. I have two wires coming from my alternator to the fuse box junction. 4 gauge I believe.

Also, another good test is to use a test light in the same fashion as the ammeter. If it lights up, something is grounding. Start taking out fuse by fuse until it goes out. That would be the open circuit.

Also, when you turn the key to the RUN position, does the battery light come on? If it isn't, then there is your problem. It is the charging wire from the alternator. I had to replace mine and at the same time had an ELD bypass installed for the stereo.

[cb7rush]

when I turn my car to acc/run the battery light does come on..

I am going to try to check everything possible tommorow, for the most part..Ive had ground issues before and the one thing I notice witha bad ground is that the car shuts everything off when theres a bad ground..

when you turn it to acc all the lights turn on, but when you try to start it everything shuts off..my car isnt doing that. All my lights stay on and nothing turns off..but the battery is low enough that I heed to jump start it to crank..

[foamypirate]

I believe one of our members had a similar issue. Turned out to be his alarm system. Apparently it would randomly start pulling down a large amount of current and drain the battery.

Do you have an alarm?

[stevediraddo]

I believe one of our members had a similar issue. Turned out to be his alarm system. Apparently it would randomly start pulling down a large amount of current and drain the battery.

I have also had this happen. Good idea.

when you turn it to acc all the lights turn on, but when you try to start it everything shuts off..my car isnt doing that. All my lights stay on and nothing turns off..but the battery is low enough that I heed to jump start it to crank..

when my car would die out completely trying to crank, it turned out to be a loose ground. when it refused to crank but the lights stayed on, it turned out to be a bad battery caused by repeated draining.

[Sarthos]

ammeter is a good idea.

Also, rather than just grounding your battery in the trunk, do the smart thing and run a ground cable the same size as your power cable (4 gauge or 0 gauge or whatever) and run it back to the engine block.

[cb7rush]

i dont have an alar..and its only died 3 times so far.

the best grounds are less than 3 feet long..and I have a cable grounding the trans to the chassis..

im gona check everything I can today