Electrical Problems (Battery draining)

[chuncomunco]

Hi guys,

I've been having this electrical problem for like a year already and its really killing me.

After the car has been driven and i leave it sitting for about a week the battery is dead. I just recently replaced the alternator (rebuilt E30 318i), starter and battery and the battery still drains.

The other day when I went to go put on the new battery, the starter made a "click" sound. If I disconnected it, it would make another click sound. So if i kept the + side connected to the battery and consistently touch the negative side of the battery with the cable, the starter would click every time car is connect to the battery. But it would only click once, not rattle like a car starting with a dead battery.

Anyone have any idea where the short can possibly be from?

Thanks

[bcthomas122279]

I suck at electric work but I have used this method with success:

Turn OFF your ignition

disconnect your negative terminal once you have a full charge.

see if it sparks when you touch it to the battery

pull fuses one at a time an touch the terminal to the battery to see if it still sparks.

once it stops sparking you can isolate the problem to whatever runs through that fuse.

[c.d.iesel]

it's a bad rebuilt alternator (diodes) (1st likely suspect)

or some other NON-BMW 2002 electrical device wired

into your car like a radio, radar, ipod, sirius, hokuspokus

difribulator which is WIRED HOT even with the key off ?

right up there as next likely suspect

and of course the obvious - LOAD TEST the battery,

test it's cells, it's not holding a charge