Battery draining for past 8 months

[investor74]

Sorry you are having the trouble, Witsend. You don't mention whether the alternator was checked.

My story - if it helps. I took my car to an indy repair shop because I heard a noise. He replaced the alternator, which was noisy but otherwise worked (overcharging me for this as I later found out). Four months later, my car died on the highway and was towed back to the same shop. He replaced the alternator under warranty, but charged me for installation again.

Two months later, car died again, took it back. This would have been free, since it was within 90 days. He tried to convince me that I had a "parasitic leakage" (current drain when the car is turned off), and told me to take it to an electrical shop. I could not measure any parasitic current with my ammeter.

The electrical shop said the alternator was not charging and there was no parasitic drain. The indy repair shop replaced the alternator yet again (3rd time). About 10 months later, the car died on a trip, and I had another shop replace the alternator and the car has been fine since. I don't know exactly what the scam was with the first shop - maybe they were using old alternators, not re-built alternators, hoping they would last 90 days so I would have to pay for install again.

One thing to remember is that you should wait at least 30 minutes after shutting the engine before concluding there is a parasitic current drain. There are a number of systems which stay on for a while after the engine is shut down.

Barry

[witsend]

Originally Posted by heavycat

I was having the same problem with my 2000,I was killing batterys very frequently, i figured out that its was as simple as running a new 4 gauge power from the alternator to the battery. The original wire had burnt itself right through the shielding. I left the factory wire in, and ran the new one carefully away from hot spots. Apparantly the factory cable was undersized for the vehicle. hope this helps,

Hmm, I did notice that part of the wire that led to the battery was visible (had worn through the plastic). I'll look into that. Thanks.

Well my next step would have been to monitor the current (which will be in Amps not Volts) and pull fuses one by one.....

Ok, once we have a functioning battery I'll try this. Thanks so much!

[dadenkern]

2001 Catera non-sport 109,000 miles

When adding the secondary charge wire (4 gauge) from the alternator to the positive terminal on the battery do you keep the existing charge wire from the starter connected to the alternator or not? Thanks.