Need help on battery drain!!!

JDM_SPEC_SI-R

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Hey guys

i cant figure out why my battery keeps draining. sometimes it drains over night, sometimes right after i drive it. all my electrics work, i just dont have enough juice to power the starter. here is what i know and i need your help to figure this out:
battery is new, alternator is good, starter is good, fuses are good, i have circuit tested all the fuses..... placed a circuit tester on the + side of the battery and cable, and the light stays on when i pulled each fuse one bye one. the car starts when i jump it from another car or pop the clutch...
i have also checkled my deck, connections etc and everything is ok. now i have the stock alarm system from honda.... karr and apexi vafc, wiould these guys drain the battery that much to not power the alt?


is there a relay for the alternator, or a relay that might be stuck open for the battery to drain?
how can i go about testing and figuring out where i have a circuit pulling power from the battery? will a multimeter help pin point this? any help would be huge. thanks guys!
 

stuco

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You're positive the alternator is good?
 


JDM_SPEC_SI-R

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even when i had the battery tested a few shops told me something is draining the battery....
 


!4NDY!

Civic
Make sure the glove box and trunk light don't stay on. Get in the trunk and close it, make sure some is around to open it. Sounds dumb but I know from experience. If not get a DVOM. Turn the headlights on with the keys out to get rid of any current still present.Put it on the DVOM on amps. Connect it in series with the positive battery cable. (Disconnect the cable from the terminal and connect the positive probe to the battery positive terminal and the black probe to the battery cable.) Make sure it stays connected at all times. There shouldn't be much amps at all. If so something is grounded causeing a drain. Start unpluging one fuses at a time to check if there is a drop in amps. If so check to see what that fuse powers. . That should help pin point the probelem.
 

JDM_SPEC_SI-R

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Make sure the glove box and trunk light don't stay on. Get in the trunk and close it, make sure some is around to open it. Sounds dumb but I know from experience. If not get a DVOM. Turn the headlights on with the keys out to get rid of any current still present.Put it on the DVOM on amps. Connect it in series with the positive battery cable. (Disconnect the cable from the terminal and connect the positive probe to the battery positive terminal and the black probe to the battery cable.) Make sure it stays connected at all times. There shouldn't be much amps at all. If so something is grounded causeing a drain. Start unpluging one fuses at a time to check if there is a drop in amps. If so check to see what that fuse powers. . That should help pin point the probelem.
ok i will try this. i have a hatch so i dotn have a rear trunk light or a glovebox light...
one thing i was thinking is my rear defogger switch. i have the ctr climate control so i had to do some splicing and swapping to make it work. i know the defogger is connected to the ignition switch, so when the car is turned off the switch is turned off. could this be a possible problem and the switch is not getting turned off?

some other ideas i thought about was the fuel pump and starter relay. now i have kill switches on both of these. could that affect the relay at all?

i do have a charger for my ipod, and i leave it plugged in at all times. even though the ac plug turns off when the car is off, could this still drain power?

and the last and final one, a diode could be bad in the alt but how can you tell. again, a few shops said my alt was in great condition.
 

Stickyittoyou

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5+ Year Member
Make sure your Cd player isn't draining it... I bought a CD player once that every so often would screw up and drain my battery power and wouldn't turn on unless I re-plugged itt. Just take out your CD player and try it out for a couple days, just to get that out of the way... never know.
 

JDM_SPEC_SI-R

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ill try that too. althought when i did my circuit test i unplugged the deck and the light was still on......
lets say it is the deck, would i need a new one?
 

!4NDY!

Civic
For the defroster you can try to unplug the relay with the amp meter plugged in series. There can be a number of things causing the drain. The best way to pin point it is by disconnecting the fused etc just first try this. This should tell you where its at or give you a better idea. I doubt the ipod charger is causing it. i always leave mine is as well. for the fuel pump and starter relay you can remove those. or i believe you can take off the top cap and check for continuity between the terminals. but some or normally opened and some are normally closed. if they are normally opened there shouldnt be any continuity.
Well if the diode was defected i think the shop would have told you the alternator was defected. The diodes are what convert the ac voltage to dc voltage.

ok i will try this. i have a hatch so i dotn have a rear trunk light or a glovebox light...
one thing i was thinking is my rear defogger switch. i have the ctr climate control so i had to do some splicing and swapping to make it work. i know the defogger is connected to the ignition switch, so when the car is turned off the switch is turned off. could this be a possible problem and the switch is not getting turned off?

some other ideas i thought about was the fuel pump and starter relay. now i have kill switches on both of these. could that affect the relay at all?

i do have a charger for my ipod, and i leave it plugged in at all times. even though the ac plug turns off when the car is off, could this still drain power?

and the last and final one, a diode could be bad in the alt but how can you tell. again, a few shops said my alt was in great condition.
 


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