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battery draining all of a sudden

My battery on my blazer sounds like yours, at about 26 months old, it stopped holding a charge for a week, then it just got shorter and shorter until it would start the next day but not two days. then all of a sudden it would not take a charge from the alternator or from my battery charger. I did not think the battery was the issue, so I fought it for almost 8 months, just had to charge it before starting the truck, that I had a drain.

I finally got sick of it and I took it to Les Scwab and they said it was a dead cell. Got 60% off a new 84 month battery. Problem Solved!!
 
YA, a couple of the coloradok5 crew said it at the beginning of this thread how most likely the battery is the culprit. I think they are right. I just wasnt thinking the battery at first cause it really isnt that old.
 
Might be alittle short on it's lifespan in your climate, i know that out in the Phoenix area, batteries would only last about 3 years, if you got more out of it, you were lucky.

I found this through a pattern of the battery dates that were always being replaced when i worked at a well known auto parts chain.

The ones that usually were longer than 3 years, say going on 4-5 years, were usually brought in from somewhere with more mild climate.

I just got 5 years out of my Duralast Gold from Autozone, even though the truck was down for several months off and on due to either trans issues or the motor problems i had awhile back, but less than 4 months after moving back to a cold climate area, the battery died, same with the other truck, as soon as the cold started coming through here, they said F-it, i quit.
 
Look for something left on, in my case it was a broken vanity mirror light in the vissor that never shut off.
 
Update !!

Well I went to start the truck after 4 days of sitting and no dice. the new battery was dead. So it wasnt the battery after all. Tomorrow I will do some searching, and read up on other posts to see any more ideas. :confused:
 
It is findable. Might be a pain, but it can be found.
First, charge the battery. Don't jump it off and let the alt. do it, use a charger if you can. They do a better job.

Then, put it back in, and try a test light between the positive post and the clamp.

BUT, hook up the clamp first, and crank the truck. There might be something that only comes on after it has run for a few seconds.
Then, take the clamp loose, and put the test light between it and the post.

If it lights, then start pulling fuses until it goes out.

If it does not go out with fuses, then get creative. Disconnect the alt., unplug any wire plugs you see, try disconnecting connections one at a time and putting them back until that light goes out.

If the light does not come on, try a meter set on 20 amp scale.
If there is a relay or something like that pulling in, it will not get enough current to pull in with the test light.
An ammeter will let full current go through.

Write back with what you find.
 
I decided yesterday to do some fixing and cleaning up of some wiring and electrical junk before I start testing some more. So I started with replacing the door jamb interior light switches, which led to finding the dome light wires had been cut and were laying under the carpet. So I fixed those wires and now my interior lights work. Then I found the wire that goes to my seat belt and disconnected that cause the retraction spring doesnt work. Next I found the plug that goes to the tcase which has a light to tell me that its in 4wd. I am hooking that up next. this all happened about 1pm yesterday, and the truck sat untill today at 4:30pm when I went out to start it and she fired right up. I took her for a test drive, making sure no noises, from installing my 203 partime shaft.
stay tuned for more updates in my wiring and charging saga. :rolleyes:
 
Wondering about that seatbelt wire, we had one of those on the passenger side seat on my brothers Caddy we eventually disconnected, cause i could hear noises coming from that side somewhere, just took a guess and unplugged that, then noticed we didn't have to jump start the car after that when it had been sitting for a few days.

Not sure what's in those things electrical, or what would/could cause a drain in the battery, but it seemened to work fine after that. Hopefully that's all that was wrong with yours.

I did have a smal wiring issue in the Burb a long time ago, and as someone on here mentioned, i found that the wire feeding the vanity light had somehow shorted and was popping stereo/cig lighter fuses. THAT time, i had the ENTIRE interior torn out of the burb cause i was that fed up with not having stereo or use of the cig lighter. :doah:and i mean entire, all the way down to having the seats AND carpeting removed.

