This is my first post here, hope it's in the right place. My wife has a 05 liberty. If we let it sit for more than three days the battery dies, so we got a new one, same problem. We just got back from a four day weekend, the battery ( six weeks old) seemed dead ( no lights at all, or door chimes ) jumped it off ( started after a 15 second jump) left the cables hooked up with both cars running for about 20-30 min. from 10 pm to 5:30 am the battery was dead again. Can anyone give me any clues as to what could be draining the battery? Thanks in advance...lost
newby question
- Thread starter lostchild
- Start date
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chuckd76
New Member
Don't know if this will help but I had an 04 Grand Cherokee that was giving me the same trouble. I had been in an accident with it and the body shop had to replace doors. When they reconnected the power window switch on the rear door they tapped into a wire that was always "hot" and the switch was causing the battery to drain. I ended up buying a new battery thinking that would solve the problem. Needless to say, it didn't. I ended up sending it back to the body shop to have the switch re-wired.
kb0nly
Full Access Member
Unfortunately your going to have to find what is draining it, and it might be trial and error here.
Have you added anything? GPS, Stereo or Amp, CB, anything?? If you have anything plugged in or wired in that isn't stock suspect that first, no matter how new it is, etc.. Sometimes it's the simplest crap that gets you.
If there is nothing to suspect go out after its dark and make sure no interior lights are on or such. I had this problem on my minivan, the kids would turn on these back reading lights and they were not noticeable during the day, but at night i caught site of one being on and that explained my weak battery some mornings.
The front and rear interior lights, the front map lights and the rear cargo light, can be turned on manually by pushing on it, so maybe something got turned on by accident. Also if you have lighted vanity mirrors flip down your visors and open and close them a few times and make sure they are turning off, easier to tell at night because you would see light around the edge of the door if they were on while closed. Sometimes the switch goes to heck in them, or it just gets sticky and intermittent inside, seen it before!
Also in the dark at night just make sure nothing else is on that shouldn't be!
And last but not least if none of that helps pop the hood and disconnect the negative battery cable and let it sit overnight, then in the morning reconnect the cable and see if it still starts. If it does then the battery is fine but you still have something drawing too much power while off.
If it comes down to that the only way is a fuse at a time. I would pull the fuse for the radio first, i have seen some posts on other forums about chrysler radios going bad and pulling an amp or more in standby.
The thing is if your battery is in PERFECT shape it takes a long time to drain it with an amp or less. You said from 10pm to 5:30am, thats on 7.5 hours, an average car battery has a capacity around 40-50 amp hours. That means if you had a perfect capacity of say 45 amp hours you should be able to draw a 1 amp load for 45 hours, yeah i know guys this isn't perfect math as there is a lot of variables, temp, battery age, wire voltage/current drop, etc etc...
But lets just say if you have a 2 amp draw on that battery when the engine is off you should be able to let that battery sit for 20+ hours before its too dead to start.
Another thing to check, when its too dead to start check the voltage at the battery with a voltmeter and see where your at. And if you know anyone with a digital meter that also measures amps then once the battery is topped off and starting fine shut off the engine and pull the positive lead off the battery and put the meter between it and the positive post of the battery to see how many amps are being drawn with everything off, should be less than an amp. I know even with all the added gear in my KJ i only see about 500-700 milliamps of standby current being drawn, that's because usually my ipod is plugged in, cell phone, two-way radio gear that has keep alive power to its memory, etc.. But i never have a starting problem.
Have you added anything? GPS, Stereo or Amp, CB, anything?? If you have anything plugged in or wired in that isn't stock suspect that first, no matter how new it is, etc.. Sometimes it's the simplest crap that gets you.
If there is nothing to suspect go out after its dark and make sure no interior lights are on or such. I had this problem on my minivan, the kids would turn on these back reading lights and they were not noticeable during the day, but at night i caught site of one being on and that explained my weak battery some mornings.
The front and rear interior lights, the front map lights and the rear cargo light, can be turned on manually by pushing on it, so maybe something got turned on by accident. Also if you have lighted vanity mirrors flip down your visors and open and close them a few times and make sure they are turning off, easier to tell at night because you would see light around the edge of the door if they were on while closed. Sometimes the switch goes to heck in them, or it just gets sticky and intermittent inside, seen it before!
Also in the dark at night just make sure nothing else is on that shouldn't be!
And last but not least if none of that helps pop the hood and disconnect the negative battery cable and let it sit overnight, then in the morning reconnect the cable and see if it still starts. If it does then the battery is fine but you still have something drawing too much power while off.
If it comes down to that the only way is a fuse at a time. I would pull the fuse for the radio first, i have seen some posts on other forums about chrysler radios going bad and pulling an amp or more in standby.
The thing is if your battery is in PERFECT shape it takes a long time to drain it with an amp or less. You said from 10pm to 5:30am, thats on 7.5 hours, an average car battery has a capacity around 40-50 amp hours. That means if you had a perfect capacity of say 45 amp hours you should be able to draw a 1 amp load for 45 hours, yeah i know guys this isn't perfect math as there is a lot of variables, temp, battery age, wire voltage/current drop, etc etc...
But lets just say if you have a 2 amp draw on that battery when the engine is off you should be able to let that battery sit for 20+ hours before its too dead to start.
