Hello,

Over the last few months I have a noticed whenever I leave my 1999 Avenger ES 2.5 V6 sitting idle for three days or more the batter drains to absolutely zero volts. I have already replaced the battery twice. Each time I have brought it back to Autozone who have tested the battery and said that its the battery that’s at fault. They also tested my alternator and apparently its charging.

I recently had another replacement battery and left for a weekend. After I came back same problem battery completely depleted. I had to charge the battery overnight with my charger to get the car started.

I have trouble-shooted a while ago by taking the cables off the battery to see if it will drain but it doesn’t. I have checked the obvious things such as lights staying on inside and outside the car but I can find none. I also tested the draw and the battery using and ammeter with the car off to see how many amps were being drawn and it was significant.

Please help me with this guys it’s starting to drive me mad.

Thanks.

Steve

 

Hello and welcome to DF, Steve.
I have a question for you, do you have any significant stereo products in the car? If not, then I would fold the rear seat down and hop in. Look in the trunk for the trunk light to see if it stays on. I had a similar issue and that was my problem. My trunk switch took a dump and left the light on even with the trunk closed. If I left it sitting for too long, it would not start because the battery was dead. Mine started by not being able to sit over 3 days (when I first noticed), then two days, and finally overnight. Good thing I had a garage and battery charger, eh.
I ended up replacing the little black box that is connected to the light and lock arm.

 

Hey John,

Thanks for the quick reply. Well I just jumped in the back as you said and no trunk lights are on. I was kinda hopingit would be that easy. All my other courtesy lights in the car are coming on and going off normally. Not sure if there is a hood light, I don’t think there is.

The saga continues..

Steve

 

No worries Steve.

Do you by chance have multimeter? If you do, I would say to check the fuses with everything off to find the leak. You could have a bad ground too. Check your battery ground and make sure it doesn't have any corrosion on it.
What was the last thing you did that involves the cars electrical system? Or anything that was done that may have knocked a ground or anything.

 

Hey John,

I have a had a feeling that an incident that happened when a careless driver hit the front drivers side of my car may have something to do with the problem. I had to take the car to a body shop to have repairs done on the body over the front left tire. The idea you have about the ground could be related to it. I am not very car savvy so bear with me. Is the ground coming off the battery on the drivers side?

Thanks

 

It is on the driver's side actually. It's on the strut tower or near it, since the battery is right there
If the body shop removed any of the grounds and moved them to painted surfaces, then that could be the issue right there or even if they removed the grounds and forgot to put them back..that can happen too.
The time frame is relevant though. If the body work was done longer than the issue, it is most likely something else.

 

I will look in to these things and report back.

Thanks for the help

 

quick note- on any grounds, or any connection, you may want to use an anti-oxidant. it won't heal a connection, but it will keep a clean connection from corroding. a $3 tube will last... well.... many moon go by. i use it on all of my grounds because they are typically open. not sure just how true it is, but i have heard repeatedly that our cars have inadequate grounds. i ran a seaparate wire to the manifold on my first one was a preventative measure. not sure if it ever did anything, but couldn't hurt to try it in your case, if it's convenient.