arrocha87

Well i bougth my new project civic and the battery was toast. it was cracked and leaking fluid and wouldnt hold a charge. i bought a new duralast gold and it started right up. checked to see if the alt is charging and it is. it has a charge for a couple of hours and then it starts getting weak. if i start it up it charges again fine and starts getting weak again... What do i check or where do i check to see whats staying on? It did have the brake lights stuck on cause it was missing the clip in the pedal but i replaced that and they work on and off just fine now. Please help as i want to start driving my new hooptie ppl!!

raidacaipo

easy.. check all ground wires.. like the head, tranny and thermostat grounds. make sure they are all connected and tightly bolted down

arrocha87

kool. ill go out and check right now. good with building but suck in electrical, ill get lost changing a light bulb. lol!

P.S. 4got to mention if i unplug the neg terminal i dont lose any charge at all... dont know if that matters...

raidacaipo

well you can check your alternator that way if you start the car and then unplug the negative.. the engine should still be running if your alternator is good. if you car shuts off after pulling the neg of the battery then your alternator is bad or the fuse went out.

arrocha87

K. I checked the main ground (aka neg batt cable) and its gud. and two other grounds. they are all gud. last night i also took out a broken and missing faceplate radio it had in there cause i thot that was the problem. it stays on with neg disconnected. fuse is gud. Where do i start to check what is staying on/draining batt? i have a multimeter/ohm meter that i think i know how to use.... lol

z6hatchboy

Draining that fast could be a internal regulator in the alternator. If anything in ther car isnt on when you turn it off from the norm then idk if anything inside could be draining it, i say get the alternator checked

arrocha87

even if its charging the battery perfect and car stays on when unplugging the negative? its not throwing the dash light... not arguing, just dont know bout electrical so i ask alot.

SiR18EG

retard moment!!

z6hatchboy

by unplugging the neg, that just prove the alt is running the car and in working condition. think of the regulator (internal in hondas) as a check valve. When the cars on the its throwing volts out to keep stuff running, when turned off it stops the flow. When its bad though and the cars off the flow goes where ever and the battery drains

arrocha87

so is that something i can check in the car or do i have to pull the alt and take to autozone?

SiR18EG

did you look at all your grounds? I would unhook them and look for quality of the ground maybe one is corroded try looking and sanding.

z6hatchboy

You might can test it with a multi meter but youll need a service manual probably. I think thats something autzone can test too maybe

zeplin

Autozone can check your alternator for free. I don't even think it has to be out of the car (I could be wrong). But it doesn't hurt to go get it checked out anyway.

gsrhatch2356

Well the only way to test for a parasitic drain is with a amp meter or multimeter with a amp setting. if you have a amp clamp that connects to the multimeter then just snap it around the negitive side of the battery and see how many amps are being drawn off of the battery if you see more than a amp then start taking out fuses untill the ampreage drops down to less then a .25 of a amp. once you find the fuse that is the culprit then you can look up a diagram to see what is powered by that fuse and then put the fuse back in watch the amps come back up and then unplug each one of those items one at a time untill your amps drop back down again. once you can get it down to a certain device or section of a circut then from there you can procede to make the neccesary repairs. if you dont have the amp clamp then just take the negitive terminal off the battery and put red lead on post and black lead on negitive cable and set meter to amps.

GL

arrocha87

ok. will take to autozone to see if my alt is bad too. if i have too take it out ill come back and start doing the testing for a parasitic drain.

arrocha87

k. autozone said it was good but the guy looked like he didnt know what he was doing... is there any other way other than going to another store? theres only 0.31 amps being drawn from the batt. if the alt is good WTF could it be? now im getting frustrated!! lol

arrocha87

raidacaipo

autozone can do two types of test on your car.. one is to check your battery while its still on the car.. they will have you start the car (if you can) and turn on all electrical components like headlights, foglights, cd player, etc.. then they will check the level on the mulitimeter. I had them do this to my car along time ago when I was a noobie and it turns out that I needed to hook up a ground to my tranny and it solved it..

the other test would be to take off your alternator and bring it over there.. they will put it in a tester unit and it should say pass or something like that..

trrbl1bmx

Hey man I am not sure if you have done this or not, if your car is a coupe or 4door check and make sure your trunk light is going off. Sounds stupid but I see this alot at work with older civics and accords. Do you have OEM honda battery cables or are they some aftermarket cable ends or something?

arrocha87

i think i did my multi meter thing wrong. ima try again tommorow after work. i was kinda watching the dolphins jets game since i moved to dallas from miami. GO DOLPHINS!!! anyways.. i guess ill pull my alt tommorow too. i love my lil civic but thank god it aint my DD...

arrocha87

its a 4dr. how do i check if the trunk light is going off? drop the seatback i guess and luk in? and its 1000% stock. it even had the plastic battery sleeve and threaded sticks that hold the batt in place.

IhateworkingoncaRs

Before you take out your alternator, heres a quick way to see if your alternator is draining your battery. Take your volt meter and set it to AC volts. Take a reading at your battery, you should read 0, if you read any AC volts then your alternator has a bad diode. Having a bad diode is like what some one said earliar about the check valve, I'm pretty sure he meant the diode too.
If your not showing significant amount of drain with your amp meter then you just probably got a defective battery.

arrocha87

k. will do...

arrocha87

ok guys! i finally figured out what it was becausae it iced here a couple of days ago. i couldnt find the drain with my multi-meter and i had given up when i realized that after i plugged in my batt and was warming the car up my back window was defrosting and i was like whoa i didnt turn that on! so long story short i popd the switch out the dash and disconnected it and wallah! no more drain!!! now i need a new switch lol.