Since the Earthing cable debate was so popular recently I thought I would post this question here. I put on some extra ground cables recently, and my battery has since drained down to about 8 volts, thus the car will not start. The car is in winter storage and has not been driven for about 2 weeks, I do take it out occasionally for a drive about once per week on average, but not for the past two weeks. I made the earthing cables myself using 8 guage auto audio wire. I put on four additional ground locations and ran them all off the battery individually. I hooked one to the intake manifold where the throttle cable bracket attaches, a second to the valve cover nut/washer, third to the vtec solenoid mount, and fourth one to the chasis nearest the shock tower. Could any of these locations have caused my battery to drain ?. Any way to test the leads on them, do I need to do a continuity test or try to take voltage readings somehow to find the culprit if there is one ?. I have a multimeter but I don't really know if I can use it to find an open in the system. Any assistance would be much appreciated. thanks

Joey

 

How old is your battery?

 

its a 99 model, so battery is almost 3 years old.

Joey

 

Three years old, plus the winter conditions which doesn't help an old battery-umm.

 

Sounds like its just your batteries time to go. Buy a new one and monitor it closely.

 

Try getting a new battery and see what happens. I doubt the grouding cables have much to do with it.

 

okay thanks guys, I didn't figure grounding would have an effect on the battery's ability to hold a charge but that is all I could suspect. I was monitoring the battery's charge with a multimeter and the voltage was dropping by 1/100th of a volt every 3-4 seconds with the car turned off. I pulled the negative battery cable and the voltage continued to drop. I then pulled the positive battery cable and the voltage drop has slowed right down. I'll have to monitor it over the next day or so. thanks for all the help, probably time for a new battery. I'm thinking I may have an open in the system somewhere also, my VAFC has been going on and off lately as I drive, I may have to check out that system also.

J.