Battery Keeps Dying out on me!!!

[ktm]

I should reiterate that 15v is fine for charging a low/dead battery, but too high for a maintenance charge rate, which is what is typically happening when your car is running. 15v+ will/can cause the battery to boil/gas, and does damage to the battery.

 

You should not charge up a dead battery with the alternator as that is one way to fry it and cause significant damage to the battery as you said. Charge the battery with a battery charger first.

 

My 240z reads a constant 14.1/14.4 on a fully charged battery when I am driving. The only time I drop into the 13s is at idle. This is with a GM CS144 internally regulated alternator.

[Mini-L320]

Yeah I didnt have a chance to play around with the 210 today but I will get a Solid State Voltage Regulator and see what happens then.

And Yes I did charge up the dead battery. Battery stayed at 12.5 threw out the whole day, so battery is deffinately good.

[GingerKid]

I was just having the same issue and fixed it today. The voltage in this case isn't as important as checking the amperage the alternator is putting out. The stock alternator is limited to 22 amps according to the manual. This isn't enough to properly run and charge everything. The other night I put in an Hitachi 60 amp internally regulated alternator and rewired it for the internal regulator. Charging system is great now the battery had already died out from lack of charge. It would do the exact same thing you described. Check the amperage and see if your alternator is putting out enough charge. At least this was the problem I had so I thought it might help.

[banzai510(hainz)]

One should get a solid stae volt reg when one can however in this situation I dont think its the volt reg. Most volt reg when they are bad the batter has a overvolt proplem.

If your charging say andit under 14.3 at ide with no load.

Now turn on things and rev it up to say 2k.

Things will load down as you turn them on. The smaller the amp rating the more affect it will have.

 

what you need to do is load ck the alternator.

If you drive home at night with everything on then the battery will be draining. During the day you might be fine.

 

buy a cheap alternator/batter tester the plugs in the cig lighter they work. It tells you wants happeing and you can monitor it whiel driveing.

 

ps clean cables and ground good first of all.

[ggzilla]

Voltage is a better diagnostic than Amperage. Because if your car is needing more than the 30A output of mid-1960s Datsun alternators, the voltage will drop... Lead-acid battery chemistry defines charging in terms of voltage. If your battery is fully changered it won't draw much amps, so the AMP gauge varies wildly during different normal phases. But if the voltage drops below 13.0 you know there is a problem.

 

So you changed the alternator and regulator and your problem went away. Good on ya.

[moparvwfreak]

i HATE amp gauges but SOMETIMES they do come in handy. my 72 Plymouth has an amp gauge factory and it has saved my ass a couple times when the alt tested out fine on voltage output but had like almost no amperage output. i am thinking about putting in a few gauges in my truck to monitor vital areas like amp, voltage and oil pressure. for temp i am not to worried.

 

but back on subject, it almost, as said above, sounds like you have a nasty draw. i know on my truck the stock 35 amp alt BARELY covers the lights, heat and wipers let alone keeping it running. i just had to swap BACK to a set of stock incandescent headlights because my H4s were too much for the system to handle with the EI, lights, radio, heat and wipers. kept cutting out my ignition when driving at night. as soon as i can i am upgrading to the saturn alt setup and getting better lighting.

[GingerKid]

Voltage may be better as a diagnostic but amps shouldn't be dismissed. Since a amp gauge measures flow, it can be used to see if there is a draw while the cars off. To measure amps The gauge needs to be hooked up inline. Remove the negative cable from the battery and hook the positive clamp from the amp gauge to it. The negative clamp for the amp meter will connect to the negative battery terminal. If there are any amps reading while everything in the car is off, then something is draining it. This would also check to see if the voltage regulator is drawing it down over night, which was previosly mentioned.

 

Also check for a partial hydraulic lock since everything might be good. If oil or water is leaking into the cylinder, it can bump the compression up enough to stop the starter and seem dead. Next time it dies in the morning pull the plugs and look for wetness. Then see how it turns over and put the plugs back in. Now try to start it again and see if it turns over it still dead. Pretty slim chance of partial hydraulic lock but I've had it happen in the past and if your just looking for anything, it's something else to check.

