SteveCZ28

iTrader: (1)

i keep killing batteries in my 06 mcss. about 2 months ago, the car sat for about 3-4 weeks, and killed the old battery down to around 2 volts. it needed replacing as it was pushing acid out of the positive battery terminal. so I replaced it with a optima red top. now the car has sat about 3 weeks again, and yesterday I tried getting into the trunk, but the battery was dead again. I threw the battery tender on it all day, but the battery is too dead for the tender to recognize it. I knew I should have kept the battery tender on it all this time while it has sat. but I didn't. kicking myself for that now.
but anyways, I must have a hell of a power draw for it to keep doing this. ive never had a car keep killing batteries like this one. so I don't even know where to start as to how to start checking for possibly culprits. I don't have any aftermarket electrical addons in the car. so its as factory as it gets currently. I know everything shuts off when doors are shut. dome light is shut off as well.
any help or info would be appreciated in this subject.

lVloses

iTrader: (1)

Id check how much of a draw you have first and then start pulling fuses as you go. Unhook your negative cable on your battery and put a voltmeter inline there. Put it on amps and wait a few minutes for everything in the car to shut down. Then you should see how much it's drawing. And like I said after that pull a fuse at a time and repeat until your draw is normal.

12v

You have to measure drain from you battery when car is parked. You can use an amperemeter but you can easily damage it. The safest (for tools) way to do it is to read by voltmeter a voltage drop on low ohm high wattage resistor connected in series between one of battery terminal and corresponding (neg or pos) cable. Headlight bulb will be fine as a resistor. You can calculate a drain using Ohms Law. But draining out battery in 3-4weeks might be normal for modern car with a lot of electronics.

blkchevyz

probably not much help, but mine was having an issue where it would die after a couple days. ended up being the latch in the trunk wasnt registering as being closed, even though it was and did not notify me about it.

Pauls325

iTrader: (1)

^correct with all systems off the car should be pulling between 30 and 50 mA

SteveCZ28

iTrader: (1)

ok ill check this way

thanks for the "resting" current

Sint3k

For my monte carlo 30-50ma is pretty excessive.

My monte carlo only draws about 5 miliamps.

To do your own amp draw test, there is 2 ways. You can use an inductive low amp clamp meter. Or you can wire your volt meter up in line with one of the terminals,

So you set your meter to measure amps, you have to make sure your lead are connected into the right ports because they usually are a different hole then when you test voltage or ohms. You unhook the negative battery cable, (for saftey reasons). You connect one lead to the battery cable, then the other to the actually negative battery post. Some modules will power on once you do this. Let the car sit for 30 minutes and come back and check the amp draw. If the amp draw is exessive, start pulling fuses. "don't put the fuses back in because this action will/can also turn modules back on", keep pulling fuses till you see the amp draw drop

Thats the jist of it.