Put in a new battery the day I got the car (yesterday), and today the battery is dead. The radio and lights would come on but the engine could not turn over, though it would try. We jumped it and it started it right up, and then we let it run for a few minutes before it stalled out. Tried to start it again, without the jump and nothing happened. I took out the voltage regulator and checked the brushes, they looked good. I have not tested the alternator yet, but the alternator would have nothing to do with the battery dieing over night while the car was off.

There were two fuses that were blown before hand, only one we replaced (the other one blew as I put it in). I believe it was fuses 12 and 13. The one that didn't blow is fuse 12 which controls the radio, front interior lamps, the clock, etc. Fuse 13, the one that blew controls the rear interior lamp, and central locking system.

Anyways... Something is draining the battery. I was messing around that night trying to get the radio working. It is possible that the alternator is bad and that the battery was drained on the way back home. It could be that it did have some power that night until I started messing with the electronics, which eventually killed it. Just never heard of a battery being drained in one hour of driving...

I currently have the battery on a charger, I figure if it charges the battery than I know the alternator is bad (i'm too lazy to take it out of the car and get it tested). If it doesn't, the battery is completely dead and won't hold charge, and back to the drawing board.

Any help? Thanks in advance...

Andrew

 

Not sure about your problem, but whenever that has happened to me over the years, I start with a fully charged battery, pull all the fuses, connect the positive lead, and put a test light in series between the negative cable and the battery post. Plug the fuses in one by one until the light lights up. Then determine if the current flow is normal (i.e. - clock, interior lights, etc), and isolate those. Sooner or later you'll find the short.

As for the blown fuses - fix whatever is causing that as well, though a blown fuse will not drain a battery.

 

That's a damn good idea. I'll try it out.

 

Well, I tried it out. Took out all the fuses and connected the light between the negative post and negative cable. The light came on, with the fuses out. I did some testing, and when I unplugged the alternator, the light went out. So I took out the alternator and got it tested. It failed. I'll replace it and i'll let you know if that fixes it.

 

We got the alternator repaired and put it back in. Then we redid the test. With all the fuses in (exception of the one that keeps blowing) the light was off. We left the car with the battery plugged in for a few hours and tried to start it. Had a good strong start. We are going to let it sit overnight and try again in the morning before we call it a fix.

I do have one question with the fuse deals with the front interior lamps. The lamp itself is off, but the seatbelt lights (they are right by the lamp) are always on. When do they go off?

 

To do a parastic draw test, I would put a digital multimeter in series with the battery negative cable and post. I would pull each fuse one by one until the display shows less then 100mA.

 

Started it up this morning, sounded good. Thanks