Dead Battery

[tzque]

I am having a problem with my battery . It will not hold a charge if it sit for more than two weeks without the battery tender on it .'
I pulled the battery sears says it is fine . I pulled the alternator and they say that is fine as well .
Could you please give me any suggestions on what is killing my battery .
the light are off the glove box and trunk are closed . I cant figure out what it is Buying a new battery will not fix this problem . Any suggestions ?

 

[Tony Shoaff]

Radio

Pull the positive battery cable off. Connect a test light between the cable end and the positive on the battery. Does the light up bright? If it does pull fuses until the light goes out and trace the wiring to find the problem.

 

[turbo nasty]

3 parasitic drains that are common problems are
1. Radio
2. ECM
3. Alarm

Id start with them

 

[TurboDave]

I am having a problem with my battery . It will not hold a charge if it sit for more than two weeks without the battery tender on it .'
I pulled the battery sears says it is fine . I pulled the alternator and they say that is fine as well .
Could you please give me any suggestions on what is killing my battery .
the light are off the glove box and trunk are closed . I cant figure out what it is Buying a new battery will not fix this problem . Any suggestions ?

Even though the trunk lid is closed, are you sure the light is going out?? This happened on two turbo regals in my family. Light stayed on, killing the battery after several days. Just something to check. You can stick your head in the trunk and bring the lid down watching the light. It should go out long before getting to far down.

 

[NVRL8]

If the car is just sitting and losing a charge this won't matter, but check that the volt light in the dash lights up. That light completes the charging circuit.

 

[Missouri T]

I just went through that.
Had a big $$ Optima battery in my car and the store tested it and said it was fine.
WRONG!
Replaced it with a new AC/Delco 72 month because I was tired of chasing my tail and VOILA! No more dying battery problems!
It has sat for a week now and cranks like CRAZY whereas the old battery would have only ticked the solenoid.

 

[TurboDave]

I just went through that.
Had a big $$ Optima battery in my car and the store tested it and said it was fine.
WRONG!
Replaced it with a new AC/Delco 72 month because I was tired of chasing my tail and VOILA! No more dying battery problems!
It has sat for a week now and cranks like CRAZY whereas the old battery would have only ticked the solenoid.

Sears got my Optima back a couple months after I bought it (for the same reasons) Nobody'll convince me that the Optimas are anything more than a gimmicky piece of junk.

 

[Missouri T]

Sears got my Optima back a couple months after I bought it (for the same reasons) Nobody'll convince me that the Optimas are anything more than a gimmicky piece of junk.

I'm not flaming on Optima's because I didn't know how old mine was-it came with the car when I got it three months ago. 1 year? 9 years?
But $180+ for a yellow-top? NO way.
That borders on insane.

Now that the OEM AC/Delco I put in there is working PERFECTLY, I'm SOOOO glad I didn't just "bite the bullet" and get an Optima.
Heck, my wife would have killed me if I spent that kind of money on a battery!

You can get some cool Turbo Buick goodies for the $120 I saved buying a regular battery! :biggrin:

 

[GNTurbo6]

There's no reason to get a Yellow Top unless you have a high powered stereo system. I had mine in my Camry for a few years and now it's in the Buick. No problems yet, I think it's been in there for 2 months now.

 

[Missouri T]

There's no reason to get a Yellow Top unless you have a high powered stereo system. I had mine in my Camry for a few years and now it's in the Buick. No problems yet, I think it's been in there for 2 months now.

My T has a completely ridiculous stereo in it.
The previous owner said "$7200 worth".

Guess I've outgrown that stereo stuff.
Oh well, it came with the car.
I am more into listening to the turbo in action and for any possible problem sounds.

The reason for a yellow top with a big stereo is if you were going to listen to the system without the engine running since the deep cycle has such a huge reserve capacity, right?
I'll never do that, thus the standard battery replacement.

 

[dougie]

I had the same problem. It was the "security" light in the dash that flashes when the car is turned off. I just took the bulb out and it solved the problem.

 

[ELLISDALLASWE4]

Battery

To those out there with Battery Drain ... I have found the problem!!!

If the Radio Clock stays on with the key off then if your car sits for around 3 days or more it will not start. So what you end up doing is you jump start your car and then go driving around for fun and to charge your battery. To fix this problem you can just disconnect the battery each time you put the car up, but that is a pain. This battery drain drove me nuts and so I put lots of time into tracking this problem down. I knew that the drain was around 350 milliamps and it have to be something that happened due to age to the car to cause the problem OR when the car was new everyone would have just taken them back to the dealer to fix the problem. In other words the car did not come with this problem. I did pull fuses until I found the problem circuit and it was on the CLK fuse. The CLK has lots of circuits on it and is one of the two power sources to the Radio. This circuit powers the memory for the radio stations, time and the radio will not work with out it. I remembered that GM car radio’s that have a clock go off if you turn the key off, and you can push in the volume knob to get the time with the key off. So I went back to the Internet to search for problems with the GM radio clock. I found the there are tons of Turbo cars out there with this same problem and lots of guy with the wrong ideas as to what is wrong. I found that there is a circuit that controls the clock and that some guys had this fixed by a radio shop but they really didn’t know what was fixed. I have had this problem for years and I wanted to know all about it. I then pulled my radio and replaced a shorted circuit and now the clock goes off when the key is off. I can let my car sit for weeks and it will still start, and it’s a healthy start. There is no battery drain period. I can fix your radio for $39.95 including shipping it back to you. Here is an added bonus to fixing the radio clock and if you think about it makes sense. There seems to be a lot of turbo cars that just die and or miss at idle. My car would do this, but does not seem to now, since I have fixed the clock. I believe that this is due to the battery having a full healthy charge. This puts the correct voltage to all sensors and the computer. I still need to have some more time to test this but I have noticed a difference just leaving a traffic light and at idle. So if you would like to have your radio clock light repaired then pack it good put your name and return address on the radio and then send it with $39.95 to David Ellis 9560 Heatherdale Dallas, TX 75243.

David Ellis

Ellis@davidellisrealestate.com

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