so today was about the 2nd time where i went to start my car and the battery was dead
i didnt leave the lights on, a door wasnt cracked open which left the dome light on or anything. i'll jump it with one of my family members car and she'll run fine. i'll turn her off and start her up later in the day multiple times with no problem.

the battery is brand new, got it about 4 months ago.
although my car was sitting for about 3, didnt even start it up because of problems and i didnt have the time or the grace of warm dry weather.

what could it be?
could it be that the battery wasnt used for a while and it just sucks?
could it be a wire or ground thats touching somewhere making a circuit and draining it?
or could it just be a S#!ty battery

 

I had a very similar situation last fall, car worked all day one day, then the next day its completely dead...

Turned out I bumped the light switch back in the trunk, but not before I spent 80 bucks on a new battery...

Check your cigarette lighter too, i guess coins in contact with em short the whole car.

 

funny you say that because a week or so ago the cigarette lighter went out ( i used it for my phone charger) and my radio went out. i could play my ipod but only if my phone charger was in the cig lighter and was turned a certain way. turns out it was burnt out and killed a fuse. got that fixed along with a bad connection to the dome light.

oh and a few weeks prior. occasionally when i would go to start it, it would act as if its dead, but it'd crank very slowly. but if i kept on it, it would start up.

 

if the battery sat that long without activity, then the battery has gone bad and you should take it back to where you got it and get it warrenteed, if you got it from a place you can do that.

 

I would start keeping a small fire extinguisher in the car until you find the problem.

 

its a duralast, got it at autozone

 

Running a non deep cycle battery completely dead considerably shortens it's life. You might want to keep it disconnected until you find the source of the drain.

 

any lead acid battery that sits for 4 months with no activity will go bad and not hold a charge for longer then 12 hours. if you still have the receit, take the battery back, if you dont, buy a new battery

 

A lot of people misconcieve that batteries should last for at least what it lists on the battery. There is no life expectancy for a battery, that's pretty much what you are paying for (a warranty). Autozone should warranty it for a new one or prorate it etc. but ive seen batteries last 10 years and i ve seen them last for 10 days! If you add water to it make sure it is distilled water, because a short can happen inside the battery (corrosion jumping accross two plates). These strictly automotive batteries are not really made to be sitting, because you have stuff on the car ie clocks, ECM memory etc. that is constantly draining the battery down, so if it is not started and/or charged for a long time chances are it will be dead next time you go to start it. If the car is going to be sitting for a while, consider leaving the cables detached ($0) or leaving a trickle charger (maintainer) on it ($35).
QED

 

ah well this all makes sense. thanks a lot guys i'll run over to autozone sometime this week

 

a little late but, i got the battery checked and its fine.

how would i go about searching for what is causing the drain of the battery?

 

Is your alternator charging? Check the voltage on that. Then you can do a drain test. Read the amps being drawn with the car off and at rest, etc. Should be around or under half an amp. If its over then you can start unplugging things and see what makes it drop or pull fuses to see what makes it drop to at least narrow it down to the problematic circuit.

 

alright thanks, i'll do that