OK so I need to find out what is draining and killing batteries in my '92 V6 pickup. I have had the Alternator tested in vehicle and I pulled it and also had it tested. Tested fine both times. The battery only dies when the truck sits for over aday w/out driving. That leads me to believe the alternator is still good. I also pulled the pos and neg cables coming from the battery and they looked fine.

I bought a Mulitimeter, but have no idea what to do with it. I know there has been some posts in this but I couldn't find them.

Can someone walk me through the basics on this so I can track down the problem I am having?

thanks

 

Help me out guys.

Thanks

 

I will tell you what little i know, pull the positive cable off the battery and hook the meter leads from the battery cable to the battery and see what the drain on the battery is, (keep in mind that the computer and probably the clock always pull a little power when the ignition is off) now start pulling fuses one by one until the drain on the battery either stops or drops down to almost nothing, and that circuit will be were the problem is.

Hope this helps.

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Parasitic-Battery-Drain

 

Yep, link has a good description. Basically you want to put your meter on the amps/current range and hook the probes between a battery post and the cable that attached to the post. This way the current flows through the meter and it'll read the current (use the highest current scale it offers to start with). Normal drain (for clock, computer, radio, etc.) is maybe 20 mA (0.020 amps) or less. Current flows much higher than that indicate something is amiss. To find out the cause, start pulling fuses to find out which one feeds the offending device(s). Then track down what is connected to that fuse and disconnect things until you find the current draining device. I had a case where it was a radio standby memory circuit that was pulling ~40 mA. I had wired the radio such that it had power all the time and with power to it's power input, it pulled that much current when it was off. I re-wired it so that the main radio power was switched off with the engine and only the memory power was constant. That nearly eliminated the current drain. Note that 40 mA drain will discharge a battery in 2 weeks or so. Higher drains = faster discharge time.

 

are you sure the battery is dead? try tightening the wires nuts on your starter and all battery cables first.

then check if your battery is actually draining, and not something else causing it to not start up.


but if it is a drain follow that link and what rb said

 

possibly a weak / dead cell in the battery. it happens.
take the battery to a shop where they can load test it.

 

ya I'd do a quick draw test if it turns out good take a good look at the battery.
A dead or dying battery will seem fine when starting on a regular basis, but try using it in -20 or let it sit for a week.

 

do you have an aftermarket amplifier or radio? Did you hook up the power/remote wire correctly? Lots of people just wire the remote to a 12v source and dont realize that it will stay on forever like that.

Also do what the other guys said too check for a big load.

 

My sister is experiencing the exact same problem with her '93 'Runner 3.0. When I first looked at the problem she told me that you would hear a clicking sound after turning the truck off, pulling the key out. At first I thought it was the power antenna motor(I think it was), but it just kept on clicking long after the key was pulled. The truck sits about a week at a time before being driven, every week the brand new battery is dead, and now there is no longer the clicking sound...??? I will try the fuse-pulling drain test and see what I can find.