Battery keeps dying.

[hayabrusa]

did you do a parasitic draw test on your system? Only takes a small draw to kill the batteries and it will give you alot of grief!
We have customers constantly coming in with so called defective batteries just to find out they have a draw in the charging system, about 70 percent of batteries returned are not defective that is why we always charge and retest before writing off the battery.

 

[Jeff Blagden]

once my dome light blew but did not do a clean break in the filament so it kept draining my battery it took me 6 months to trace it back to that bulb maybe something like that ? Good luck in finding out the issue have a good day Jeff from Winnipeg

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

It doesn't seem to be a parasitic drain. Even right after fully recrarging the battery the starter will drain it in a few cranks.

 

[86LK]

It doesn't seem to be a parasitic drain. Even right after fully recrarging the battery the starter will drain it in a few cranks.

oh yeah, that's definitely a bad battery. the issues being brought up is "what's causing the bad batteries?"
as you may know, you can have full 12.8 voltage and 0 amps

and a bad starter should not be killing a new battery that fast. the only way I can think it is if the starter relay circuit is staying energized at all times. as Jeff and Haya pointed, parasitic/vampire draw can be undetected and kill a battery. bad grounds will also do it.

 

[Streetbu]

I think you have both. New battery first, then see what the voltage does while cranking. Another good "test" is to turn the headlights on then crank the vehicle. If they go out, you have a bad positive, or more likely, negative connection. They will dim SLIGHTLY of course, but shouldn't go out.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

The dome and underdash lights still worked after sitting all winter. I replaced the bulb in my done light with a LED bulb. I did use a volt meter to test all the fuses in the fuse block to see if any circuits were still live with the ignition in the off position. None of them seemed to be.

I have the negative battery cable connected to a starter mounting bolt. A ground cable from thd same starter bolt to the frame. A ground from the negative battey connector to the fender. Another ground from from thd engine to the firewall.

 

[86LK]

The dome and underdash lights still worked after sitting all winter. I replaced the bulb in my done light with a LED bulb. I did use a volt meter to test all the fuses in the fuse block to see if any circuits were still live with the ignition in the off position. None of them seemed to be.

I have the negative battery cable connected to a starter mounting bolt. A ground cable from thd same starter bolt to the frame. A ground from the negative battey connector to the fender. Another ground from from thd engine to the firewall.

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[Clone TIE Pilot]

Took a look under the car at the starter and found the insulation has melted on the cable running from the mini motor to the solenoid. Not a good sign.

 

[jiho]

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That looks very useful.

 

[86LK]

Took a look under the car at the starter and found the insulation has melted on the cable running from the mini motor to the solenoid. Not a good sign.

uh-huh. so either it's:
1) pulling excessive amperage
2) constantly pulling amperage
3) you don't have a heat shield on your starter and you should

I won't say 'we told you so' because we haven't pinpointed the source yet, but this is the kind of stuff we were talking about