Battery Draining. Help needed

Im having difficulty keeping a charge in a new battery. I will jump the battery and take it for a ride. I return in around 1 hour and it will start up easily. Next day, completely dead. My battery charger reports the alternator as "Good."

Any ideas as to where to start looking?

Make sure there are no gas fumes present in the front truck area then ....with the key in the off position, remove the neg cable at the battery then just touch it tothe terminal..Are you then getting a spark ? If so something is "on" i.e. mis-wired ign switch etc.
If no spark is seen, turn the key to the on position and
pull one fuse at a time and rechecking for the spark jump then replace the fuse and pull the next one ...you can the isolate which circuit is the problem area . ~ Alan

Also---this is the time of year "weak" batteries rear their ugly heads.
If your battery is 4+ years old (younger if it's a pleasure car that doesn't get used all of the time) it may be time for a new one.
ooops---I reread your "new" battery comment-never mind the above.
Connections all good?

Alan, there is no spark at the negative terminal in the "off" position. There is when it is in the "on" position. In your 2nd step, are you saying when I pull the fuse to the "bad" line, I will have no spark at the negative terminal in the "on" position?

Step2-No he is referring to a spark in the fuse which means that a circuit is open...

yes, this will narrow where to look .

Hey Bob, How does "your battery charger show good"?

Bruce, my charger has a switch that will test the alternator, Don't know how accurate it is.

Alan and others. I'm confused (no suprise). Wouldn't every fuse arc a spark if I pulled the fuse while the igition is on? And, how would this tell me if that specific line is bad?

Thanks

Do you hae a radio or a amp that may be staying powered up. I'd make sure your dash lites or running lights are cutting off. when you shut it down if it has a fanned oil cooler make sure the fan is also stopping when you shut off the key. the alt could be going bad also. have it checked througthly

I know you checked all this stuff. but just wanted to be sure youve covered all the bases..

could be a loose or worn out fan belt too...

Definitely check the fan belt for slippage first, good one Bob.

Instead of looking for a spark, connect a test light between the battery and the disconnected cable. If it lights with everything in the car off, then you have a short or ground somewhere in the system. The best way to do this is with an ammeter so you can see exactly how much current is being drawn. Then you remove fuses one at a time to isolate the bad circuit.

If there is no current being drawn in the ignition off position, then you look elsewhere. Are all your connections clean and tight? Don't assume, clean them with an inexpensive battery brush, and make sure all grounds are metal to metal, greased(dielectric grease), and use star washers. Sometimes adding a ground cable from the engine/trans to the frame can help with these problems.

Also, even though your alternator tests OK, what voltage is it putting out when idling and say 2500 rpm? If it is less than 13.8v, that may be the problem. Also, it really shouldn't be higher than 14.5v. Even though the battery is new, test the battery voltage with the car off after you've just driven it, should be slightly above 12V. Test it the next day, and then the next day. It really shouldn't drop any at all, maybe a tenth(.1) of a volt or two. Also, check the voltage while cranking, it shouldn't be below 10 volts. It is entirely possible you have a "new" battery that is marginal. If the same symptoms were present before you swapped the battery, then the problem is likely in the car.

For the winter, I remove my battery and put it on a float charger, or battery tender, indoors on a wooden workbench. The charger is a 1 or 2 amp selectable model, available at Lowe's for $20.

Please report back, I hope we can help you solve your problem.

Bob,

All the advice you've been given is spot on and will likely find a slow drain or bad ground in the system.

That said, I've managed to buy two defective batteries in the last couple of years. One from Sears (a Diehard) and the other from Batteries Plus. Returning the Sears one was a piece of cake. The Batteries Plus guy was a freaking idiot about it... The battery was not holding a charge and leaking acid thru the positive terminal. Mr. Batteries Plus insisted that the battery was good and proceeded to shove a screw driver into the side terminal to scrape away the corrosion.

That was it. Game over. I got my receipt and showed him were it says I can return the battery anytime within the first 90 days for a store credit. So I did and bought another battery. No problems with the second one.

Point being, a new battery being defective is probably the LAST problem, but it is possibly the problem.

angela

Just a thought, do you have an alarm or tracking system installed, hold on you are in the states you probably won't have a tracking system. A common fault with these is that they have two positive inputs, One permanently on and the other through the ignition. If these are the wrong way around the trackers backup battery will be charged when the ignition is of.

For those of you who don't know the term tracker its either a satelite tracking or cellular tracking system to recover stolen cars.

One further thought, If you run the car and then remove one of the terminals and leave the car for a couple of days does the battery hold its charge

Bad starter.

Bad starter? How old is yours? My old one killed my battery in the past.
I've also had a bad alt. drain it also.

I killed a few batteries in a short time when I still had a steel-wheeled spare in the boot. The wheel hit on both terminals and trickle-drained my batteries. I got a tire strap and a little piece of metal hardware to keep the tire up over the fuel tank and the problem went away.

Still haven't found the problem. Took the neg. terminal off for 2 days and after re-connecting, it started right up. I don't know how old the starter is but wouldn't know how to check if it is draining the battery. I'm going to get a voltage tester today and will play with it for a few days. I'm thinking it might be somewhere in the wiring of the gauges. The wiring under the dash is a mess with some exposed wiring going nowhere. The wiring was to be my winter project but ...

Bob - This has nothing to do with your battery issue, but I was just curious if you ever got that Nardi mounted.

Bob.
Connect an amp meter between a battery cable (disconnected) and the battery post. If there is current flowing the amp meter will show it. A test light will do the same thing but if the current drain is low it will not light the light. If the meter shows current flow, start pulling fuses and disconnecting things one at a time till the meter shows '0'. Use a meter that will handle like maybe 20 amps, digital meter may be better. Gauges in the cars won't have the sensitivity to show low current draws. Drain will be in the circuit disconnected when the meter goes to '0'. HTH
Bill