new battery,newalternator and belt, keeps draining battery

palmster · Post by **palmster** » 12 Apr 2006, 13:41

We replaced battery, alternator and alternator belt, car will run fine for a few days and then go to start and sounds like battery is dead, get a jump car starts right up. Same happened yesterday, got a jump and on the way home at night not even my head lights would work - what could this be?

wojeepster · Post by **wojeepster** » 12 Apr 2006, 15:46

measure the battery voltage before starting, should be around 12v. Now start car and measure battery voltage should be around 13.4-14.5v if it is then you charging system is ok and you have a drain on your battery. You can hook up an ammeter in series with the battery and pull one fuse at a time until you find the culprit. If you voltage is not at 13,4+when running you still have an alternator/ wiring problem. Let us know what you find.

palmster · Post by **palmster** » 13 Apr 2006, 07:43

Someone told us to try and return the battery and replace with a new one maybe the battery was a bad one - did this last night - ok so far we'll see in a couple days if it happens again. Thanks

petershen1984 · Post by **petershen1984** » 20 May 2006, 23:44

Here's a fun one I read about but never really tried. Disconnect the negative battery cable, and attach an electrometer between this and the battery. In this way you can measure the current draw of the complete car circuit and isolate the cause.