I have a 2004 4cyl and I am having problems with my battery going dead. The battery is less than two years old and I had it and my alternator checked. Both passed. Yet I am still having a dead battery problem. I was wondering if anyone else had this problem and what the problem may be.

 

Was the battery and alt checked while it was in the car or out of the car?


At what location was the charging volts tested, alt or battery?


What were the readings? Batt volts? Charging volts?


Was the battery tested after it was fully charged then load tested?

 

They were checked while they were still in the car. I can't remember what the readings were but I do know that they read fine. They were tested at the battery. When it was tested, the battery was charged. We found a loose ground cable and that fixed it for a couple days. When I went out this morning, the battery had went dead again. This happened before and I changed the battery. The date on the battery is 1/07 I believe. It is still under warranty. It was fine untill the first of this week. I do have an XM radio in my car and I leave it on. I bought it not long after I bought the car and never had it drain the battery. Since I started having this problem this week, I started turning it off when I get out. The battery still is being drained. Any suggestions?

 

I would clean every ground along the raditor support!





TURN EVERTHING OFF! If you have a troble light under the hood removethe bulbfor the test. Doors closed! glove box door!


First take the positive cable off the battery then place one end of the test light on the cable and the other on the postive battery post. The test light should be DIM ONLY! Computer memory and clock,and radio memory causes this!


If your test light is bright, start removing the fuse's one at a time watching for the light to dim, the fuse that makes the light dim is where the problem is.





Another test is to remove the large wire on the rear of alt, see if battery drains, The alt can have bad diode's in it and will discharge the battery when the car is turned off and not running. In this condition the alt will still charge the battey though!


https://oldsmobileforum.com/forum_po...?TID=994&K W=Ryano&PN=0&TPN=2


Edited by: Ryano

 

I will try this. Thank you.

 

I treid everything that you said. I cleaned the grounds, and then put the test light on the battery. It was dim, however it was pulsing bright. I pulled every fuse and it did not change. I talked to a mechanic friend and he looked at what the light was doing and he told me it was the diodes going bad. I have since changed it and, with the exception of the tensioner coming loose, I believe it has solved the problem. Thank you for your help.

 

So you did this test with the engine running? What does the light do with the engine not running?


You may want to do some searching around , it seem to me I have read something about headlights pulsing, but no drainage was sugested because of that. If it is the doides it will run your battery down, diodes can be tested!


Keep us informed.

 

Well, its been a week since I put the new alternator on and I haven't had any problems since. It turns out that it was the diodes.

 

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Update. I had the same problem about a week ago. After I got my car running, I took it and had it checked again. This time it was the battery. I have since had the regular service done (oil, other fluids, etc) and I was told that there was a problem with my charging system. On the printout, it showed that the charge was over 12 volts. Any idea on what this could be? Could I have gotten hold of another bad alternator?
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With the engine running the alt should put out about 14 volts. The battry voltage should be 12 volts, with the engine off.
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