draining battery

[projectheaven]

Hello all,
My battery keeps draining and I think I found the cause of it.With the car in the off position I hooked up my light tester and touched the fuse for the stop light and the turn signal and the light came on.Isnt it suppose to be off if the car is off? What can I do to fix this?

[Dapapadon]

Brake lights are hot all the time, not sure why. Turn signals should only work when the key is on. But brake lights work all the time, safety feature I think. I don't think this is your problem, unless the brake lights are stuck on.

Hopefully someone will chime in with a good troubleshooting procedure to find your problem.

Don

[Oldsguy]

Do you have any aftermarket audio equipment in the car? If so, check that as well, could be a faulty installation. Or, it could be something in the stock harness too. One way to see what is causing the current drain is to place an ammeter in series between the battery positive post and the cable that is normally attached to it. If you have current then simply remove each fuse one at a time until the current stops. You might be able to replace the ammeter with the pocket tester light you have, or it might blow it if there is too much current.

[projectheaven]

I dont have any audio eqipment in the vehicle now.I'll try the pulling the fuse technique and see how that turns out.

[ozoneblue]

dis connect negative battery cable put test light between post and cable with door open light should light .Pull courtesy Dome light fuse . if it is still lit continue 1 at a time, When all else disconnect ALT wiring possible bad diode in ALT Keep us informed larry@vintageozarks.com

[67olds]

Another approach to troubleshooting any battery draining problem is to check your car's electrical system resistance instead of trying to hunt voltage and/or current. You disconnect the battery then measure resistance using a multimeter across the disconnected positive and negative battery leads. If you have a multimeter, this setting is typically the symbol that looks like a horseshoe or it may spell out "ohms."

My car reads about 7.2 k(ilo)ohms, which is a little low, but will go for about a month without starting and still start. Greater than 50 kohms would be better. My hunch is that if you perform this test your resistance will read much lower--probably less than 500 ohms. Once this baseline is established, you can start disconnecting various circuits and/or pulling fuses and look for this resistance reading to improve. When you pull or disconnect the problem area, the reading should improve substantially.

If your comfortable trying this and it makes sense repost and I'll give more info if you think it will help.

Jeff Idsinga
67 Olds Cutlass Supreme Convertible

[Edveen]

I had the same issue. I decided to yank every single interior light, and to my discovery, most had rusted in the sockets! This seemed to have extended the charge of the battery but there is still a drain. I've heard trunk lights have caused this problem as well.

Jeff's approach is written real well and I think you should follow it!

Ed

[ozoneblue]

After your done crawling in the trunk With a good friend out side! then crawl into the glove box & see if the light stays on .Any vanity lights on the sun visors ? Try what I said previously++++ if it doesn't work crawl in the refrigerator & see if the light goes OFF Just kidding DO NOT Try THIS AT HOME or any where else! . It only takes about 3 amps to light a test light Not the Snap on type , Just a cheap 1099 low amp bulb. I use a old seat belt buzzer be cause it is easier to hear than see.Oh by the way Snap On sells the same thing for $89.95