I have been struggling with this problem for months. I cannot figure out what keeps draining out the battery in my 96 GSR. I tested the alternator and its good, I just replaced the battery, and that worked ok for a few days then it the battery would be dead every time I go out to start the car, If a few days have passed since I last started it.

I checked under the hood, the only thing that didn't look right, was a few grounded terminals were corroded together? Not sure if that has any thing to do with it, I will post up a pic of it in a few minutes. The car has a system, but the battery will still be dead if I don't even turn it on. It also has an alarm by code alarm, but the cars battery will still be dead, if I unplug the main power source for the car alarm. Is there any thing left to check with these Integra's. I really need to get this resolved, I can take pics of any section/part of the car if you guys are curious about any thing and post them up ASAP. I will go try and take a few pics right now, thanks a lot for any assistance!


Modified by Daveb2012 at 4:25 AM 1/8/2008

 

do your power door locks work?? i had this problem in my GSX when i had it.. my door locks had a wiring problem and every night it would drain my battery so finally i used a voltage tester to find the relay it was from and then i started pulling fuses till the amps dropped down. it was pulling 4 amps all night long while my car was off cuz the stock alarm was trying to lock the doors. once i pulled the fuse for the door locks out the voltmeter went from 4 to .14 Hope that helps. If u have any electrical stuff that doesnt work. pull the fuse out

 

Yes that does help. My power doors do work. I have a little bit of guidance now. Did you just use a multipmeter? I have one at work I can use, let me ask you though, what areas on the car did you place this on too test it? I wouldn't know where to begin. Thanks.

 

u wanna hook it to your negative cable on the battery i think.. NOT SURE ON THAT> somewhere where u have current returning too.. maybe an alternator wire. idk for sure. my instructor at college helped me. sry i dont have more to donate

 

thanks.
I found one thing that doesnt look right but I have no Idea what to do. There was a "ground" wire hanging out of the corner under the hood where teh driver side fender is. the tip was broken, so it wasn't grounded onto any thing. I pulled the wire a bit out of the fender wall, and it moved too easily. So I kept pulling, it came all the way out, the opposite end was also broken. I'm not sure what that wire was for but its not grounded, do you think this could be my problem.

 

Here is a pic of the wire I pulled from the driver side fender from under the hood:

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Any Ideas what thats for, could this be my problem?

 

Here are some other things I took pics of, this 1st one is the code alarm system. I noticed that the black connector, wasn't plugged in, if you look closely where I circled it with the arrow, there is only 1 of the 4 pins left on the alarm, the other 3 broke off, the top circle shows the clip that was plugged into it before. Does any one know what that is for? The alarm was working normally with this being broken like this so I'm not sure to make of it:

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There is also this, I don't think its any thing to worry about, but I'm not sure why it did this. This is a fuse box under the hood, if you notice where the grounded wires come into the box, its melted over top, when I take the cover off there is melted gooey plastic all over the two wires?

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if you let your car sit for extended periods of time, just pull the battery out

it takes 3 minutes and prevents the battery from taking a crap due to parasytic drain

 

That red wire you pulled out was probably a power source for an amp the ex owner had installed...might of been shorting something?

 

looks like someone has butchered your car's wiring. Look into getting a new engine harness and cabin harness from a junkyard. Sorry about the bad news but with electrical gremlins, sometimes it's much easier to start over from scratch. Also, that alarm needs to go, it's broken and probably discontinued. I'd start with taking any "aftermarket" wiring out and see what happens, I mean EVERYTHING, cd player, fog lights ect. let us know how it goes!!!

 

You're going to have to pull out the multimeter and start checking for voltage drops.
However when checking amps make sure you know what current you're working with or you'll cook the fuse in your multimeter.
If you start looking for resistances make sure you're power source is disconnect.

Electrical gremlins can become the most frustrating thing you've ever come across.
Best of luck.

 

ok theres a simple way to do this: get an amp meter (on some decent multi-meters) make sure its for no less than 10 amps, otherwise you may just blow the fuse, connect it in series on the neg side of the battery ( like battery>meter>cable>chassis ) make sure the cars been off for a while, the doors are all shut (take a vice clamp or somthing to hold the button on the drivers side door down so the car thinks its closed) and make sure all the lights are off

make sure everything is connected and you should read amperage on the meter.

now pull fuses one by one until you see the number go down, i think theres about half an amp drained by the computers memeory. but once you find the at-fault circuit youll know it, the draw should drop signifficantly.

(edit)

and as for the post above me, the parasitic draw test wtih the ammeter is the only test thats helpful here, voltage drop and resistance are wonderful tools but dont apply to this problem.

 

Actually you're right, I wasn't using my head.

However half an amp is off, maybe you were thinking half a milliamp?
you shouldn't be pushing much more than 35 milliamps. (.035A)

 

Thanks, so when you say start pulling fuses, are you talking about the fuses under the hood and under the steering wheel? Sorry I have never troubleshooted an electrical problem in my life.

Also I'm still not certain how the multimeter connects the negative terminal, is the battery disonnected during this time?? does the multimeter touch the negative terminal while its on the battery? does the negative part go on the negative part of the terminal, and red/positive part go on the positive part, that is what I'm confused on, thanks a lot!