I didn't drive my car for a week and a half and when I finally decided to start her up, the battery was completely dead. This happens to me every time I store the car for more than a week. I don't think the battery is at fault here because it's fairly new. Anyone have any ideas?

 

alternator?

maybe a bad ground or lead?

edit: what is fairly new?

 

Do you have any alarm installed? If so. that can be the caused. If you plan on not driving your car for over a week, i would unhook the battery.

 

Do you have some ricer lights and **** in your car? Crazy sound system? What electronics do you have in your car and who installed them?

Do you have a volt meter? You can use that to try and find any bad grounds you may have.

 

If it still drains while driving, it's your alternator...

Other then that it could be anything anyone else said in here...

 

when you car is completely off, take the negative wire off your battery and scratch the negative wire against the where you just took it off from and if it sparks theres a short.

 

don't forget to check the glovebox light.

but yeah once week is kinda excessive.

 

If you have an alarm that is draining it you should look into getting a Deep Cycle battery.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by get RIGHT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you have an alarm that is draining it you should look into getting a Deep Cycle battery.</TD></TR></TABLE>

or just remove the alarm. because historically alarms have never saved R's.

 

Diagnose it before removing the alarm or anything else.

Install an ammeter between the negative terminal and the the negative battery post. A normal car should have around 20-40 mA parasitic drain. If your car has more start unplugging stuff (pulling fuses) until the amps drop into range. That's the circuit your having issues with.

If your car has 20-40mA drain, then your battery is bad.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stumpyf4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A normal car should have around 20-40 mA parasitic drain. If your car has more start unplugging stuff (pulling fuses) until the amps drop into range. That's the circuit your having issues with.

If your car has 20-40mA drain, then your battery is bad.</TD></TR></TABLE>

so normal cars have bad batteries??

 

i had the same problem with a relatively new battery, took it in, and the battery was just a fault from the factory. got a new one free

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1GreyTeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

or just remove the alarm. because historically alarms have never saved R's.</TD></TR></TABLE>


so far from true


What extra items do you have plugged into your car. Does your alarm have a back up battery. How are the kill switches installed in your car. My car will do the same thing if not started in about two weeks, I rather keep the relays active then to give the theif one chance to crack it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RTW DC2R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

so normal cars have bad batteries??</TD></TR></TABLE>

Let me explain. If your car has 20-40mA draw you have normal draw. If you still can't start it after a week then the battery does not have enough capacity... i.e. bad battery. Could be a starter issue too.

If your car has more than 40mA draw then you have excessive draw, fix the issue with the draw.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stumpyf4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Let me explain. If your car has 20-40mA draw you have normal draw. If you still can't start it after a week then the battery does not have enough capacity... i.e. bad battery. Could be a starter issue too.

If your car has more than 40mA draw then you have excessive draw, fix the issue with the draw.</TD></TR></TABLE>

make sure the ignition is off and nothing is on before hooking up the Digital Multimeter (DMM) or Ammeter...not doing so will blow the internal fuse in the DMM or Ammeter