Ok you guys know i usualy dont ask for help or anything but this one has me stumped. For the last several months I have had something slowly draining my battery. So im going to start from the begining.

About 5-6 months ago I installed my glow gauges. Well about a week after I installed them I went to start the car and the battery was dead. I jumped it with my jump box and let it run for about a hour to charge the battery. Cut it off and cranked it back up to see if the battery too the charge. Well the next day the battery was dead again. So this time i pulled it and put it on the charger in hold mode at 5 amps and let it charge over night. The next morning i verified the voltage with a volt meter and all was good. it read 12.6 volts. Put it back in the car and the next day it was dead again. So at this point i was assuming that it was the glow gauges. But they were hooked to the headlights brown wire at the switch. Well i took them back out and charged the battery the same way over night and put it back in the car. The next morning it was dead again.

This brought me to the conclusion that the battery might have a dead cell. So i took it to advance auto parts and had them test it and my alt. Turns out that it was a dead cell. It was only taking 14 cold cranking amps. Well I bought one of there "gold series" batterys and all was good for 3 days. Then it started acting the same way. Every morning it was dead. So i took it back and it checked out fine. So I began checking the grounds and power wires in the engine bay. all the grounds were ting and free of corrosion. i did loosen them and clean them with sand paper any way just to be sure. Then i checked the power leads going to the starter for worn places or any signs of arching or anything that could cause a power drain. I found nothing that could be causing the power drain.

So then i began the tedious task of checking every connection and wire in the engine bay for damage or any sign of damage/ corrosion. Once again nothing. So about a month goes by and i was too busy to mess with the car. Well the battery was dead the whole time. So saturday I tryed to charge it. Well it wouldnt take a charge . I take it to advance and they offer a exchange but i just tell them to give me a red top optima and ill pay the diffrence. susprisingly they did it. All was fine untill monday when i went to crank the car and move it. Guess what the battery is dead again. So I start tracing wires in the interrior. I unplug every switch and unplug the cd player. I check the wires under the carpet and everything. I cant find anyreason for these batterys to keep dieing. So with everything unplugged I charge the battery and put it back in and today the battery is dead again.

Does anyone have any idea what could be cauding this? Im at my whits end trying to source this problem.

 

I might try this... when you're done driving for the day, disconnect the battery. When you get ready to drive the next day, reconnect the battery. After a few days of this routine, if the battery stays OK, then I'd say there's a short somewhere in the wiring. But if the battery still goes bad, then I think there's a problem with the charging system (I know you had your alternator tested, but... ??)

 

have you had the alternator tested yet? I had a simular problem in my cutlass and ihe diode in the alt. went bad and allowed the battery di discharge overnite,every night.

 

yea the alt checks out fine.

Side note: I may be in flint in the next few weeks to visit a old friend.

 

I've seen alternators test OK at an auto parts store, but still have a problem. It could be putting out "noise" or quick spikes in addition to its normal DC output voltage. If bad enough, these could definitely kill a battery over a few days. It would take an oscilloscope connected to the alternator's output to check for something like this.

 

Ill charge the battery and disconnect the alt and see if that fixes it

 

get a volt meter, connect it in series with the battery and check for drain. i think about .050 amps is too much. start pulling fuses and when the drain goes down, you have will have a good idea where it is.

 

thanks ill try that too