I have a '96 Z and have been having issues with the battery lately or something draining the battery. I took the battery out and had it checked, good. When I charge the battery the car starts up and runs fine. If I let it sit for a few days the battery is dead, does the clicking noise, and wont even attempt to start. Stock stereo is in it, no amps or other sh*t to drain it, Any ideas????? My plan was to take a volt meter and start pulling fuses to find out what may be drawing power.

 

look up parasitic draw online and how to test for them
this will tell you if you have a **** battery or an actual draw on the battery

 

your alternator has probally bought the big one, you might want to check it.

 

The battery could have a dead cell...some will load test okay but not keep a charge...

test for the draw and see if it is an acceptable level (there is always a draw) if it is within tolerance then the battery or alt is the way to point the finger

 

my $$ is on the alternator.

seen it many times....

 

I say check the starter.

You said the battery checked out good.......Only cranks right after full charge.......Bad starter?

I went through this a year or two ago. Wouldn't crank - just click, unless I put the bat on the slow charge over night.

Check the starter or go buy one. The Corvette starter is a nice piece and works better with most headers as the solenoid is rotated toward the pan side. If you get the starter, just double check you'll have clearance with your headers (If you have headers).

-Scott.

 

ya i say the starter. one of my cars had that problem awhile back & turned out to be one of the starter wires was corroded to the point of hanging by a couple strands & broke apart when we took the starter out. so chech your wiring too....just a thought

 

Since our cars only have one control module (pcm), sounds like a bad cell in the battery. However, if you want to check for a parasitic draw, here's how:
Get a quick battery disconnect from harbor freight or your local tool supply. It is an inline between the negative battery harness and battery, with a *** that you rotate out to disconnect the harness to battery. Get a good meter and attach an end to either side of the disconnect and set the meter to milliamps. Manually disconnect the cable to battery. After about 5-20 min (I'm honestly not sure how long it takes for our PCM's to power down, but on current GM cars it's 20 min for all modules to power down), you should see no more than 20mA's. If you see more than that after 20 min, start pulling fuses one by one until you see the Amp draw drop. This will help you narrow down which circuit is killing your battery.

 

The best thing to do, if you have a digital voltmeter, is first start the car and put the leads on the battery to make sure that the battery is getting charged, should be around 14 volts. If that checks out good, the take off the negative terminal on the battery, put the voltmeter on amps, put on lead on the battery and the other lead on the terminal (making sure not to touch either the terminal and battery or the leads together) check for ignition off draw. With everything off in the car (including the key) amps should be no more than something like .2. If its more than your battery is being drained, so start pulling fuses. Keep watching the voltmeter while pulling fuses, and when you pull the right fuse, the amps will drop down. Then you know where your drain is coming from.

P.S. Disconect the negative terminal and put the leads on, and let it sit for awhile, may take a bit for the modules to power down.
P.S.S. Just realized that Redcamaro, already said that. Sorry for the repeat.

 

It seems a lot of people have this problem, including me. It also seems to me that there is a common culprit for most all of us. What have you found to be the cause of a problem like this?

 

s_willis, I've seen on the newer GM cars, radios, BCM's, RCDLR's, door modules, and PCM's that don't power down. On the newer cars though, you have to be careful you don't get burnt like I did once. Newer cars have what's called RAP, which controls the shutdown of all the modules. The shut down is started when the key is turned off and the driver's door (and sometimes passenger door) are opened. I had a driver's door lock actuator go bad on a '07 Tahoe, so every time you opened the door, the RAP shutdown never started, and it ended up killing the battery multiple times.

On our cars though we don't have to worry about this thank god . Really only 3 things that can cause a parasitic draw. PCM, radio, or alarm system (stock or aftermarket).....well actually 4 if you count a fan switch that you forget to turn off .

 

Back to basics. Did you check your battery liquid level?
If not and it is low, Add water to fill it.
This is a common fix for symptoms like yours.

 

Most batteries these days are maintenance free plug and play and should never need anything added. But if they do never add water. Add electrolyte.

 

Most are also lead acid...
http://www.progressivedyn.com/battery_basics.html
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