Okay, here's the chain of events:

Approx one month ago: The fuse that controls the power locks and I believe something else blew out. Replaced it without issue.

Last Tuesday: drove my car for the last time. No issues while driving-- had the radio on. Turned it off, everything seemed fine. Power locks worked since I habitually use them to lock the doors, so obviously must have had some battery power.

Thursday afternoon: Get in the car... NO power whatsoever. Not even the dome light. Noticed that my XM radio and V1 are both plugged in-- I have done this before and it'll usually run the battery down some, but not to the level it's at now.

Pulled all the fuses and they looked okay, even the one I had replaced-- I do have one blown fuse but it's for my hatch light and I believe it's been out for a while... just too lazy to replace it. Hehe. Didn't touch the car for most of the weekend, I also have a sport bike so I put it off until I had more time.

Today: Opened the hood, connected a fully charged "jumper pack" to my battery. Got in the car and the interior light was faintly on, but car wouldn't even attempt to start as there was not nearly enough charge. Eventually lost power again.

Asked a neighbor to jump-start my car, but even with their battery hooked up to mine I got nothing.

Tested the battery with a multimeter-- reads about 2-3V. So basically it's completely dead.



Obviously the battery is completely dead, but the question is why? The battery could have just up and died, but that would be weird since I've had no problems up until this point. Could be an alternator problem, but the car worked completely normally the last time I drove it. Could also be some other electrical problem that I don't really know how to fix-- a friend mentioned a "short to ground".

Any input? Things to try? Obviously I'm going to need to take the battery out and somehow either recharge it or maybe even replace it (I have a warranty at AutoZone, so that would be a good way to get it tested). But where do I go from there? If something else other than the battery itself is the problem, it's just going to happen all over again...

 

First, investigate what you know. The fuse to the power locks popped... Why? Make sure you put in the right amp fuse after the locks went out. You may have put in a stronger fuse which won't necessarily pop if there is a short in front of it. Rule out the power locks first.

 

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I thought the correct range was 250mA to 500mA or a quarter amp to a half amp.

 

I think you started with the right intentions. Get your battery tested at Autozone 1st. Then if battery is good, then goto fault isolation with the amp meter and pulling fuses. I have seen in a very rare instances that the Alt and starter have caused a dead short to ground and drained the battery quickly. But usually in that case, the + positive battery wire was almost glowing red.

 

sounds like you might have shorted a wire, melted the jacket off of it, and that may have caused a voltage leak.

 

Thanks for all of the input. Right now the battery is totally drained (well, essentially-- it has about 3v, but it's basically drained). When I take it to AutoZone, will they be able to tell me if the battery itself is bad/defective or if it's just really drained? Also... if it's the latter, how exactly would I go about getting it recharged? I don't have a charging unit.

I haven't really had a chance to touch the car these past few days but I will get a multimeter in there when I have a chance and probably try the jumper pack/fuses thing.

 

3v usually means the battery is screwed. Hell, 10 volt open circuit is considered 100% depleted.

 

Had a similar issue. My battery would run down to a 2-3%, allmost completely. Was very frustrating. I first put on a kill switch (you can do that or disconnect the battery while you are investigating the issue). This will help if you dont want to jusmp start your car every time it stands a little. I read all the posts, did the ampmeter thing... Then tested all the fuses to see which one is hot when car is off. For me it was two things. First, I have the power trunk pulldown, sometimes the trunk would not close completely, and even though It seemed that it did, the relay for the pulldown was pulling power and the motor was constantly on. I got around it by wiring the trunk through a "Hot when runs" fuse (I used the turn signal fuse). After this all the fuses tested negative, but car was loosing battery power overnight, completely draining the battery. To say the least it drove me insane. The major issue was, that the previous owner wired the alternator incorectly, trowing one of the wires onto the battery cable!!! And even though this did not show up anywhere, the alternator was allways on and was draining the battery to almost 0% in 12hours. So take a look at your alternator, even if it is wired correctly, test if it is pulling power when the car is off. Test using the small wires that comeout on top of the alternator out of the plug. Simplest thing to do is, unplug the little plug on top of the alternator and let the car sit overnight. Good luck! This is one of the most frustrating problems.... Trust me I know...

 

I have the same problem i did all the tests and it is my alternator and i was wondering where i should rewire the field wire to? My indicator light dont work for some reason so thats not really an option if someone could help me i would appreciate it.

 

If you look at the wiring diagrams it has to connect to the fan wire in the fuse box. However if your fuse box is shot on that particular fuse (mine was), you can do two things, one connect it to the fuse that that is "hot when run" , so that power will only be pulled when the car is running. Second thing is more basic, just put a switch in, that you will switch on when the car is running, and connect to any positive power sourse. On the other hand if you are willing to fix your fuses or your fuse box is ok, try reviring the wire like it was originally. That is what i did. If you are not sure where it goes let me know, I'll take a pic for you. Good luck!
Wiring diagrams:
http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm