Battery problem...

[TSi_II]

Alright so I drive and the battery dies, every time. Get the car jumped and it's fine, until the battery dies again. It's not the battery, alternator, connections, or wires. Does the ECU somehow tell the alternator when to charge the battery or some shit like that?

[EVILUTION]

I know you said it wasn't the battery but have you tried a new one?

[ZXTUNER]

Alright so I drive and the battery dies, every time. Get the car jumped and it's fine, until the battery dies again. It's not the battery, alternator, connections, or wires. Does the ECU somehow tell the alternator when to charge the battery or some shit like that?



it has to be one of those or a bad short someplace and the ecu thing um no

[TSi_II]

Yep I've tried 2 used batteries and 2 new ones, it does it with all of them. I'll re-check the wiring harness to the + terminal for shorts, maybe a mouse chewed through them, I hope that bastard got fried.

[EVILUTION]

Any recent electrical modifications? TT, System, ect?

[TSi_II]

Nope, nothin.... It first happened on the trip home from Green Bay. Ever since then, no battery will take a charge, maybe something came unplugged that I haven't noticed from the alternator?

[ZXTUNER]

did you test the alternator?

[TSi_II]

Yep, it's ok.... And once the car does start running, I can take off the + battery terminal and the car runs normal.

[ZXTUNER]

hummmmmmmmmmmm :?:

[cashsaudio]

make sure there isn't any rust or anything like that on the terminal that goes to the alt. And no corrsion (how ever you spell it) on the battery terminals this happens alot. Alot of times when I have problems like these, I just rewire the positive wire from the alt and connect it directly to the battery and make sure theres good ground connection.

[VPT]

The alt. may be over charging the batteries and killing them. It is rare but I have heard of it happening before. You would have to check with a volt meter for volts and amps. Also you can try pulling the terminal off the battery, tape it up and drive around and see if the motor kills and see if you can figure out what is shorting out, or drawing enough current to kill the battery.

[cashsaudio]

The alt. may be over charging the batteries and killing them. It is rare but I have heard of it happening before. You would have to check with a volt meter for volts and amps. Also you can try pulling the terminal off the battery, tape it up and drive around and see if the motor kills and see if you can figure out what is shorting out, or drawing enough current to kill the battery.

I wouldn't drive around because it'll kill the car as soon as the fans kick on. I've done this and I know when its warm enough that the fans will kick on and kill the battery.

[Pointdsm]

Check wiring, i'm going with its something like a bad connection. Your alternator is good(from what you've found out), and the battery is obviously ok. I doubt it is the terminal on the battery(since you've tried many batteries). Have you re-wired anything, i know we were talking about fuel pumps before, did you do the re-wire? Still sounds like a bad connection, although VPT's advice is something i never heard of before.

[VPT]

The alt. may be over charging the batteries and killing them. It is rare but I have heard of it happening before. You would have to check with a volt meter for volts and amps. Also you can try pulling the terminal off the battery, tape it up and drive around and see if the motor kills and see if you can figure out what is shorting out, or drawing enough current to kill the battery.

I wouldn't drive around because it'll kill the car as soon as the fans kick on. I've done this and I know when its warm enough that the fans will kick on and kill the battery.

It shouldn't. The car should run with no battery and everything on in the car. If it can't the alt. is shot. AND if a alt. could not keep up with everything on how do you expect the battery to stay charged on a trip with rad fans running, a/c working, headlights on, stereo, ect., ect. Alot of travelers would have alot of dead batteries.

[TSi_II]

The batteries start dying right away as soon as it fires up, it's taking no charge what-so-ever... If I turn the headlights on right away, you can watch them turn to less than candle-light in about 5 seconds. I haven't tried running the lights and cd player and stuff with the terminal off though...

[ZXTUNER]

how did you have it tested the alt ? did you take it off and take it in or have it tested with it in the car like the pos tester autozone has that the just put on the power cable

[Pointdsm]

try a new alternator, i bet extreme has one laying around. If not, check the cables coming from the alternator(really check them), then get a volt meter on them and start watching to see if current is going through them.

[cashsaudio]

The alt. may be over charging the batteries and killing them. It is rare but I have heard of it happening before. You would have to check with a volt meter for volts and amps. Also you can try pulling the terminal off the battery, tape it up and drive around and see if the motor kills and see if you can figure out what is shorting out, or drawing enough current to kill the battery.

