Dead battery question...

[turnpike]

The doors were off my car for about a month with the battery hooked up so I could move it while putting the new doors on. I took the dome lightbulb out so it wouldn't drain my battery but when I tried to start the car the battery was dead!? What else would drain the battery over a 25 to 30 day period?

The car has sat for that long in the past and had no problems and started fine with a jump.

The battery is not new but it's not old either.

[85snake]

man, it could be anything. to try to find it you do whats called a paracitic drain test. this tells you if the car is giving voltage to something. what you do is disconnect the neg battery terminal and take a voltmeter and put the pos lead on the cable and the neg lead on the neg battery pole. the reading on the voltmeter is your paracitic drain. It shoudnt be much, maybe 20 or 30 mv just to run your radio and clock memory or if you hava a alarm it will be more. If it is start pulling fuses until the drain goes away, that will give you an idea of what it is then just use elimination to find it.

[turnpike]

I got the battery tested and it turns out that it had kicked the bucket. Good thing was it still had some warrenty left so they reduced the price of my new battery by about 40%. Not bad considering I was the original buyer for the battery (it came with the car).

[Zap's 85 GT]

Mercury switch in the hood for the light? Have a hatch compartment light?

[turnpike]

No hatch compartment light on my car.

I'm going to do the paracitic drain test today to see if there is a bigger problem then a dead battery. (thanks for telling me how to do it 85snake)

[turnpike]

85snake, I followed the instructions you gave me for the paracitic drain but I'm not getting readings of 20 to 30 mv but 12.4 volts

Does this mean that my car is pulling a full 12 volts when off Or could this just be a reading of the battery

[turnpike]

OK, I've reviewed all the fuses and found that the owner before me had some odd fuses installed. Several were sitting in unused slots and some were incorrect (radio had a 7.5 fuse instead of 15).

I removed them one by one and did the paracitic drain test but got the same reading on my volt meter each time (12.5).

I also had one blown fuse, for the map and dome light. I replaced it and my dome light started to work again but when I tried my map light the fuse cooked again. There must be a short in my map light, I guess.

One other thing, i removed the power window fuse since my new doors do not have the powe option.

[85snake]

Let me check that out, thats how i remember it but i havent done in a few years

Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 9:19 am Post subject:

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85snake, I followed the instructions you gave me for the paracitic drain but I'm not getting readings of 20 to 30 mv but 12.4 volts

Does this mean that my car is pulling a full 12 volts when off Or could this just be a reading of the battery

[Eric86GT]

Change from Volts to Amps and everything should be OK.

[85snake]

Im sorry, I meant ma not mv. when you hook it up you should have between 25-75ma.

also here is a site about it I just found
http://www.exide.com/products/trans/...sitic_load.pdf
hope this helps.

[turnpike]

Thanks for the help