i bought a new battery cause i thought the old wasnt catching charge no more but now this new battery is dead too, i have no alternator light or codes and when i give the car a jump it never goes off? wtf i did relocate my battery to the back but i dont see why that should trouble it. have an ideads to why the battery is dying?


Modified by TIRENECK at 4:48 PM 12/12/2003

 

eirther something is draining it.. (not likely) or your alternator is putting out to much of a charge.. i recently had one do that on one of my cars.. the regulaer went out.. when i would take off one off the battery terminals the lights on the car would get really bright.. thats an easy way to test it.. or go down to your local autozone they will test it for free

 

I would check all grounds and also do what he said above and take it in and have them test the altenator. Just cause you dont have any lights doesnt necessarily mean that the altenator is good mine went out and I had no clue except for a dead battery.

 

check the voltage at the fuse box where the alt line come in (closest to the battery), and across the battery while its running and of course directly at the alternator. should all be 14.5. if not, then you got a voltage drop somewhere and its not enough voltage to charge the battery, but enough to run the car. i just had this problem with a electrical system kill switch and my switch was sucking over 1V of power. the charge warning light wont go on if the alt is fine and you got a voltage drop somewhere else.

 

You could have something called Parasitic Load...



That is for Toyotas but its the same for every car.

 

i had something like that happen to me, i had a battery then it shorted out, then i got a battery from my dad camaro and a week later that shorted out and also my car was dying when it came to a stop and my alt gauge was dropping when i stoped, so i ran another wire from my alt to my battery and its all good now

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JonGP4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> when i would take off one off the battery terminals the lights on the car would get really bright.. thats an easy way to test it.. or go down to your local autozone they will test it for free</TD></TR></TABLE>

I wouldnt recommend dooing that.....pulling the batt when the alternator is charging isnt good for the voltage regulator as the batter acts as load for the alternator.


OK BUDDY, do the following and post your results and then we can help you: (its pretty much whats in that picture above

1 - Get voltmeter
2 - Install fresh battery in car
3 - Start engine
4 - Check voltage across battery terminals and then kill the motor (dont take too long to do this, since if the alt is overcharging it wont be great for the battery...mind you the alt light should come on if it overcharges)

5 - Make sure nothing is using electricity (I.E. lights taht are on in the car or other)
6 - Disconnect one of the battery leads
7 - Set the voltmeter on AMPS (Start on a high scale and drop progressively if necessary)
8 - Measure the current by connecting 1 lead from the voltmeter to the batt and the other to the disconnected cable.

Come back with both measured values.

The voltage will help diagnose a charging problem
The amps will help diagnose a possible power drain while the car is sitting (I.E. short in the system)

 

There are 2 things to consider here. First as everyone says-test the alternator on the car with a voltmeter. The CRX uses a device called ELD in the MAIN fuse box to control output. Normally the battery should read 12.7 volts with the engine running or OFF. Under charge the battery voltage should go up to 14.1-14.4 volts. Honda designed the charging system to operate under very specific conditions with the ELD. DO get the alternator tested at a shop anyway.
You mention that the battery was relocated. If you do not use cable that is at least #4 gauge you will not charge properly and you will induce a voltage drop due to the resistance of the wire. Check that the grounds are solid to the chassis from the battery itself.
If you want to look at current draw and Ammeter is needed. I doubt that you have a hidden load. The way your car is set up will be a factor in whether there are any loads running with the Ignition turned completely off. The Ammeter will tell you this.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jc836 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">There are 2 things to consider here. First as everyone says-test the alternator on the car with a voltmeter. The CRX uses a device called ELD in the MAIN fuse box to control output. Normally the battery should read 12.7 volts with the engine running or OFF. Under charge the battery voltage should go up to 14.1-14.4 volts. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Woah this is news to me. You're saying it wont charge all the time? I've never seen anything but big *** fuses in the main fuse box. Please elaborate if you acn....I wanna learn about this

As for the lower ga wire inducing a voltage drop....I'm not too sure about that, during charge the battery _might_ be getting 10 amps, 12 ga can handle that without an appreciable loss in voltage. Its during starting that the low ga would be apparent as there is no way in hell 12 ga can handle the ammount of amps pulled by the starter.

I guess what I'm saying is that a high ga shouldnt affect his charging as much as his starting (Unless the battery was dead to start with)

 

thx for the help testing today, im gettin tired of pushing that bitch.

 

This happened to me when I bought my hatch. It was draining the battery every night. I put in a battery cut off and just flipped the switch at night. Then one day I was working on my and noticed all these wires coming out of my stereo. Long story short I pulled the wires that the previous owner had put in there. After that no drained battery. I was going to say check grounds, etc. But these guys got me beat with there writing up abilities. Good work guys.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Destroyer24Seven &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">one day I was working on my and noticed all these wires coming out of my stereo. Long story short I pulled the wires that the previous owner had put in there. After that no drained battery. I was going to say check grounds, etc. But these guys got me beat with there writing up abilities. Good work guys. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Same thing happened to me. Couldn't figure out what was draining my battery, but it turned out to be the radio wires were touching the metal and draining the battery. No problems since then.