We're having trouble in my brothers car. It's not a thirdgen but I can't find a good forum for his car. It's an '81 Malibu. Just about every morning we have to jump his car. It runs just fine after it's jumped, so I think the alternator can be ruled out. The battery should be ok because we just took it out of my Camaro and it ran fine in the Camaro. I thought maybe it wasn't enough CCA because my Camaro is a v6 and the Malibu is a 305...But my dad said the battery is originaly from his '98 Silverado that had a 350.
Something has to be draining it while it sits..If It sits for longer than an hour or two it needs jumped. Which means he can't really drive it to work or anything.

How do I find out what is sucking the life out of this battery? I think it has something to do with this being a v6 Malibu originally. The PO put a 305 from a 77' Cadillac in it. There are a lot of electrical connections just hanging around under the hood. Maybe it was fuel injected? The v8 is carb'd.

 

Doesn't matter what the battery came out of, they are all pretty much the same. It's the CCA and size that is different.

I would take the battery to a shop and have them test it. I had the same problem and it was a bad battery. If they say it checks fine, then you have something drawing power when it sits. You can use an amp meter and check the amperage draw by disconnecting the ground wire and testing it there with the amp meter. I can't remember the exact numbers, but it should have less then .4 amps, i think. It might be less then .04. Maybe someone else can chime in with the exact numbers, or if i can find it, i'll post the link to what i found.

 

"Doesn't matter what the battery came out of, they are all pretty much the same. It's the CCA and size that is different. "

That was my point....You realize you just said "All batteries are the same except they are different sizes and have different CCA." That is like saying they are all the same except they're all different. ?
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I had the battery tested at the shop I work in. It's bad...but it was good before we put it in the Malibu. And it had this problem with the last battery too. I'm not sure that the car isn't ruining the batteries.
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I had the battery tested at the shop I work in. It's bad...but it was good before we put it in the Malibu. And it had this problem with the last battery too. I'm not sure that the car isn't ruining the batteries.

 

lmao. Yeah, i guess it helps to read what you write. lmao. But, in my mind it sounded right. lmao.

Yeah, i think my TA is killing batteries for me as well. Had some new red top optima's die on me. These aren't cheap batteries, but it makes me wonder why they are dieing like they do. I do know i have a short somewhere, i just haven't put my fingers on it yet.

http://www.carcraft.com/howto/116_05...ins/index.html

Here's the link that helped me trace out a problem on my old truck. I haven't had alot of time lately to apply this to my TA. Maybe this will help you to check yours out.

 

Yeah, my brother thinks if he buys an optima it will fix his problem. I'm having a hard time convincing him he's just going to ruin a $100 battery...

 

$100? Where are you getting them for $100? They keep going up here. I just paid $149 for my last one. It might be my last one as well. lol. They are good batteries, when you don't have something killing them.