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Battery eater

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Old 01-11-2008, 09:59 PM
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Default Battery eater

So I've got this little problem. My car likes to eat batteries. I don't mean that they die and need to be recharged. I mean that it kills them to the point where they are junk. I've gone through 4 NeverStart Maxxs in about 2 years. The last one only lasted a week. So yeah. It sucks. Got my money back from Wal-Mart and went to Sears and picked up a Die Hard. Just wondering if anybody elses cars had this wierd hunger.
Old 01-11-2008, 10:52 PM
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have you checked all the power cables and grounds? could also be an alternator problem I guess..
Old 01-11-2008, 11:05 PM
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What are your driving habits like? Do you drive a lot of short trips?
Old 01-12-2008, 03:02 AM
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checked all the fuses, nothing drawing that shouldn't be. Alternator is fine. I drive maybe 10 miles round trip each day. I don't know, it'* really annoying. I know I have a draw somewhere, but I just can't find it. I had a disconnect on the battery before the last one. I would disconnect at night and it would start fine in the morning. If I left the battery on, in the morning it would be dead! Don't know. For the time being I'm blaming it on crappy wal-mart batteries. I mean, c'mon. The last one froze! When was the last time you heard of battery acid freezing??
Old 01-12-2008, 05:25 PM
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something is off. I use crappy walmart batteries and have never had one die, even in subzero temps.
Old 01-12-2008, 05:44 PM
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I buy my batteries from Walmart also and they last me 5 years.
Recently I have invested in a Battery Tender to trickle charge my batteries at least once a month.

If you drive a lot of 10 minutes trips like I do, the battery doesn't get enough time to recharge and will not last very long. Also if left and not driven it will discharge and weaken over time.
Old 01-13-2008, 04:00 PM
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Originally Posted by glorkar
When was the last time you heard of battery acid freezing??
Batteries freeze easily when they are discharged...it'* the charge that keeps the acid from freezing.
Originally Posted by http://yarchive.net/car/rv/battery_freeze.html
At full charge, the freezing
point is very low, lower than -10 deg F, if my scratchy memory
serves. As the battery (self) discharges, the acid concentration is
reduced until at full discharge the concentration is very weak and
the freezing point rises to approach the 32 deg F FP of water.
Maybe a combination of cold weather, cheap batteries and slow drain is killing them off? You've checked all the normal draws like leaky ELC struts, glovebox light, and trunk light?
Old 01-14-2008, 09:56 AM
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I checked for draws at the fuse box. If I remember right, the only things that had power to them were the cig lighter, headlights, and the courtesy lights (interior lights?). I don't know. It died again last night, so I know either something is on or shorting to ground. Either way, I've got to figure out what it is :?
Old 01-14-2008, 10:17 AM
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Default draw

You power antenna circuit is hot when turning the car off. If there is a fault in the motor it will draw the battery down.
If you have one, unplug it and see if the problem goes away.
Wally World and Sears batteries are both made by Johnson Controls.


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