This is just getting frustrating......car dead again

[Catwood]

ok.....after about 1 week in the garage...maybe 9 days the car is dead. Dead dead dead. Doors won't open, turn the key on nothing...it's as though the battery is out of the car.

I tested the current draw a couple of weeks ago and the car pulls .170A.

When I hooked up the charger today it only pulled about an Amp...charger will put out 6 Amps.

Based on the last few times the car will fire up tonight as though nothing was wrong.

So what's suspect....Battery which is fairly new (6 to 8 months) or electrical system in the car?

My plan is to pull the battery the weekend and have it bench tested first.

Carl

 

[RPHJR]

Are you sure the power is making it to the starter? I had this EXACT thing happen once with a Corvette I owned. Turned out the clutch "safety" switch was shot. Just a thought... good luck..

 

[Catwood]

Something is draining the battery. Once I hookup the charger I get the ignition lights to come on and the dome light lites but is very dim. current shoots up a few Amps at that point but goes back to 1 Amp once I shut it back down.

Carl

 

[Russ M]

I doubt its something electrical.

Maybe the alarm acting up when it gets power.

 

[Catwood]

Does the alarm set with the car unlocked?

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Get a battery tender if you can...it will help to keep it charged while it's parked.

 

[Gerald Levin]

I had the exact thing happen to my Dodge truck. Dead, dead and dead. AFTER I bought a new battery for replacement, while I was doing the install, I discovered the neg clamp was on the battery but was loose. After tightening it up, everything was fine. Unlikely your problem, but check to make sure the clamps on the battery posts are snug.

 

[Joseph Dell]

What battery did you replace with? some of the batteries are funny... like if an optima battery is grounding out or if the terminals have been cut to fit. but I don't really know much more about batteries than this...

JD

 

[Ulysses]

The alarm does not set with the car unlocked. BUT, if you set the alarm and it drains the battery dead, the doors will unlock.

 

[Catwood]

What battery did you replace with? some of the batteries are funny... like if an optima battery is grounding out or if the terminals have been cut to fit. but I don't really know much more about batteries than this...

JD

I went through two Optima's cutting the terminals not believing it would matter before I put in the standard Costco lead acid battery that is made to fit.

 

[Catwood]

I'll check that when I pull the battery to test. The positive terminal was a little loose when I check the current draw on the car a few weekends ago. I spent some time making sure it was tight with new hardware. I guess it would be possible but not sure how that cause this.

Carl

 

[BigCarrot]

Mine was doing the same thing. Drain drain drain... Cudaman Ward told me about a little switch that's on the back of the tumbler in the glovebox that broke on his car. It cost $14 and fixed my TERRIBLE headache!

 

[Achilles99]

The alarm does not set with the car unlocked. BUT, if you set the alarm and it drains the battery dead, the doors will unlock.

I had drained the battery on my car (left lights on), but the doors did not unlock. I had to pull the emergency release by reaching through the hatch.

 

[Ulysses]

hmmm. totally different experience with me. Left alarm on, not hooked up to tender for a week. Battery completely dead and the doors came unlocked.

 

[Mopar Steve]

Is the underhood switch depressed fully? Are you leaving the hood open? If the switch uder the hood is not fully depressed it will pull the type voltage you are describing.

 

[Catwood]

I checked current draw on the car with a power supply from work. With the battery disconnected the car pulled 170 milliamps at 12 volts. That level of current draw shouldn't kill the battery in a week...it shouldn't kill it in a month. It was the same with the hood up and the hood closed. The several times the battery has died while parked in the garage the hood has been closed.

At aobut 7 last night I went out to check the charger. It was pulling 2 amps. Got in the car and it started right up. Voltage gauge went to the normal position. Shut it off and looked at the charger which was not at 2.5 amps.

I don't see how a charger putting out 2 amps can recharge a totally dead battery in 12 hours.

I still planning on pulling the battery tomorrow and having it tested.

Carl

 

[David Weaver]

I checked current draw on the car with a power supply from work. With the battery disconnected the car pulled 170 milliamps at 12 volts. That level of current draw shouldn't kill the battery in a week...it shouldn't kill it in a month.

.

Carl

Dodge says 70 milliamps should be MAXIMUM draw. Anything over that is considered, by Dodge, to be excessive. Leave your ammeter on the car for about 15 miutes to give the modules time to "time out" or rather go into "sleep mode" where they draw no current (most noteable the EEM). I recently had an RT10 here in the dealership with a similar problem as yours. I had close to the same draw as you do. I found the amp was shorted internally causing the draw. I pulled the fuse out of the side of the amp and the draw fell to 30 milliamps.


DW

 

[Catwood]

Interesting...I thought 170 mA was good as I feared a higher draw. I had the power supply hooked up for a long time. 170 was after the drop down, it was 200 mA prior to that. After I check the battery I'll retest using the power supply assuming nothing wrong with the battery. Although I'm sure this deep cycling will shorten the life of the battery.

Carl

 

[Catwood]

Drove it to work today....didn't miss a beat.....

~13.8 volts the whole way

 

[Catwood]

Mine was doing the same thing. Drain drain drain... Cudaman Ward told me about a little switch that's on the back of the tumbler in the glovebox that broke on his car. It cost $14 and fixed my TERRIBLE headache!

Carrot...I missed your post. Between the seats, right? I wonder if I f'd something up when I installed the belts in August for Willow. I had the panel out then and I think it's only been since then.......

