Battery being drained while car is off

H

Homebrewers wife

New member
I have a noise coming from around the rear passenger door/wheel well on the drivers side. Sounds like a small electrical motor running after car is turned off. Noticed late last week, then battery died on Saturday. Had car jumped and AAA tech indicated he could see a drain on the battery but couldn't diagnose it. Dropped car off at dealer who couldn't look at it until Monday. On Monday, they called and said battery was dead and they would have to put it on a slow charge to diagnose it. On Tuesday, said car started fine and they couldn't find any problems. Picked up car and drove about 20 miles, parked in garage and heard the noise again. This morning car is dead, again. Before I take back to dealer, any thoughts on a direction I should point them?
 
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Fuel Pump? Don't know why it would continue to run though. Have you done a search of the forum?
 
Is at dealer now, will see what they say. In the 8 plus years I have owned this car, I have never heard this noise before. Maybe it is just the battery.
 
Battery still draining

Dealer has had my car for 2 weeks now. Replaced battery with new one last Monday and on Tuesday battery was dead again. Said they needed to keep car and gave me a loaner on Thursday. Called yesterday and said starts fine, can't find anything and come and get it. Waiting til today to pick it up. I'm fairly positive that tomorrow I will be stuck again with a dead car. Any ideas????
 
If you've got a new battery in it and it's still dead in the morning, then either your alternator isn't charging it fully (something the dealer should be able to determine with ease), or you've got a parasitic drain, which if it's intermittent might be much harder for the dealer to diagnose.

Are you handy with a multimeter?
 
Unfortunately not. Picked up the car, dealer says they started it the last 4 days and started fine. I asked what diagnostics they ran, but did not get any real answers. Supposedly, they checked both alternator and starter and both are fine. Talked to the head service manager and he basically said unless it happened where they could see it they couldn't diagnose it. I reminded him that it happened overnight in their shop after a brand new battery was put in, and he said that unless something happened when the tech was looking at it, they couldn't figure it out. I asked if they ran diagnostics on the computer system and they told me unless the check engine light was on, the computer wouldn't tell them anything. Said if it happened again, to bring it back. I asked what they would do different, but they had no response to that. I was told if I wanted to pay a flat rate of $95/hour they would got through the wiring system. My reply to that didn't sit well with the service manager and he basically told me I was free to take it somewhere else! I am really pissed off at this point! I mentioned a post I found on this forum as things that could be looked at, and the Assistant Service Manager told me not to believe anything I saw here (what a crock of crap!)
 
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i know that it wont help find the problem, but it would atleast keep you from being stranded with a dead battery.

Battery Disconnect Switch

using something like that, so you can disconnect the battery each time, without using tools.
 
Guess I will figure out the multimeter. Saw a thread on 3rdg site guess steps are the same. Question, do I start pulling fuses in the engine compartment or passenger?
 
Homebrewers wife said:
Guess I will figure out the multimeter. Saw a thread on 3rdg site guess steps are the same. Question, do I start pulling fuses in the engine compartment or passenger?
Click to expand...

Either one, it doesn't matter. FWIW, common culprits are door switches and any aftermarket stereo/alarm wiring. You can get a multimeter at Harbor Freight for $5 that'll do what you need it to.

Good luck, and definitely find a new service department!
 
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