i finish droping in my motor and everything went fine except for my battery is draining some how. i start the car and pull off one of the battery terminals and the car suts off, so i thought it was the alternator so i changed it. it didnt work . what else could it be?

 

Could be a bad cell in the battery. Happened to me a few months ago.

BTW - if you are ever curious if you're altenator is going bad, instead of replacing it just grab a voltmeter and take 2 readings. 1 with the car off ~12 volts and one reading with the car running maybe even rev it up just a hair. It should read ~14 volts.

Goodluck,
Noel

 

i replaced the battery too

 

Check your fuses, I had a similar problem a while back when my o2 sensor wires were shorting, I thought it was my altenator as well then bought a new battery, it just ended up being a fuse

 

i looked at the ones under the dash and the hood and they all seem fine but ill go through them again.


[Modified by W.ZeroB18C1T, 11:15 AM 11/25/2002]

 

If you have the car amp install...check the grounding....mine did that..and drained the battery.

 

nope i dont have a amp and i just rechecked all my fuses there fine. does anyone else have any idea? or should i take it to a shop?

 

if both the alternator and battery were replaced and the fuses are good then it must be a short or bad connection somewhere. it sounds odd that it drains like it does.

does the battery drain between usage of the car? does it drain or have a low voltage while the car is running, even with the new alt. and batt.? and the motor still shuts off when you remove a batt. terminal?

though it was already mentioned, have you metered the voltage with the motor off and on to see if it stays steady or drains?

 

ok my battery is kinda low so i charged it a little to do that volt test, with the car off it reads 11.2 but with the car on it drops to 10.4 - 10.3, it jumps. now what should i do? remember that these are new parts i got. both battery and alternator. the thing that gets me is why the car cant stay on when i pull the terminal. seems like the alternator but it cant be.

 

an open circuit voltage of 11.2 volts is complete and utter crap for a 12v wet automotive battery. If it wont give you 12.4 or above after good trickle charging, then it's crap no matter how new it is. Course this does not mean that a new battery will not crap out soon after you slap it in. Find the problem that's killing the battery. What's your key off draw? What's your alternator full field output? Check all your fuses again and again. All the fuse blocks. Sounds like you could have shitty ground paths. Then again you could have one of many problems. You need to get more info or take it to a shop if you don't know how.

 

Pull the ground wire off and connect a test light in series. If it is on, you got a short, or some acc is on that is draining the batt. You can try pulling different fuses till your test light goes off.

 

My car has the same problem except it doesn want to start if you let it sit there for awhile.I have to crank it a couple times and then stop.I repeat that a couple of times and bam it starts.It gets like that if i leave it off for long.I dont have a stereo system let alone a stereo installed.

 

I had the same problem once. Mine was just a fuse.

 

A fuse will not cause a drain....it cant...not possible....you have a short somewhere, or a light is being left on, (trunk light, glove box, something)
Get a good mulitmeter and measure for how much current is being drawn when the car is off. If it is extremely low then you have something wrong with how the altenator is charging the system. If the system has no draw when the car is running you will have 14.4v, if you dont, then there is an altenator problem....

 

hey i had the same problem on my 92 civic. I replaced the battery twice, checked the alternator and turned out it was fine aswell. So i noticed that the battery ground was all rusted and croded. I sanded both ends down, removed all the rust and filed it down to a nice shine. Ever since that i had no problems with the battery what so ever.

You migh also have a drain while the car is off. Take voltmeter and connected it to the battery while the car is off. If it shows a drain then start to pull one fuse at a time form inside and outside the car. Every fuse u pull check the meter to see if the drain has stop(shows 000). When it shows zero, what ever fuse you pulled out was your problem.




[Modified by SpdFrk, 5:26 PM 1/27/2003]

 

its ammeter not voltmeter....and it may show very small amount current draw (the computer does draw a little, as do decks and clocks....but otherwise he is correct

 

thanks for the replys but the cars fix now

 

good to hear you got it working. just a side note....its not recommended AT ALL to remove the battery when the car is running since the alternator without a load (the battery) can produce voltages/spikes up to 40v or more which will easily damage the computer. just thought i'd throw that in for future reference.