My girlfriend's 89 Honda Accord has a battery drain, I have to unhook the battery at night or it will be dead in the morning. Alternator has been replaced two or three times. My only clue is that this happened after a slight fender bender.. tap, then this started happening. Anyone have any ideas? If I put a test light between the positive cable and the battery it should not light right.. is the regulator external.. if so then I doubt it has been changed, but would a bad regulator cause it to drain? HELP! Thanks, Sean

 

So you're using the test light kinda like an ammeter? Then it shouldn't light if everything in the car is turned off. While you have the light hooked up like that, start pulling fuses. Hope you find one that makes the test light go out. Then you've found which circuit has somthing that doesn't turn off when you think it's off.

Trunk light doesn't turn off when you close the trunk? Stereo amplifier that doesn't turn off? Some wire shorted to ground after the fender-bender?

 

Jim, yes.. using it like a poor man's amp meter lol. I didnt think it was supposed to light. I actually got so far as to pull fuses one by one and found when I pull a particular fuse the test light goes out. I has been a while, I cant remember which fuse it was lol. I will have to do it again. Thanks, if I cant figure it out I will post back.. or post back when I find it. Thanks again.. Sean

 

Jim or anyone that wants to jump in.. one last question.. is there anything that drains a battery overnite that is a common or cronic problem with the 89 honda accord.. such as trunk light, regulator etc.. ?

Sean

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by honda_heather &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Jim, yes.. using it like a poor man's amp meter lol. I didnt think it was supposed to light. I actually got so far as to pull fuses one by one and found when I pull a particular fuse the test light goes out. I has been a while, I cant remember which fuse it was lol. I will have to do it again. Thanks, if I cant figure it out I will post back.. or post back when I find it. Thanks again.. Sean</TD></TR></TABLE>Yes you will have to do that again. Which fuse is the first step in finding what's doing it. You got that close to figuring it out - but then you didn't follow up? Find that fuse & list everything that's on it.

I suppose if you pull that fuse overnight, your battery will be OK in the morning. That would rule out another common problem. A battery going bad will sometimes discharge itself internally. Then it's not the car's fault.