One good thing, other than finding the short, i was able to clean everything nicely while it was out :tongue1:
 
I get a call about once a month or so about either cig sockets that don't work, or cell phones that won't charge.

I was walking out of my local cell store the other day, and saw my high school art teacher standing there.
Still hot by the way.......

She had been waiting for about 30 minutes because her cell phone charger would not work on her car and she had an appointment to get it fixed.

I told her I would take care of it.

I whipped out my............penlight, what WERE you thinking?

Looked into the socket.
Picked up a small twig whittled it to a point and stabbed the chewing gum wrapper laying in the bottom of the socket.
Charger worked fine after that.

At least once per month.
I either pull out a penny or chewing gum foil that has shorted it, or a piece of paper or chewing gum wrapper like that that keeps it from making contact.
 
Complete hijack here....

Last friday I had a Volvo 670 with a no AC complaint. And night shift had installed a new compressor the night before. Spec for resistance to the clutch coil on that truck is 3.7 ohms max. I check and I have 3.9 ohms. To close to condemn. Check and find no power at the plug either. Check the trinary switch and no power there either. Now I have to take a close look at the inside of the cab, I was trying to avoid this since it looked really sketchy. Check all the fuses and they are good. Now I really have to look at the dash control and it looookkkssss NASTY. This driver has glazed it in diet coke and coffee with cream. On go the rubber gloves and I start taking the dash apart. It really was half glued together from the spillage. I get the damn thing apart and start spraying it down with windex and blowing it out with compressed air. 30 minutes later I have power at the compressor. Driver is pissed because the fleet manager wants him to pay for the un-needed repairs due to the drivers stupidity. So whats worse for a PCB, diet coke or windex....
 
So whats worse for a PCB, diet coke or windex....
Click to expand...

Hard to say. Diet Coke is carbonated, which means it has carbonic acid.
But, its fairly dilute, and tends to dissipate.

Some of the window cleaners have ammonia.
If you see some blue-green stains on the copper, thats from the ammonia. It corrodes copper.

Windex contains Ammonia-D. What the heck that is, is anybodies guess.
There has also been a lot of data on ammoniated solvents causing microscopic cracks in rifle barrels.
So, don't clean your rifle with Windex......
 
Fordum said:
Windex contains Ammonia-D. What the heck that is, is anybodies guess.

So, don't clean your rifle with Windex......
Click to expand...

It's not Ammonia -A :whistle: :D

another thing NOT to use windex or any cleaners with Ammonia in it are windows that have been tinted.

I have been doing window tinting for the past several years on my own now, that's a big thing, it deteroriates the dye in the film and eventually will attack the adheasive, causing purple tint and the cheaper films usually start to bubble after a few years.
 
Lets get back on track , please :rolleyes:

Anyways UPDATE !!!

Last sunday I disconnected the choke wire from the alt. wire and ran it to the fuse box. then I also finished hooking up the wires that ran to the 203 that will turn on the light and let me know when its in 4wheeldrive. Well drove the truck to work on Tuesday, then to home. The truck has sat since then and I went to start today and it fired up :thumb:. So after sitting for 4 days the Battery was good to go. So I have solved my battery draining problem.
 
scrappyk5 said:
Lets get back on track , please :rolleyes:

Anyways UPDATE !!!

Last sunday I disconnected the choke wire from the alt. wire and ran it to the fuse box. then I also finished hooking up the wires that ran to the 203 that will turn on the light and let me know when its in 4wheeldrive. Well drove the truck to work on Tuesday, then to home. The truck has sat since then and I went to start today and it fired up :thumb:. So after sitting for 4 days the Battery was good to go. So I have solved my battery draining problem.
Click to expand...
There was a topic???

Oh well, glad you got it going. Which fuse did you hook the choke to? I assume one that is switched on when the ignition is turned on.
If so, just be sure you don't sit a long time with the key on in cold weather or its going to be hard to start...
 
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