I wouldn't drive around because it'll kill the car as soon as the fans kick on. I've done this and I know when its warm enough that the fans will kick on and kill the battery.

It shouldn't. The car should run with no battery and everything on in the car. If it can't the alt. is shot. AND if a alt. could not keep up with everything on how do you expect the battery to stay charged on a trip with rad fans running, a/c working, headlights on, stereo, ect., ect. Alot of travelers would have alot of dead batteries.

I've done it on my 98 taurus and old 88 tbird and my brother 92 stealth. Well I've done it when it is idle. You must have the engine r's up inorder to create enough amps. I've done this about 100k miles ago on my taurus and is still running now with the orginal alt. Btw, I've heard from several people its really bad to run the car without the battery connected because it give alt noises to the ecu causing it to screw up but I've done it all the time without any problems.

As for the fans kicking on, they take up alot more juice to start up til normal speed. just like a engine it needs more gas to rev up to high rpm than at the same speed.

[cashsaudio]

Check wiring, i'm going with its something like a bad connection. Your alternator is good(from what you've found out), and the battery is obviously ok. I doubt it is the terminal on the battery(since you've tried many batteries). Have you re-wired anything, i know we were talking about fuel pumps before, did you do the re-wire? Still sounds like a bad connection, although VPT's advice is something i never heard of before.

I ment the wires on the terminals on the battery by wiggling them and making sure they get good connection. I just worked on a neon a couple weeks ago and everyone said its the alt and I found out it was loose wiring on the terminals that connect to the battery and has corrisions on them too.

[VPT]

The alt. may be over charging the batteries and killing them. It is rare but I have heard of it happening before. You would have to check with a volt meter for volts and amps. Also you can try pulling the terminal off the battery, tape it up and drive around and see if the motor kills and see if you can figure out what is shorting out, or drawing enough current to kill the battery.

I wouldn't drive around because it'll kill the car as soon as the fans kick on. I've done this and I know when its warm enough that the fans will kick on and kill the battery.

It shouldn't. The car should run with no battery and everything on in the car. If it can't the alt. is shot. AND if a alt. could not keep up with everything on how do you expect the battery to stay charged on a trip with rad fans running, a/c working, headlights on, stereo, ect., ect. Alot of travelers would have alot of dead batteries.

I've done it on my 98 taurus and old 88 tbird and my brother 92 stealth. Well I've done it when it is idle. You must have the engine r's up inorder to create enough amps. I've done this about 100k miles ago on my taurus and is still running now with the orginal alt. Btw, I've heard from several people its really bad to run the car without the battery connected because it give alt noises to the ecu causing it to screw up but I've done it all the time without any problems.

As for the fans kicking on, they take up alot more juice to start up til normal speed. just like a engine it needs more gas to rev up to high rpm than at the same speed.


Well I have done it on over 30 diffrent cars and I have never been able to kill a motor by turning on any or all electrical devices including rad and a/c fans. And yes running a car on just the alt. can ruin an ecu, I've never had it happen but according to mstc it can happen.

[devlish]

i shut down my motor by turning on the lights & stereo one night. jump started it, and it ran crappy with just the stereo on but muted, then i turned on the headlights and it died again. bad alternator.

[TSi_II]

My alternator is fine...

The DSM gods are with me tonight, I hooked the car up to the charger just to get it to run for a few minutes like it always did, but the fucker kept goin this time, didn't drain the battery, ran it with a heavy load (headlights, cd player, heater, defrost thing, etc.) and it kept on goin, took it out for a ride, ran perfect. I did nothing any different tonight... Maybe whatever wire was shorting something moved out of the way, so I'll still look and try and find it, but oh well I won't complain.

[VPT]

Typical dsm

[TSi_II]

Yeah I bet your Honda never fixes itself! And answer the PM I sent you VPT.

[VPT]

Yeah I bet your Honda never fixes itself! And answer the PM I sent you VPT.


Never breaks itself either. Pm replyed.

[TSi_II]

lol True... Thanks everyone for your infinate wisdom.... :lol:

[Pointdsm]

I hate when DSM's do that, i get scared when the rattle i've been hearing stops rattling, something usually is wrong then.

[mpf_supra]

i myself if it does come back..would look into the alternator. like the rest of the guys here have already said it...when your lights start dimming..first sign..is always a alternator. goodluck and always..drive hard


-mpf