Battery looses charge

[ariel]

My 96 tahoe battery looses charge every 2 days if I dont start my truck every day. Where should I start?

 

[drakon543]

how old is the battery. also just unhook the battery for said 2 or 3 days. if you hook it back up with the same symptoms its the battery. if not is the vehicle all oem like extra lights or audio such and so forth. with the vehicle off check ohm reading across the alternator with the alternator disconnected from the system.

 

[willxfs]

You can google or you tube identifying parasitic draw on a car/truck. I saw one guy disconnect one battery cable and place an amp meter between the battery cable end and battery post. Take a reading with the key on and off. Then with the key off, start pulling fuses one at a time while observing the amp meter. When you pull the fuse to the offending circuit, you should see a reduction in amps on your meter. This should help to identify which circuit is drawing power even with the key off.

 

[ariel]

how old is the battery. also just unhook the battery for said 2 or 3 days. if you hook it back up with the same symptoms its the battery. if not is the vehicle all oem like extra lights or audio such and so forth. with the vehicle off check ohm reading across the alternator with the alternator disconnected from the system.

Thank you..good idea Drakon!

 

[ariel]

You can google or you tube identifying parasitic draw on a car/truck. I saw one guy disconnect one battery cable and place an amp meter between the battery cable end and battery post. Take a reading with the key on and off. Then with the key off, start pulling fuses one at a time while observing the amp meter. When you pull the fuse to the offending circuit, you should see a reduction in amps on your meter. This should help to identify which circuit is drawing power even with the key off.

Will do! I'll post back in a couple days..Thanks Willxfs!

 

[BennyR72]

You can google or you tube identifying parasitic draw on a car/truck. I saw one guy disconnect one battery cable and place an amp meter between the battery cable end and battery post. Take a reading with the key on and off. Then with the key off, start pulling fuses one at a time while observing the amp meter. When you pull the fuse to the offending circuit, you should see a reduction in amps on your meter. This should help to identify which circuit is drawing power even with the key off.

Just to add to this: Make sure that when you're looking for the draw, everything - I mean EVERYTHING - is off. When you start pulling fuses you're gonna have your drivers side door open, which is going to show a draw so throw some tape or something over the door switch. I had a draw that was driving me nuts only to find out that it was a vanity mirror with a broken pin.

Nothing is more frustrating than looking for a draw for an hour only to realize that it was the open door the whole time.

Good luck.

 

[ariel]

Just to add to this: Make sure that when you're looking for the draw, everything - I mean EVERYTHING - is off. When you start pulling fuses you're gonna have your drivers side door open, which is going to show a draw so throw some tape or something over the door switch. I had a draw that was driving me nuts only to find out that it was a vanity mirror with a broken pin.

Nothing is more frustrating than looking for a draw for an hour only to realize that it was the open door the whole time.

Good luck.

Thank you Benny! Will post back when I figure this out!