Battery keeps dying

[— Jimmy Vee —]

The battery keeps on running flat on my NA6, (no I'm not leaving my lights on)

HISTORY: A couple of weeks back, while driving to work, the radio started cutting out, the wipers were moving real slow and the dash lights started dimming. The charge & check Engine lights came on also. My first thought was a short in the wiring under the dash, but when I went to take the car out at lunch, it wouldn't start. So I got it charged from a plug-in charger, took it to the mechanics and he tested the battery & Alternator, he said the Alt is fine but I need a new battery.

New battery installed, the car ran fine for about a week and a half & then the exact same thing happened again, and once again tonight.

Now I am thinking that with Aftermarket stereo, EDFC and Head/Tail/Dashlights running I am drawing too much power from the battery. Is that Possible or would it take a lot more than that to drain the battery? are there any other likley causes? I don't know if it is relevant but everytime it has happened the temp has been around 40-50°f. Anyway, I will try to get it into the mechanincs sometime this week.

Thanks,

[KAL]

Maybe silly solution, but have you checked your minus-pole battery-clamp / shoe?
Mine was too large and didnt make proper contact (a +pole shoe). I didn't see it until the car was dead and the battery empty.

[diabeetus]

Maybe silly solution, but have you checked your minus-pole battery-clamp / shoe?
Mine was too large and didnt make proper contact (a +pole shoe). I didn't see it until the car was dead and the battery empty.

this was exactly what was happening to me, only with the + side. it just slid right off. tightened it up and now it works perfectly

[Small White Car]

So how did he check the alternator?

Did he pull it off the car and do a load test or did he drop the belt and give it a spin and said "Oh that's fine..."?

Have the alternator checked again and clean your grounds.

You can run a car pretty far on battery alone...

[— Jimmy Vee —]

I just checked the - terminal, it was loose enogh that you could spin it by hand, but it wouldn'e have been able to slide off.

Not sure how he tested the Alt. The old battery was in preety bad shape, so he may have just concluded that it must was that and not the alt that is the problem.

[terranwelder]

Its going to be your alternator, last summer same thing started happening to me. Lights would dim,stereo would start cutting out, wipers would be moving slow and all my gauges would stop working including the tac but the car would still run for miles as long as i didnt turn it off. Changed the alternator and car started working perfect.

[— Jimmy Vee —]

So I took the car into the mechanic today. Turns out one of the mounting bolts on the alternator had worked itself free, so sometimes the belt would be tight and sometimes it would be loose. Long story short... Today, i spent $100 on a new bolt