One thing or another sigh battery problems

[Tliska10]

Well as you all know my month was running fine, didn't drive it for 2 days and the battery was completely dead,jump it and all was good, 2 days later dead again, I then out in a optima 35 red top that is only a year old and was working fine on my other car. That was install and carsyarted fine,2 days later and everything is dead again.


I only up grade I did before this all happened was install led on all the doors and the dome lights. Could this have a effect on the battery issue?



Any help or thought would be greatly appreciated.



2 dead batterys after sitting over night for 2 days...
Only thing I replaced was led in the door panels and dome light.

 

[Deleted member 144409]

Presumably you didn't leave the door open.

If those are the only variables, then I would guess that in the process of doing so, some already loose wire in one of those housings is now wrecking havoc on your electrical system. Pull all the new lights and put them back in one at a time over the course of several days. If you have a meter you can test the battery on some regular frequency to see what the volts look like over time.

 

[Tliska10]

Ok charging up the battery again, and gonna pull all the lights I put in and try one by one each day.

 

[jacobconroy]

Charge your battery, put a DC ammeter between the positive post of the battery and the positive battery cable. This will tell you if there is any current draw when you THINK the car is at rest. If there is a current draw (like anything over .2 amps) pull one fuse out of the fuse block at a time and check the draw. If you pull a fuse and the draw stops, then the current drain is somewhere in that circuit. If no fuses make any difference, then look for unfused power take offs.

Good place to start. Most DC ammeters are fused at 10 amps. Don't try to start your car or use the stereo...or do anything that uses over 10 amps while the ammeter is installed. Also, after verifying that your dome light isn't the draw, you should remove it while testing the other circuits (to make it easier to spot the draws while the doors are open).

 

[Tliska10]

Do you mean Parasitic drain ?

 

[jacobconroy]

Do you mean Parasitic drain ?

Lol...yup. That's exactly what I mean. It's been a long time since I spoke the lingo.

 

[Tliska10]

Lol...yup. That's exactly what I mean. It's been a long time since I spoke the lingo.

K
Gonna try my led bulbs first then check that lol looks pretty hard to do.

 

[jacobconroy]

Of course, if this is the first time you've let it sit for a couple of days in a row since winter and the battery died, it might pay to charge the battery and have someone perform a load test on it. Maybe it's getting weak. Maybe you grabbed two week batteries in a row by chance.

I spent a week monitoring the coach batteries on a friends' RV. She had two coach batteries in parallels and everything seemed to check out with a meter. Chargers were working. Resting voltage was 12.7 as it should be. But, both batteries would drop to 11.3 volts after 24 hours of sitting around in the RV (with no load). I had both batteries load tested. One was good, one was bad. After replacing both batteries everything is good. Nothing else was changed.

I'm no expert and don't know how the math works when two batteries are in parallel....but I can tell you that the one battery just didn't seem to have any amperage to give. Some tire places will load test a battery for free. But, as I said, it should be fully and properly charged first.

I doubt that LED bulbs could be the culprit. If there is a parasitic draw in a lighting circuit, then any bulb in that circuit is going to draw power, LED or otherwise. Right? If you put an LED bulb in a socket that did not have a bulb in it before....that would be a good bulb to remove first.

Good luck. Parasitic draw issues are a PITA.

 

[Tliska10]

I should just buy a brand new battery in and try it out, since both battery are used... definitely sucks

 

[mezmochill]

trickle charge both and bring them in for a load test before buying another battery

 

[Tliska10]

Ok put in my fully charge battery, took out all the led, car started right up.


Left it over night about 12hrs let it sit, car fire up perfect,.

 

[Doing_Dirt]

Just replaced my battery due to power seat switch sticking. Took me 3 days and 2 batteries to figure it out. Had to unplug all 3 connections just to make sure it does not happen again.