So my battery keeps dying. I thought I had a defective battery so I upgraded to an Optima yellow top. But it is still dying when I leave the car sit for more than a day. I measured the current through the positive terminal with the car off, and measure 33 milliamps. That seems a little high, but reasonable to me but does anyone know for sure if that is high?

 

How do you know its the battery? Maybe the engine is flooding?

 

try and pull fuses to see what the power draw is......

have you wired in anything straight through...like a gauge with a light, electronics of some kind etc...not on the IGN switch??

 

33 mA is a little high. i think i read somewhere about the navigation unit causing an amperage draw. do what dannobre said and start pulling fuses one by one and see if the amp reading drops.

*edit* i just noticed you have some aftermarket audio stuff installed. double check with that first. start with the obvious.

 

Take your car to the dealer. It's the starter + plugs.

This happened to me and ALL the dealers are aware of this problem.

They will get you a new starter + spark plugs. No battery since this is an aftermarket one you bought.

There is a thread with this issue.

Good luck
Carlos

 

do you have nav????? as said before there has been a problem with drain on one or to.

also to troubleshoot i would disconnect you aftermarket amps and the like and measure bat drain again.

beers

 

My first thought was it being related to the stereo, so I already tried disconecting it. But it didn't seem to help. I don't have navigation so that can't be it. It is definitely a dead battery, once I charge it up its fine until I let it sit for a couple days. What exactly is the problem with the starter and plugs?

I thought about pulling each fuse and measuring the individual current draws, except a total draw of 33ma doesn't really seem high enough to me to be causing my battery to die after only a couple days. Especially being a larger optima yellow top.

 

Have you done the obvious and closed the trunk?

 

yea,

go lock and set the alarm with your remote if the lights dont flash the trunk is open. or you could just slam it.

beers

 

This has been going on for a while, which is why I bought the new battery but the alarm has definitely been arming I always check for the flashing lights, so I don't think its the trunk. I'll go out and double check just to be sure. Keep the ideas coming though.

 

The baseline battery drain is 20 mA, so your 33mA is a bit higher, but not enough to account for your problem. Make sure you are checking the drain correctly. Check the battery cables and grounding wires also.

 

well one thing I'm considering is maybe its not a drain thats killing it, maybe the alternator isn't charging the battery properly. Or maybe the battery terminals aren't making a good connection.

 

Those are certainly things to check first, but don't discount the possibility that your new battery is faulty. I've heard good and bad things about Optimas, so they are like any other manufactured component, they can be DOA right off the manufacturing line. Disconnect the negative battery cable, use a battery charger to fully charge the battery and see if the battery dies or the voltage drops drastically in a few days. Or have a shop properly check it under load for you.

 

Do you charge it and then let it sit, or charge it, and then drive it before letting it sit?

I agree 33ma should not drain a healthy battery in a day or two. 33ma for 2 days is not quite 1.6 amp-hours. Your battery probably has over 50 amp-hours capacity.

Several possibilities

1 - charging system malfunction (lack of charge, or damages battery with overvoltage)

2 - bad battery

3 - dark current is excessive. You measured at 33ma, but maybe there is a higher draw that is intermittent.

4 - double-check the scale on your meter.

 

my battery is dead too, is it okay to charge it when it is hooked up or will I screw up some computer logic? Also I was planning to put it on a trickle charge as it will be off the road till april. We have snow on the road and nasty gravel

 

Not a problem charging the battery while it is in the car and connected. Best to use a trickle charge as you mention and if you want to leave the charger connected, get a maintenance charger. Personally, I have a Schumacher maintenance charger that has a quick connect/disconnect pigtail that you can leave connected to the battery. I don't leave the charger connected to the battery, although it is intended for that purpose. Rather, I plug in the charger once a week or so to just top off the charge.