Hi all..

I've got a '99 Chevy Cav and have been having problems for a while with the battery draining.. Initally I thought it was the battery, so I swapped it out.. then the problem returned a few months later, so I swapped out the alternator.. then the problem continued, so I swapped out the battery again..

Now the battery wont hold a charge for even 4 hours.. I've turned off every accessory in the car that I can find and it still drains..

As it is right now, I can think of 2 potential causes -

1) something's draining the battery when the car is off
2) the battery is not getting charged enough after driving for 40 mins to turn the car over

I'll confirm #2 on my way home from work tonight, but in the mean time, has anyone else experienced something like this?

What could cause the battery to intermittantly not recharge?
What could drain the battery if it was fully charged?

Thanks!
Steve..

I had a problem like this on my truck where the battery would always die while it was parked. But I didn't feel like tracing down the problem so just installed a kill switch. It's kinda ghetto, I know, but I was sick of having to jump the SOB, and it beats pulling your hair out trying to find the drain.

Rob





Sold 2/2/05

You need to hook up an ammeter in series with the battery (between the neg. cable and the neg. post) and start pulling fuses. When the reading on your meter drops, that is your source for the draw.

grab a light or multimeter and start pulling fuses but instead of puting the fuse back in connect the light or multimeter to see if theres a current going through. If there is then you'll find where the short is.

Thanks guys,

I'll give the fuses a try with a multimeter tonight..

Steve..

Have you disconnected both ends of the Earth/Negative cable and cleaned them.

It may be you have a high resistance in a connection and this is causing the charging problem.

Also clean the Positive battery cable at the starter and the Battery connections.

Just a thought if it's not a draining problem.




Alont

remember there are some electronics that work with the key out of the ignition, ex. Glove box light, dome light, trunk light. All of these things are potential power drainers. I'm not sure how something else might turn on if the ignition is off unless theres a short I guess, by something else i mean something like the fan.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions..

After driving home for 40 mins yesterday, the battery was low, but not dead - it had charged enough to turn the engine over once..

I checked the voltage between the battery terminals while the engine was idleing and it was around 14 volts - so looked good there..

I checked the fuses with the engine off.. no drains (except the internal light - the door was open )

I looked around inside the engine and noticed some loose wires.. I'm pretty sure this is the problem, but the engine was warm, so I'll look at them more closly on the weekend..

My guess is that the wires are bouncing around with the engine, so the battery is reading 14V while the car is not moving, but when I start driving they lose the connection and stop charging the battery.. Does this sound feasible?

Anyway, thanks again for all of the suggestions!..

Steve..