I have a 1990 honda accord ex. Got a brand new battery for it a month or two ago. (old one died after sitting for 6 months while i was deployed and it was on it's way out anyways)

the other day the charge light came on but the car still ran alright. was gonna check the alternator to see if it was charging but my multimeter was broken. got a new one the next day and went out to check it. car was flat dead. 0.13v at the terminals. tried to boost it with wifes car. i measured at my dead battery terminals and it read 14.31V. ok good.. went to start the car.. so much for boosting. not even a door chime. absolutely no power anywhere. not even a hint. i have no idea what could cause this or where to even start looking or what could kill a battery flat in one night like this and prevent it from being boosted

can anyone help me? only thing i can think of is maybe a wire shorted somewhere but nothing visible on any of the main battery cables. if the wind and rain dies down maybe i can recheck all the connections for corrosion?

good thing im off this week to try and get it up and running again before work next week but i'm a little worried this is beyond my scope of knowledge, even with my trusty hanes manual

 

A battery will not be charged instantly. If you were reading the terminals of your dead battery with your wifes car connected to it via jumpers, then you were reading the voltage from your wifes charging system. Not your battery.
Many things. There could be an electrical draw, but with the battery registering less than a volt I would think the battery itself may just have failed.
Remove the battery and clean it and the battery tray out. Baking soda paste will neutralize any spilt acid. Be careful around the battery with the baking soda. You want to clean the case and make sure there isn't any acid between the two terminals. Being conductive the acid would slowly drain the battery by causing a short between the two terminals.

Make sure the terminals are clean and tight.

Since the battery light came on while driving it's possible that the alternator was no longer charging, you were able to continue to drive via power from the battery. Sometimes when a voltage regulator fails, even when the car is turned to OFF, the alternator may stay 'excited' and draws a ~10A current from the battery quickly killing it.

Clean up the battery, charge it with a dedicated battery charger, and then have it tested with a carbon pile load tester. While the battery is being charged pull the alternator and have it tested as well.

 

Is the main fuse still O.K?

 

i'll clean the terminals tomorrow and throw it on a trickle charger. i know im reading hte power to my battery from my wifes car but i figured it'd still get my car started at least. it didn't even give the charging system enough juice to even make the door chime ding when i opened it. i'll check the fuse too. the battery is only a few months old so i doubt it's spilled acid or anything but i'll check everything out tomorrow.

thanks for the advice. would the main fuse be in the engine compartment fuse panel?

 

Trace out your ground and power cables. Make sure the ground is connected to a clean metal contact and make sure the power cable is secure and has no breaks in it.

 

^^^^
My accord was doing the same thing, I checked my grounds and had some serious corrosion on one of them, replaced the wire and I haven't had the problem since

 

so the ground that splits off from the black terminal and goes to the frame? i had issues with the black battery cable being loose on the negative terminal before but it never drained hte battery. it would just cause issues with it starting until i went out and tightened the cable onto the terminal. just suprised me that it happened in one day... i can't see it being hte main fuse or the car would have instantly died wouldn't it?

 

when you connecting another source of energy(in your case booster battery) but the boosted vehicle does't even have the open door chime there is brake in circuit that feeds the vehicle's electric systems I.E fuse box .Fuse box is the link between battery and the rest of the circuits(at least to most of them.

 

update:

checked main fuse it was blown. got battery on charger and put it back in. replaced fuse. car started fine. alternator is only putting out 11.98v though. i'ds say it's pooched. was gonna change it myself but it's raining and near freezing for hte next 3 days and i don't have a garage. it will be $404 taxes in for a rebuilt installed. looks like it would be a pain in the butt too. lots of rust on the bolts near the bracket. hoping that's all that's wrong. it would suck to replace hte alternator and have it go again because of something else wrong causing issues with the electrical system.

 

The battery should be in the good condition before you test the alternator so fully charge it and to the load test. If the battery is not able to hold the charge you will force the alternator to work overtime and likely to burn it.Same thing for alternator,it should charge properly otherwise it won't be able to keep the battery in good shape-it's a package.And of course all the connections should be tight and clean.