What's the switch do?

Carl

 

[BigCarrot]

Yeah, mine started having the same problem when I took that panel off to do my nitrous install. Apparently that switch is fragile. It might be worth looking at since it's so damn cheap. It has to do with the alarm system.

 

[TexasTonka]

Mine was doing the same thing. Drain drain drain... Cudaman Ward told me about a little switch that's on the back of the tumbler in the glovebox that broke on his car. It cost $14 and fixed my TERRIBLE headache!

I know this is an old thread but my car dies in a week and no one can tell me why.

Had a custom sound system installed and ever since factory alarm will not work and car battery dead in a week. No one can find any issues?

 

[costanZo]

I know this is an old thread but my car dies in a week and no one can tell me why.

Had a custom sound system installed and ever since factory alarm will not work and car battery dead in a week. No one can find any issues?

I also have a custom sound system installed. Never checked after the install tho if the alarm still worked...interesting, because right now my alarm doesnt work, not sure if it was from frying my PCM last year and the whole car being reset wasnt configured right with the alarm, or if all this time the alarm hasnt worked because of the sound system too....I'll have to find out. Anyway, my car always dies within 5 days if it's not on a tender. I'm getting this looked into this summer, although I was told disconnecting the hood switch plug up near the passenger side headlight would solve this issue.

 

[Jack B]

I checked current draw on the car with a power supply from work. With the battery disconnected the car pulled 170 milliamps at 12 volts. That level of current draw shouldn't kill the battery in a week...it shouldn't kill it in a month. It was the same with the hood up and the hood closed. The several times the battery has died while parked in the garage the hood has been closed.

At aobut 7 last night I went out to check the charger. It was pulling 2 amps. Got in the car and it started right up. Voltage gauge went to the normal position. Shut it off and looked at the charger which was not at 2.5 amps.

I don't see how a charger putting out 2 amps can recharge a totally dead battery in 12 hours.

I still planning on pulling the battery tomorrow and having it tested.

Carl

A little insight, a dead battery is one that is at 85% voltage. If you take a battery below 80-85% of nominal the battery it will never recover to a like new state.

i will look at my car on Monday and see was the steady state discharge is. On another one of my cars (Solstice), it is about 50-60 mA. On most cars the steady state discharge is higher when you just shut it off, it then comes down substantially. Your .17 amps for 14 days is almost 60 amp-hours, that will result in a substantial voltage drop.

 

[Steve-Indy]

My 1997 Viper Servive Manual states that the Ignition Off Draw should not exceed 30 milliamps, noting the 2001 Manual says 35 milliamps is the upper limit.

 

[justingeer82]

this is the easiest method of identifying a parasitic loss in a vehicles electricial system. you need a meter that can read through amperage. pull a fuse out of the block and use the leads in place of the fuse. if you see nothing put fuse back in and check another.

for those of you with upgraded sound systems i believe your alarm system isnt working due to the current signature it senses. the alarms work by seeing a current draw similar to if you open your door and the interior lights come on. a simple remedy to this is to install a high current relay immediately off the battery going to the sound system. a trick i used to do is instead of one large relay i have used 2 to 4 smaller ones in parallel. great if youre running multiple amps.

 

[coupe]

I went through similar situation on my 96 GTS. It had .140 amps (140 milliamps) flowing even with everything off and doors locked. Funny thing is my LED's on the inner handled stayed lit unless I armed the alarm. They're NOT supposed to stay on...they're supposed to turn off after about 10 seconds from closing the door, even if you don't arm the alarm. I traced the current draw down to a relay staying "energized" on the keyless entry module. I changed a bunch of things out (including ignition switch), but at the end of the day, it was the damn hood switch that tells the alarm/keyless entry that the hood it shut. I just disconnected it and the current draw dropped to Zero or a couple hundredths of an amp... nowhere near the max limit of 30mA. Now battery is staying perfectly charged, even for over a week sitting... where before, it was DEAD (6-7V) in 4-5 days.

One thing mine would not do if that relay was energized is give the "confirmation honk" after arming the alarm. It would only honk when pressing the fob button and the doors would lock...but there is SUPPOSED TO BE A CONFIRMATION HONK about 15 seconds after that, then the red LED on the dash starts blinking. If your car doesn't give a confirmation honk, then it's probably something keeping the KEM (Keyless Entry Module) energized.

 

[ViperGTS]

>>>Had a custom sound system installed and ever since factory alarm will not work and car battery dead in a week. No one can find any issues?<<<

Using a battery tender on the cars every time I park one of the snakes...doesnt matter whether 1 day or 6 months. Never had an issue. Today, the SRT-10 fired up like a charm after +6 months of hibernating...."custom sound system". LOL. I love the exhaust sound...do not understand what they did to your electrical system of the snake, but who needs an "upgraded" sound system anyway....good luck with finding the culprit.

 

[GTS Bruce]

If the led in the door handle says lit with the alarm off you have a current draw somewhere. GTS Bruce

 

[dave6666]

Maybe it's the warm Texas weather but I've left my car sit for MONTHS while doing some time consuming mods and it always fires right up like it was just yesterday I drove it. Maybe each car is different. Or maybe these wiring projects need more supervision than the trusted stereo shop.

In similar news as I reported in my starter thread, my Interstate Megatron was at 75% and was called toast. Not sure yet if a new one was the cure as I've only driven the car once, but a good battery seems to matter to Vipers. And Dave...