Battery keeps draining

[wwayne90]

Hi; I took the advice of some people on the forum and disconnected the negitive cable and hooked my test light clip to the neg. cable and put the my tester on the neg. terminal and a green light came on, that was to mean their is a short somewhere,so I started pulling all the fuses, one at a time to see if the light would go out, than I could tell thats the circut the short is on.Well I pulled them all, and the light stayed on ,i even found two more in the engine area pulled them,, light still on,can anyone tell me what to do next to find my problem, this is frustrating I wish I new more or had the money to have it all done,my VA. disability doesnt go far. PLEASE HELP ME. Wayne

 

[WRECKER88]

Try disconnecting the alternator. You could have shorted diodes.

 

[wwayne90]

Try disconnecting the alternator. You could have shorted diodes.

Hey WRECKER88 I unhooked the alternator and the same thing,alternator is good,what would be your next step,could it be the starter or the solinoid even if the car is not running,is their a way to check,man Ive been pulling my hair out trying to figure this out

 

[CHRLDO]

i had same problem! disconnect the positive wire at alternator and test. i had a short in the insulator where the connector goes thru alternator case. chuck

 

[AV8R]

My 90 C4 has a new red Optima battery I bought at Pep Boys, ran well for a few months, but then during the hot summer it kept draining within a few days. So… they put it on the tester and it was bad (apparently these are made in Mexico now and are sub standard quality). I got another and it too did the same thing, but this time the battery tested OK.

So, next was to the AutoZone parts shop to test the gold Duraast alternator I purchased over a year ago. It passed… barely. So I talked to the manager because the kid who tested it wouldn't give me a replacement and was telling me my car was bad elsewhere. The manager gave me a new Duralast and I installed it. Been a month later a new leakage, no battery being drained, no can't start the car. Apparently it was an alternator right on the edge as it passed the tests but still leaked.

Lessons learned:
a. Optima batteries can be bad even if relatively new. I now get Bosch batteries with the same CCA and form factor for the size and terminal access.
b. Alternators can test positive, and still be leaky. Don't give up as soon as they test bad if you know your battery is good and no leaks elsewhere.
c. Don't trust those auto part store testers or the kids as gospel. Get another test elsewhere or talk to the manager as I did.

So maybe this will help others as they run into a similar situation.