Ok. If my 94 Z sits for more than 1 day or sometimes 2 then I turn my key to a dead battery. I got the battery bench tested and it is fine. Also drove the car to the same auto parts store and they pluged it up while running and tested the charging system and its supposed to be fine. They told me nothing is wrong.

The battery does not loose juice when it sits overnight out of the car but it does if its connected to the car. Any thoughts on what is draining my battery or what my first step should be to find out what it could be. I havnt left any constant power switched on overnight...of course and no recent modifications.

Your thoughts on where to start testing?

 

Hook up a meter inline with a battery cable to read amps. Observe reading while you pull fuses.

 

Thanks. Are these meter lines something that I can pick up at a pats store? How much should I plan on spending? Like most people, I got a few in my neighborhood. So I assume that the way it works is, when you pull the fuse from the problem area then the meter will go up because that area will not constantly be pulling juice?

 

You need to buy a Multimeter from the Auto Parts store. A cheap one will work. The instruction that come with it, show how to hook it up for Amps reading.
Once hooked up the meter will read "X" amps, (maybe 7 or 10 what ever), when you pull the offending fuse it will read less amps, (maybe 0 or 1/2).
Then you need to find out whats failed, down stream, of the fuse. If you don't get an amps drop then the short is, up stream, between the bat. and the fuse box.

 

I had a similiar issue, but it ended up being the connection to the battery. The connection at the terminal was somewhat loose and would allow the car to start and then at other times it would not. I tightened them up pretty good and haven't had an issue since. Just something to check out....other than that using a multimeter would be the next step.

 

The first thing to suspect in draining the battery is anything that was ADDED electrically. Particularly what I refer to as Big Thumping Amps. These things go bad all the time and begin to draw power even when they are off.

When using an Am-meter don't fall into the trap of a blown fuse within the meter. If the meter's fuse is blown, you will see 0 amp draw which is what you want to see in this case. Then because of that, you go on looking else where. All the while, missing the actual problem.

To connect the meter, pull off one of the cables from the battery and put the meter between the battery cable and the battery.

 

I do have a amp. Its only a 250 watt amp and it pushed a single 10" sub. It has been installed for about 6 months but I havnt had a battery issue until about a week ago. The amp still works fine. I will definetly keep this idea in mind. Thanks for the idea.

 

Ive had this problem twice with my car. First was the console light, the switch wasnt going in far enough to turn the light off so it would stay on and drain the battery. I only found it by gettin in the car at night and it caught my eye. Second time was same way but with the glove box light. That was 3 weeks ago now all i did was pull the bulb since i dont use the box and rarely even drive the car. She is still staying charged. So definally check all your lights at night, and id also unhook the power to the amp just to take that out of the picture.

 

you can use a test light rather than a multimeter, thats what i always use because it is easier. just disconnect the negative battery terminal and hook one side to the battery and one side to the terminal. close the doors and turn off the key and let the car sit for a few minutes so the accesory delay relay shuts off, then pull fuses until you see the light either go out or get considerably dimmer