well the search archives is disable. So even though I'm a search junkie it's not helping me any at this point. here is the deal my civic is on storage for the past 2 years. I haven't messed with it at all!

*i got new battery form sears
*got new altenator for napa
-installed
*battery light went away
-I drove it for about a good 20 mintues everythings seems fine
-go home turn off all lights put in park.

Next moring the i try to start the car and nothing lights up..... SILENT
*took it to sears, they said it had a low charge.
*charged up and ready to go......
*installed into car and everything was great
*went home and shut of car
-took of positive and negative connections
**** next moring... same thing! Took it to SEARS and same thing(low-charge)

To my understanding i though that if the altenator was bad it would drain the car while it runing and the battery light would come on. what could it be? bad ground? altenator? battery not holding charge? ect?????

 

Maybe you have something on draining your cars battery when your turn it off. Hook up a test light and see if anything is draining the battery.

 

you can get the battery tested to see if holds a charge, or test your battery voltage right after driving to see if the alternator isn't recharging it.

maybe you just got a bad one.

 

I forgot to mention that this is my 2nd altenator for NAPA the first one was bad too.
*i did check with volt meter it was at 12v befor the 20 min drive and 12v after the driver!

how do i test if it is the altenator or battery?
how do i test if the battery is holding charge?

 

i never heard of that. how do i do it?

 

Do you have an alarm installed? Indiglo items that are hooked up to your battery? or a short circut somewhere? If not......I would take that alternator back to napa and get another one........It could be just bad luck.

 

You install a light between the postive wire, then you turn the car off and the light should turn off. If it stays on you have something thats always putting a drain on your system. To find out what is, keep pulling fuses to narrow down where the problem is, so if you pull the radio fuse and your light goes off, then you know where its comeing from.

 

yeah i have a viper alarm and it's not working..... could that be it?

 

didn't you say the battery died overnight even when you disconnected the wires?
Take it to checker...they can hook it up to a machine to test the charging system.

 

woah checker auto can to that? I'll call them.
yeah even if i let my battery sit on a leather sofa over night it will drain..... dain to where i have no idea


[Modified by Charlie Moua, 3:43 PM 3/28/2003]

 

it might be that the battery is bad, i know you said that its a new battery but when i worked at kragen, we had batterys come in the very same day that the people bought them that were completely dead and wouldnt hold a charge, it must just be when they go in and remanufacture them that something gets jacked up and that cause the battery not to recharge or even hold a charge for that matter, take it to checker and have them put it on their machine inside that will put a load on the battery and also throw a charge on it and test to see if it is even holding a charge. One of the deals inside the battery might be dead and thats why its not holding a charge for you, i would check that out and see what happens!!

 

well if you disconnected the battery and it still drained. its gotta be the battery, either that or the charging system and the cars basically just running off the alternator when its running.
and like someone else said, battery's can be bad from the start. I work at an autoparts store too, and even though it doesnt happen often, but sometimes the batteries can be bad from the start.

 

here is how to check the battery or alternator.
When the engine is not on check the voltage
should be at 12 v
when the engine is on, the voltmeter should read 14 volts
if it isn't reading 14 volts the alternator is bad
or if you're getting low volts when the engine is not on, the battery is bad

 

Take off the alarm!!!

It maybe your battery is two weak.
I had the same problem my battery was to weak to hold the charge.

Every night I unhook the battery and go to sleep. Sometimes next morn I turn on the car the battery dies battery two weak.. Replaced the battery everything works fine..

I test the dam battery at pep boys they said battery was OK even though it wasn't now no problems since the battery exchange..

Hope this helps to get ur SOB running...

 

how long does sears charge the battery? when the battery is completely dead it has to be charged for atleast a whole day on a slow charge.if thats the case all their doing is warming up ur battery for a couple of hours and not charging ur battery completely.what their probably thinking is to charge ur battery for a couple of hours, then letting ur alternator charge it up complete.but theres no way u could do that on a real dead battery, it could also be a dead cell.

 

SHONNYS92SI that is incorrect information there is charging systems that can charge a dead battery in 40 minutes, i work at an auto part store that has one,it is a really heavy duty unit that does it in 40 minutes COMPLETELY charged not a whole day

 

yeah i forgot to tell you i have a DIEhard home battery charger too.
OK i when to sears and got a volt metter tester and a Circute tester w/ light thingie attached.

anyone know how to use this?

 

ok...heres the scoop.... It ended up to be the relay for the rear deforster. It kept staying on and drianing my batter. It cost me $175 to get it fix at honda....

man this sucks i could of gotten my camgears!

 

I wonder how the hell you can find a problem like that??? Ai chiwawa, where the hell is the relay for the rear defroster?

 

easy way to find problems like this. What you do is go to the fuse box. Turn the car completely off. Take a multimeter, and run it across the different fuse blocks in the fuse box. ground and power, and jump the fuse wiht the multimeter and you can check it wiht ohms, or voltage. If you have an OL then you have high resistence, which is draining the battery. Then you just go and search the entire circuit till you find a bad relay, short to ground, short to volatage, or open somewhere.. But most likely, like the cause, the relay was just bad, and you find it and substitute a known good relay and it takes about an hour to fix.

 

i have same problem. but I found my drain is some where on the brakelight circut. Still to find the bad ground or positive