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Battery being drained


ezlnh8u

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In the past month i have noticed that if my car sits for 3 days without moving,  I will need to jump start it. I know it is not the alternator and the battery as I have gotten these checked. What do you guys recommend to start off as a troubleshoot? Id figure a volt reader first? but after that I am not sure what i should check, The car never had this issue before, but it has to be a very faint current because its after the 3rd day of just sitting. the last thing that was installed in the car where the hella fog lights about two months ago. so this seems odd to me. Many thanks in advance. 

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my dome light was being left on, ,,, that drained the battery, ,,, it was because the little plastic knob that actuates the door switch to off had popped off. And I was never in the garage at night,,,, until finally I did notice. live and learn, ,, and yes, check the last thing or things you did, since prior to that, there wasn't an issue.

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With the car off disconnect the negative lead on the battery. Take a meter and put one lead on the negative battery terminal and the other lead on the negative battery cable.  The meter should show a flow of current which is the drain.  Move to the fuse box and remove one fuse at a time until you see no flow of current on the meter, this will be the circuit with the drain.  Now you can narrow it down to the things that are on the circuit to figure out where the drain is.

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How old is the battery? Just to confirm that it is good why don't you disconnect it before you let it sit a for a couple days. I've seen batteries that "tested good" at a parts store that were weak like this.

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Update,  I purchased the Optima red top battery on August of 2016, I took the battery to a local autozone to have them check it, they charged it for 3 hrs, and the results came back with on a 35% charge was held, so this might indicate that the issue was the battery... The car has sat for 1 day so far, I will give it up to until Wednesday then I will try and start it. I will update then. Thank you all for the help.

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Personally and professionally, I would still test for a current drain and re-test the charging system after replacing the battery, just to rule out the possibility of either of those contributing to the short lifespan of the battery, if you haven't done so already, that is.

Edited by torquewrench80
additional notation.
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I had a dead battery the other morning, so I put a charger on it for a while; before disconnecting the ground strap and putting a volt meter between that and the negative battery post.  It read 12 Volts, so I started by pulling the number one fuse and the meter dropped to zero.  Then I remembered turning on the trunk light the night before and sure enough, I had left it on.  I do need to put a lid actuated cut off switch in.  Hopefully I do not make that mistake again. 

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The tester/fuse pulling tip is a good one.  As mentioned, it will not detect all possible problems, but sometimes you'll learn enough to resolve the situation.


Tom

     DISCLAIMER -- I now disagree with much of the timing advice I have given in the past.  I misinterpreted the distributor curves in the Blue Book as timing maps for our engines.  I've also switched from using ported-vacuum to manifold, with better results.  I apologize for adding confusion.  (3-28-2024)  

 

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1 hour ago, '76mintgrun'02 said:

I had a dead battery the other morning, so I put a charger on it for a while; before disconnecting the ground strap and putting a volt meter between that and the negative battery post.  It read 12 Volts, so I started by pulling the number one fuse and the meter dropped to zero.  Then I remembered turning on the trunk light the night before and sure enough, I had left it on.  I do need to put a lid actuated cut off switch in.  Hopefully I do not make that mistake again. 

The tester/fuse pulling tip is a good one.  As mentioned, it will not detect all possible problems, but sometimes you'll learn enough to resolve the situation.


Tom

If your meter/dvom has an amp capability, preferably at least 10 amps, you'd be better off using that than the 12 volt scale. If the vehicle you're testing has a clock or a radio with a memory it will show a 12 volt drain, with the amps option it will show exactly how much it's drawing, probably 0.1 amps or less in the case of the clock or memory. It's generally considered that 0.3 amps or greater is a problem that can drain the battery overnight, while lower than that figure is acceptable. You would connect the meter in exactly the same manner as for using the volt scale.

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On 10/16/2017 at 9:03 AM, ezlnh8u said:

Update,  I purchased the Optima red top battery on August of 2016, I took the battery to a local autozone to have them check it, they charged it for 3 hrs, and the results came back with on a 35% charge was held, so this might indicate that the issue was the battery... The car has sat for 1 day so far, I will give it up to until Wednesday then I will try and start it. I will update then. Thank you all for the help.

 

Some reports that the Optima batteries have had some drop off in quality control and they aren't what they used to be. Claims of the manufacturing facility in Mexico isn't up to snuff.

Others have reported no issues with their Optima yellow tops, 

 

Just in case you were thinking of buying another Optima. 

Loose: Not tightly bound. Subject to motion.
Lose: What happens when you are spell check dependent.

 

1975 Malaga. It is rusty but runs. Just like me. 

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5 minutes ago, EuroTech said:

is that a trunk light? Is that a factory option or something aftermarket?

 

The trunk lights are repurposed license plate lights.

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The switch was not a BMW part.  ( : but it is now : )

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  • Like 1

     DISCLAIMER -- I now disagree with much of the timing advice I have given in the past.  I misinterpreted the distributor curves in the Blue Book as timing maps for our engines.  I've also switched from using ported-vacuum to manifold, with better results.  I apologize for adding confusion.  (3-28-2024)  

 

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The trunk lights are repurposed license plate lights.
004.thumb.JPG.68121a474c141303b4351c51aec7ea3e.JPG&key=bf5f619e1e550ea6ed2971c0900c17ea578e192135865b4f0d59ab243e3de64b
The switch was not a BMW part.  ( : but it is now : )
016.thumb.JPG.37890e5546fab10000be6fc65dbaa6b2.JPG&key=da4195b9068e4efc19325a2ab294c6dc2a54f0e17f71e8f38b6d96449fcc2a02
 
 
Next question, do you have mice in your car? Not trying to be rude but it looks like a loaded mouse trap In there...

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