Another thing to check, when its too dead to start check the voltage at the battery with a voltmeter and see where your at. And if you know anyone with a digital meter that also measures amps then once the battery is topped off and starting fine shut off the engine and pull the positive lead off the battery and put the meter between it and the positive post of the battery to see how many amps are being drawn with everything off, should be less than an amp. I know even with all the added gear in my KJ i only see about 500-700 milliamps of standby current being drawn, that's because usually my ipod is plugged in, cell phone, two-way radio gear that has keep alive power to its memory, etc.. But i never have a starting problem.
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kb0nly
Full Access Member
Worst case here, i know you just replaced the battery, but you might want to replace it again and have the alternator checked to make sure the KJ is actually fully charging the battery to begin with!
battery & VOM
Have your new battery load tested, where you bought it. They should be able to replace it, if it fails the load test.
So now that you have a new battery again, and it is fully charged, use a voltage ohm meter or digital voltage reader, and while it is running should read somewhere around 15+ volts.
Turn off Jeep with interior lights turned off at multi switch at turn signal, and notice voltage lets say 13.4 volts average after 10 minutes normal. If while connected you can see it dropping you have a voltage leak down. Now it is time to start removing fuses one by one until your voltage leak down stops. This will point you in the right direction hopefully.
My jeep has ghost interior lights where the interior lights can come on and stay on, even though multi is turned off and needs the multi function switch replaced.
Hope this helps.
Have your new battery load tested, where you bought it. They should be able to replace it, if it fails the load test.
So now that you have a new battery again, and it is fully charged, use a voltage ohm meter or digital voltage reader, and while it is running should read somewhere around 15+ volts.
Turn off Jeep with interior lights turned off at multi switch at turn signal, and notice voltage lets say 13.4 volts average after 10 minutes normal. If while connected you can see it dropping you have a voltage leak down. Now it is time to start removing fuses one by one until your voltage leak down stops. This will point you in the right direction hopefully.
My jeep has ghost interior lights where the interior lights can come on and stay on, even though multi is turned off and needs the multi function switch replaced.
Hope this helps.
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kb0nly
Full Access Member
You shouldn't have 15+ volts from the alternator...
If the battery is fully charged you will usually see around 13.8-14.2 with the engine running that could go as high as 14.6, if your meter isn't that accurate maybe 14.8 but thats getting plenty high. At 15+ volts most aftermarket electronics would be sent to their graves and most onboard stuff would be not too far behind as even the stereos in most vehicles have a voltage regulator that cuts off around 15v, i have repaired a few stereos in my day.
If the battery is fully charged you will usually see around 13.8-14.2 with the engine running that could go as high as 14.6, if your meter isn't that accurate maybe 14.8 but thats getting plenty high. At 15+ volts most aftermarket electronics would be sent to their graves and most onboard stuff would be not too far behind as even the stereos in most vehicles have a voltage regulator that cuts off around 15v, i have repaired a few stereos in my day.
Andynator
Full Access Member
Very minor thing, but check that the battery clamps and connectors on BOTH ends of the cables are clean and free from corrosion and the connections are tight.
I had an old car with (what I thought) was an old battery going bad and would run dead every three days after being charged. I replaced (in sequence) battery, voltage regulator, and alternator before finding that the negative cable (where the cable was connected to the clamp) was so corroded that even though the charging system was fine, no charge was making it back to the battery. 99-cent fix, I ended up being in the hole more than that! That was before the Autozone we'll-bench-test-your-alternator-for-free days.
I'm just sayin'.
I had an old car with (what I thought) was an old battery going bad and would run dead every three days after being charged. I replaced (in sequence) battery, voltage regulator, and alternator before finding that the negative cable (where the cable was connected to the clamp) was so corroded that even though the charging system was fine, no charge was making it back to the battery. 99-cent fix, I ended up being in the hole more than that! That was before the Autozone we'll-bench-test-your-alternator-for-free days.
I'm just sayin'.
KJ zGal
Full Access Member
That's exactly what happened with our Ranger when the alternator went. If you take it over to an advance auto place they can do the battery check for you for free. My KJ has a 2.5 Amp drain on the battery (if I remember right) that I've never been able to pinpoint the source of, but it hasn't given me any problems.
boebr1
Full Access Member
also, if you have a buddy with an "amp clamp" meter, or an amp clamp for their multi tester, you can trace the loom that has the amperage flowing through it. On the note of bad cables... yup, causes very similar situation. your cables should be flexible and soft, not rigid and brittle. i had a battery cable that looked nice and clean at both ends, but then found it was corroded away a couple inches from the clamp. cut that part out, put new clamp on, worked great. that was an old Chevy, but the problem and fix can apply to any car with a battery
I feel so dumb the belt had streached too much ( the tenchener was at max ) I put a new belt on and the problem was fixed. A big thanks to everyone that replied ( I did try all sugestions learned alot too ). Again thank all ov you for your help ( my wife is now a happy camper)....lost
kb0nly
Full Access Member
Awesome!
Also just so you know, you might want to replace the tensioner as well otherwise the problem will come back eventually i bet. The belt and tensioner are supposed to be replaced as a set when servicing, the spring in there gets weak, also there has been a lot of reports of the pulley on it self destructing and burning up.
It's easy to replace!
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