Battery Drain after 4 Days

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Reckless

Reckless

10 Year
Joined
May 31, 2013
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111
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Location
Chicago
I have this weird problem that my mechanic has been trying to diagnose. For three days the car won't drain the battery but on the fourth it does. He has already disconnected the headlights/radio/dvd/piggyback ecu for supercharger. The battery is brand new less than a month old from Interstate.

Anyone have a problem like this?
 
Are your door locks functioning properly? A while back, one of my door lock actuators got lazy and would intermittently try to keep locking itself and ran down my battery a few times before I figured it out. You could have him unplug the body ECU (which runs the door locks I believe) and see if that helps.
 
To check for drain, with the key in the off position, unplug each fuse, one at a time, and check with an amp meter. If you have a drain or ground, the meter will read a higher than normal draw. You will find the source of the problem. My wife's car would drain the battery in 1-2 days and finally found the problem: Two cd's in a single cd player. It was running constantly.
 
what does that mean "for 3 days it won't drain"?

that there is no drain (current) on the battery for 3 days and that it suddenly starts the 4th - which would be extraordinary-

or that it takes 4 days to discharge the battery to what you see as a notably low level?
 
Do a search of the forum using the term "battery drain". You'll get lots of threads and posts. If the problem coincided with the new battery, it may be bad and have internal discharge. It's not all that rare to have new ones be bad.
 
e9999 said:
what does that mean "for 3 days it won't drain"?

or that it takes 4 days to discharge the battery to what you see as a notably low level?
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For 3 days there is no drain and on the 4th it completely drains it and won't start.
 
jemsec said:
To check for drain, with the key in the off position, unplug each fuse, one at a time, and check with an amp meter. If you have a drain or ground, the meter will read a higher than normal draw. You will find the source of the problem. My wife's car would drain the battery in 1-2 days and finally found the problem: Two cd's in a single cd player. It was running constantly.
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Red Sox Cruiser said:
My 2004 had a similar concern. Took me a few days to track down but I eventually tracked it down to the center console CD changer.
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When you guys say you tracked it down to your stereo, what did you do then to correct it?
 
Couple more things to consider: The auto headlights sensor drains power when switch left in auto. Owners manual recommends switching to off if parked a week or more. Also you did remember to clean & grease the battery post & clamps when installed didn't you....

Presumable you replaced battery because dead. Was load test perform to confirm? Was the battery fully charge before test was done?
 
I just came back from 2 weeks vacationing in South Lake Tahoe. My 98 LC sat for about 1 week and the battery was dead. I couldn't figure it out, I just put in a new Odyssey battery less than 4 months ago and the temperatures were cold, but still quite mild for South Lake Tahoe for this time of year.

I took it to a O'Reilly autoparts a few miles from my place up at the lake and they did a battery and alternator check. Turns out my alternator is on its way out and isn't giving a full 18 volt charge. So, it's fine down here in San Clemente driving it everyday to and from work, but up there is when I had issues letting it sit in colder weather for an extended time. In fact, after that, I needed to drive almost every other day or so, and never had an issue the rest of the time I was up there.

Oh darn... looks like I'll be needing to get rid of the stock alternator buy a new 200 amp (or higher) alternator!:clap::clap:

I guess in my long winded commentary, did you check your alternator??
 
r2m said:
I just came back from 2 weeks vacationing in South Lake Tahoe. My 98 LC sat for about 1 week and the battery was dead. I couldn't figure it out, I just put in a new Odyssey battery less than 4 months ago and the temperatures were cold, but still quite mild for South Lake Tahoe for this time of year.

I took it to a O'Reilly autoparts a few miles from my place up at the lake and they did a battery and alternator check. Turns out my alternator is on its way out and isn't giving a full 18 volt charge. So, it's fine down here in San Clemente driving it everyday to and from work, but up there is when I had issues letting it sit in colder weather for an extended time. In fact, after that, I needed to drive almost every other day or so, and never had an issue the rest of the time I was up there.

Oh darn... looks like I'll be needing to get rid of the stock alternator buy a new 200 amp (or higher) alternator!:clap::clap:

I guess in my long winded commentary, did you check your alternator??
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18V?? :eek:
 
e9999 said:
18V?? :eek:
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I was told that the alternator actually puts out 18 volts to charge a 12 volt battery.:meh:

Note: I'm not an electrical person. I know the red thingy and black thingy shouldn't touch, but not much more than that.:doh:
 
Do you have access to a multimeter? You need one.

Make sure the cars turned off and disconnect the battery negative lead and connect the meter between the lead and the neg terminal with the meter set to amps.

With the car turned off, no key in the lock, radio off and all doors shut you should have a current draw around 34mA.
Betting you have around 150mA.

You now need to start pulling fuses to isolate which circuit is pulling the power. Start with the DOME fuse located behind the front kick panel. 90% of parasitic draws are on that circuit. It feeds the interior dome lights via the door switches, the body management computer and the intrusion detection module.
When the current drops back to around 30-34mA you know you have the offending circuit then you start disconnecting things...

I have the same problem but haven't had time to locate/disconnect the two computers modules. Keeps us posted on progress.
A good search is "parasitic draw". Its a very common problem but there isn't much useful info out there about the reality of fixing it.
 
The problem is the drain happens intermittently so mechanic can't replicate it for days.
 
Not so intermittent if it flattens the battery that quickly...

Mine is also intermittent. Most of the time its around 150mA but after a hour or so, it might drop to 30mA. Open a door and its back up again. Maybe it'll drop again - maybe not.

You need a multimeter. Set it up and look at it now and then.
Not much point giving it to a mechanic, you need an auto electrician and even then the labour charge will be high if he's just sitting there watching the meter.
Set it up in your driveway during the weekend...
 
WomblingFree said:
Not so intermittent if it flattens the battery that quickly...

Mine is also intermittent. Most of the time its around 150mA but after a hour or so, it might drop to 30mA. Open a door and its back up again. Maybe it'll drop again - maybe not.

You need a multimeter. Set it up and look at it now and then.
Not much point giving it to a mechanic, you need an auto electrician and even then the labour charge will be high if he's just sitting there watching the meter.
Set it up in your driveway during the weekend...
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Get a GO-Pro and have it monitor your multimeter for about 4 hours! Then you can post it on Youtube like everyone else does with their cameras...:D
 
WomblingFree said:
Sigh...

not an entirely silly idea though. You'd get the camera for less than what the mechanic will charge to say 'no fault found' :)
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And after it's all said and done, you'll at least have a Go-Pro for all your other adventures!
 
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