ssmdhondadriver

Last weekend my wife reported that the battery was dead in our 2000 Honda Accord V6.

I charged battery overnight; started fine after I put it back in. Looked for drains with a multimeter; after a few minutes, current went down to 12 mA, which AFAICT means there's no way it could empty the battery. (Car had been parked at most a couple days, and it's pretty warm here.)

After getting some reasonable replies in a different thread here, I took it to Advance Auto Parts and had it tested for free. Everything checked out fine.

Anyone have any ideas? I know that electrical issues can be notoriously hard to diagnose. Is it possible there's something about the alternator or the rest of the car's electrical system that the test at Advance would have missed? (The test is broken down into a few parts (battery, starter, charging system), all reporting normal.)

Also, if there was something seriously wrong with the alternator or battery, I assume I'd be getting dead batteries more frequently. We had a dead battery quite a while back, probably due to cab light being left on. After that, last spring the alternator went bad. Had that replaced. A couple weeks after that, left it at the airport for about 5 days; dead when we got back. Had it jumped. It's been fine until last weekend. THat's a pretty big gap (early May to mid August).

TIA,

S

BenjaminX2

I worked with a buddy on a Alfa Romeo from around 2000 once that had a really strange problem too.
The owner of the car reported draining batteries, poor starting performance one day, super the next, dashboard lighting that would dim while driving. Even a cracking radio.
After a very long time of searching, we found that the plus cable from the alternator was rubbing against the chassis somewhere in the engine bay. The isolation was ripped and just how much the engine had moved (flex in the motor mounts while accelerating) would determent if the cable would short circuit or not.

My point is, look for on-obvious problems.

Benjamin

TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

You never updated your old thread....

Is the battery charging while driving?

Did you do any recent electrical work?

etc



No need to make another identical thread and not just update your other one.

ssmdhondadriver

BenjaminX2,

Thanks. Only thing I can think of right now is the CD/radio acting funky, since it misbehaves.

TheMuffinMan,

This is a continuation of that thread; sorry if I didn't segue appropriately. Right now I don't see anything wrong with the battery or alternator or anything else. If the battery wasn't charging, there's no way it would last 3 months. No recent electrical work. (Alternator was replaced, but that was at least 4 months ago IIRC.)

TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

I'd double check it for certainty. I have had issues with Advanced Auto Parts "testing" and claiming it was my alternator causing issues......after a $400 emergency alternator purchase I found out it was my $60 ignition switch.

Multimeter across + and - while running should read 14-14.5V assuming it's charging correctly.

HondaPartsHero

I know you probably would have seen this but it happened to my brother, are the brake lights stuck on? The plug that stops the lights from staying on often falls out above the pedal. Just a thought

ssmdhondadriver

TheMuffinMan,

Thanks. I'll try that test and maybe sometime get someone else to test it with a load tester.

HondaPartsHero,

No, that's not it, though that did happen to an old Nissan of mine.

Cheers