I am having trouble with my battery losing power if the car is left undriven for a couple of days. It's a 99 Avenger that I recently purchased.

Some history on the problem:

I recently had the alternator belt replaced; it was badly shot and it squealed quite a bit. The mechanic told me that he had problems with the battery when he first tried to start the car, and he told me the bad belt was most likely the problem. After the belt was replaced, I brought it home and the next morning the battery was out again. So I charged it, thinking it was just too low in the first place. It lasted a week on the charged battery. After 1.5 days of not driving the car, the battery was out again. I had the battery, alternator, voltage regulator, etc. checked at Auto Zone. They told me everything was in perfect shape. I had heard just a little squealing one day, so I took it back to the mechanic, thinking that maybe the belt was put on too loose. He checked it and it was very tight and he even ran the same tests and came up with the same results. He told me that there must be a light staying on somewhere and that I should look in the car when it's dark to see if there's anything I could see. I just did, and everything is completely dark. I couldn't find a light on anywhere inside, including the trunk and under the hood. I don't have a latch on my glove compartment right now, and it's hanging down, but there are no lights on.

I do hear a slight spark sound sometimes when I start the car, but I'm not sure what would be causing it or if it has anything to do with my battery being drained.

What in the world could be draining my battery overnight?

 

Your positive the glove box light is not on ??? Same with the trunk the trunk light is infamous for this same trouble ... best thing to do is get an ampmeter and install it inline get a reading of how much current is being drawn , then start pulling fuses and watch the meter to drop ...

 

I had a similar issue last week. My battery wasn't being charged so I thought my alternator was messed but with closer inspection I saw that my belt was almost rotting off the alternator. So I replaced it and everything runs dandy now. Anywho, did the mechanic check that the plug and cable that hooks to the alternator wasn't bad?...maybe the alternator isn't sending any or enough juice to your car. Also I know that if you kill your battery too many times you could be stuck with a battery that won't hold a charge. I'd check the voltage output of your battery with a voltmeter while your car is running. I don't know what the voltage is supposed to be but my car seems to run fine putting out around 14V at the post. Without my alternator in my car the battery was putting out 12V. If your voltage is close to that I think there would be an issue between your battery and your alternator.

Hope that at least helps. I hate electrical problems.

 

You can do the same thing with a test light if you don't have an amp meter. Just remove the negative cable and hook the llight up between the cable and the battery post. If the light is on then something is on. Pull the fueses till the light goes off. Be aware that the colck memory on the radio will cause the light to be on as well.

 

The correct way to check for a draw is with an amp clamp on the negative battery cable. .2-.5 amps is normal for Radio, clock and PCM keep-alive memory. Anything more is a parasitic draw, and you need todo the same fuse-pulling process of elimination mentioned above. Once you've narrowed it down to a circuit, find the faulty component in that circuit.