what the hell drains the battery so much?

[kennydawgg]

I parked my 2g for about a month, went out to start it and dead. expected since it has been cold and sitting etc. . So I jump it and drive it around the block a few times come back home and shut it off. try to start it up again and pretty much dead. so I repeat the process and drive over to a buddys house and let it sit and idle. No problems until the fans kick on then it kills the car, go to start it up again and dead. . . grab his charger which has a 55amp start on it and even that wont give up enough juice to start it. we had to let it sit on there for about ten minutes before we got enough to crank it over and start it.

he says he has the exact same problem with his 2g and it has a new battery. but with his 1g that starter will give it plenty to crank and start. is there something im missing in this mix. I would imagine the battery is shot but i put a different one in that I believed to be good and that did not change the situation much. any thoughts?

[asshanson]

Maybe a bad alternator?

[Kracka]

Get the battery and alternator tested; most car part stores do it for free.

[tim]

Sounds like a dead alternator to me but I have seen a battery give the same symptoms before.

Take a volt meter and see how many volts are at the batt with the engine running. Should be somewhere around 14 maybe a little lower if the batt is stone dead. If all is good there have someone turn on all of your accessories while you are watching the voltage.(a/c, headlights, blower on high, stereo, etc) Voltage can drop a little but it should quickly come back if the alt is ok.

Before you take your batt in for testing take it out of the car and charge it over night on a 10amp charge. Doesnt do a bit of good to test a battery that hasnt been completely charged. Even the 20-30 min rapid charge that the parts stores do before testing is just a surface charge that can give skewed results.

[dragonforce]

dead battery.