Lee3333

In December, my car would not start one morning. I boosted it and took it to the dealer. They charged the car for about 4 hours, tested the battery, and said it was fine. I had no problems for the next few weeks, then had my accident. The car was at the body shop for 5 weeks, where they moved it around. The car died at least once (radio stations had to be reset). I picked up the car Friday night. Saturday morning, the battery was dead. I boosted it, and it was fine all day, starting with out any problems. Sunday morning, it was dead again. Same for Monday morning. I called the dealer and they told me that the battery needed to be fully charged, and that would not happen by just driving it. I bought a manual 6 amp charger from Strauss (the best they had) and charged it. 3 days later, battery dead again. I recharged, and after a few days the car was cranking slow. I took back the charger and got the best Sears DieHard charger they had-2 amp trickle, 10 amp charge, and 50 amp starting with auto shut down. I charged until green light came on. A few days later, car started slow, so I charged again, then left it on trickle for a few extra hours. Several days later, car needed to be boosted again. I called the dealer, and told him I needed a new battery. When they got the car, they said that the battery needed to be charged before they could test it. I told them that I just fully charged it 10 minutes ago, and only drove 5 miles to their shop. 3 hours later, I told them I had to leave. The battery was only about 90% charged, but they checked it on their '$800' machine and it said the battery was good. They told me that my charger was not capable of completely charging the battery like theirs could (BS story?). Anyhow, that was 5 days ago on Tuesday. On Friday, the car seemed to be starting a little slow. I did not use the car Saturday or Sunday (family all sick). But at about 9 PM I unlocked my car to put some papers inside, and when I went to lock it, the horn would not beep even though I pressed the fob twice. I tried to start it, and the battery was so dead that it would not release the key. I am charging it up right now, but concerned on what the dealer will tell me. I am hoping there is nothing draining the battery when the car is off. I have installed several things that are not running unless I turn them on (GPS, extra map light), I replaced the factory stereo but am still using the amp that came with the premium package. I did switch to Sirius, and I know that is on all of the time but it should be minimal drain. I also added an amp for the subwoofer, but it is small (200 watt) and only on with the stereo. But dealers are notorious for placing the blame on ANYTHING added by the consumer. I would put my own battery in, but I want to be sure nothing is draining it.
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Does anybody believe that a Sears Diehard charger is not adequate to fully charge the battery, and that only an industrial cart-type charger is able to do the job? How can I insist on them giving me a battery when their stupid meter won't give them a code?

GDZHHR

I happen to think our batteries run down baddly. I left one of those things you plug into the ligher to replace the cig lighter. You'd think it would draw litlle power. I parked my car for two days without driving it and the battery was dead! It doesn't seem to take much to run it down. There may be a chance that the sirius could be running it down. I still think it would take a couple days.

Sounds like time to go to a new dealer. Hope ya get it worked out. I looking into getting a yellow-top.

Snoopy

Can you trade out a different battery, temporarily, even for a long overnight. If that battery goes "dead" then something is drawing power. But, I think your battery has a bad cell.

Lee3333

Problem is we use an unusual battery. I believe it calls for reverse terminals. I looked into the Optima yellow top-but they only have limited sizes, and they appear to be too tall to fit in the compartment.

Lee3333

I forgot to mention the other thing the dealer said. The battery will never fully charged when it is cold-so it has to be done indoors.

Anyhow, I charged the battery to about 80% last night, then at 6:45 AM checked it today. It was down to 20%. The car was never started, so the problem is not with the alternator not charging the car when I am driving. Instead, there is either something draining the battery, or it is not holding a charge. My guess is that it is the battery.

hhrmajesty

Not very scientific, but this might help. Do this when as dark as possible. Pull the fuses for the ECM/PCM. With everything off in the vehicle (all lights, etc.) Disconnect the negative terminal and tap it to the post while looking for a small spark. If you see any kind of spark, there is something someplace drawing power. You can then disconnect circuits or your accessory items one at a time and test again. When you disconnect one and it doesn't spark you have found the source of the drain. This is assuming the battery is in fact good. BTW...the dealer is feeding you a line of BS (IMO). The electronic consumer battery chargers are up to the task of charging your batter just fine.

solman98

Take it to Advance to Auto Zone and have them load test it.

But I can tell you that you have a bad battery. I've seen enough of those while working on the other side of the parts counter to know the signs. Dealer is just stalling. To be honest, I would not put a Delco back in it. Delco's suck plain and simple.

number47

Sounds like the battery isn't holding its charge. Bad battery...

But, the easy and sure way to check to see if you have a draw somewhere in your system is to disconnect the ground cable on the battery, then clipping the ground of a test light to the cable, and placing the test light's probe on the negative battery terminal. Do this at night, and look at the test light. If there is ANY power being drawn, the test light will light up. The reason i say to check a night is that a small draw will barely light it, so you need to be able to check in total darkness.

IF you do have a draw, have a friend pull the fuses, one at a time, while you watch the test light. When the light goes out, you've found the circuit that had a power draw on it.....

Mach2

Everyone is on the right track, but the test light is not the best way to go about this. Fully charge the battery, then disconnect the negative terminal. Connect a 10Amp ammeter between the negative terminal on the battery and the negative battery cable. Set the meter up so you can see it from inside the car. Now close the hatch, get in the car and close all the doors so the dome lights go out. Read how much current is being drawn from the battery. If the meter reads more than 5mA (0.005 amps), you have a problem and should proceed to pull fuses one at a time to find the cuplrit.

Some of the electronics from GM go into a stand-by mode and draw very little power (less than 1mA each). Items include the body control module (so it can wake-up when you press the remote buttons), the radio (so it can wake-up and play chimes), etc.

FYI - Does your car have OnStar? The OnStar module "wakes-up" about every 30 minutes to register with the call center. This is when the car gets its commands from the call center to unlock the doors or flash the lights when it is off. This only happens for less than a minute, but during that time it can draw 300mA to 1000mA while it is making a phone call (the average current draw over a 1 month period is still less than 1mA). If you get a high reading on your ammeter like this and you have OnStar. Wait a few minutes and take another reading.

Lee3333

I went to the dealer yesterday morning and was told that it would be at least a two hour wait before they could check my car for anything draining the battery. They said to avoid the wait, get there when they open and they would take me right away (at 7 AM). I decided to check it myself today, just to make sure if there was a problem that it was nothing I did. I got a reading of .26mA, which is well within the limits.

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Just to be sure, though, I pulled each of my accessories (easy to do-everything is tied into 4 fuses) with no change, then I pulled every fuse in both boxes with no effect. So I guess it is the battery.

But, I have been checking the battery, and it seems to be holding it's charge ok now. Could be just from the cold weather. Now I have to decide if I want to spend the bucks for a better battery, or hassle and spend time at the dealer to get a new Delco. I am a little nervous about the Optima-all of their sizes are taller than standard, and I heard that the gel in their battery makes it more difficult to charge and jump start. What other brands are recommended? Used to be DieHard was rated best.