Battery is dead every morning.

[Storm24m]

Ok, something is running with the key off. The battery is completely dead every morning. For now I'm just disconnecting it every night. That ain't gonna cut it. Where should I start looking? What is the most likely culprit? Any info appreciated. Thanks

 

[ChevBlazin]

My battery kept going dead and it ended up being a bad starter. It didnt go dead every day though.

 

[sagechicken]

My K5 would drain the battery in 6hrs, I replaced the starter and now the truck sits for days with out being started and I don't have any problems with excess battery drain.

 

[Little Giant]

Starter sounds like a good place to start. I've seen a couple alternators cause a drain when they went bad.

I've also seen a factory stereo and improperly wired MSD ignition box do the same. So its hard to say.

 

[MudbogAD]

It sounds like it could be the starter. My starter is very old. I think I'm being inspired to replace it./forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[Skigirl]

You should be able to check it with a test light. I'm narrowing down the same problem on mine, but it's not the starter, alternator, radio, ham radio. I finally got an ammeter that will test up to 20 amps. My little multi's would blow a fuse, so I knew it was draining more than 200 milliamps. But an obvious drain could be at least narrowed down a little with a test light.

 

[SkulzNBonz]

Check the connections at the starter. I have had two Chevy cars that did the same thing, and both turned out to be wires that worked loose at the starter.

John

 

[TX Mudder]

I've never heard of a started causing this problem, but that doesn;t mean it isn;t true.
I recommend using your multimeter to check for current drain with the igniton turned off.
You are supposed to have a small current drain idle (for radio preset, alarm, that kind of thing) but something is sucking you dry.
Now, pull each fuse one at a time and see if they cures your drain. When you find out which one it is, you can then troubleshoot that part.
If it's a shorted starter, it obviously would not help to do the fusebox thing because the starter is not fused.
-- Mike

 

[BINDERMAN]

I use same method as skigirl does, disconnect the positive cable at batt and hook a test light up between cable and post(like an extension of the cable) and start pulling fuses and disconnecting known battery drains, hood lights,radio,clocks, etc. When you find the culprit the bulb in test light will go off. this will not work if draw is in milliamp range, but since your batt runs down overnight it has pretty high drain going somewhere. This has nothing to do with your problem but surface discharge on a battery is a real cool thing to show people. Hook your dvom (on dv volts) to positive post and then start touching other lead around on battery case/lids and watch the voltage. Seen some as high as 12 volts on dirty batteries, will make you clean off your battery more often.

 

[ChevyCaGal]

How much stuff do you have hooked up to it...? I had an alarm and one of the wires got worked loose and it was grounding and draining it... having a stereo with a bunch of stuff can do the same.... some more things to check out....

 

[Skigirl]

Yep, that's what I do, 'cept I disconnect the negative cable.

 

[Storm24m]

Thanks for all the good advice everyone. I'll start checking things out this weekend.