[Mini-L320]

Now the only extra things I have put on the car are: Electric Fan (Worst Idea Ever) Fried up my wires yesterday while driving. So deffinately way to much Stress with that. And Yes I know, Why Didnt you use a Fuse? Cause Im stupid and forgot. So now im going back to the Original Motor Fan. I have a Radio with 2 speakers, and MSD Box which is (red Wire) going to the Positive (+) of battery to power it up when I go to start it. Now does that sound like Im stressing out the tiny 50 amp Alternator or should I just step up to another size up?

 

The other small things I have using power are my Lights for My Gauges.

[thisismatt]

chelloooo, have you checked for parasitic draw with the engine off, yet?

[I'm BLUE]

chelloooo

 

:lol:

[Mini-L320]

chelloooo, have you checked for parasitic draw with the engine off, yet?

 

No not really. Im gonna leave my Voltage Reader hooked on the battery and start taking off 1 fuse at a time to see whats drinking up my Electric. The other day I brought out a lawn Chair and just kept starring at the Voltage reader, and like every 2 minutes I see the voltage dropping down by .01 at a time.

 

I was comfy while working, haha :D

[banzai510(hainz)]

dude use a test light.!!!!!!

 

take the neg bat cable off. put the test light inbetween the Neg post and the cable you just took off. if light on youhave a drain!!!!!!!!!! thats it.

 

could be a dome light left on ,brake lights on(switch under pedal) ect....

 

if Light is ON

I diconnect the volt reg. then alternator then pop the fuses.

If a tach was hooked up remove that or any acces that you added.

 

a sheet meatal srew went thru a wire.

tail light bulbs corroded?????????

[datzenmike]

Headlights, marker lights, horn, clock, interior light, brake lights all have power available to them. MSG should be connected to a switched ignition source.

[Mini-L320]

dude use a test light.!!!!!!

 

take the neg bat cable off. put the test light inbetween the Neg post and the cable you just took off. if light on youhave a drain!!!!!!!!!! thats it.

 

could be a dome light left on ,brake lights on(switch under pedal) ect....

 

if Light is ON

I diconnect the volt reg. then alternator then pop the fuses.

If a tach was hooked up remove that or any acces that you added.

 

a sheet meatal srew went thru a wire.

tail light bulbs corroded?????????

 

My tail lights are perfectly fine.

[Mini-L320]

And yes I did Use a test light. From Negative Cable to negative on Battery and light stayed on even when I disconnected the Voltage Regulator. But light looked somewhat a bit lit up, it wasnt a bright light, it had like a pulse to it.

[banzai510(hainz)]

OK disconnect the alternator power output wire also and see if the light lgoes out. Then its amaybe a diaode in the alternator shorted.

 

then pop the fuses till you figure what circut is bad.

But the Common circut is the cig lighter(dirty cig lighter?) door buzzer, hood lamp headlite ect.

 

I used to use a ampermeter but I had the setting so low 10ma then I hit the cig lighter to light a cig and blow up the setting on the anolog meter so Now thats why I use a test light.

 

My situatation was soembody hooked my the stock SSS tach to the cig power circut. There was power to the tack the the trigger wasnt hooked up at the coil so it wasnt going to work anyways but there was a power spice to the main tach gauge. it found itsself a ground and in 3 days battery would go dead.

[Mini-L320]

I feel like a total Idiot now :angry: . Found out that my Red Wire to power my radio was stealing power, cause I had it hooked up to my Tail Lamp Fuse instead of the Heater/Radio Fuse which is On the top Right on the fuse box. So Stupid little Problem solved :)

Thanks everyone for you input on helping me out.

[GingerKid]

Hook up an amp gauge for parasitic draw. There should be 0 amps when everything is off. Any amps means you have a parasitic draw. You can keep guessing or know for sure by hooking up the amp meter. My wagon draws 27 amps while running with the wipers and lights on. A 50 amp alternator should be fine but the stock 35 is to small.

 

Did you do anything to the car at all, just before this started?

[banzai510(hainz)]

amp gauge is not going to find a PARASITIC DRAW. as they are more for noticle current use.

Parasisitc draw you would need in the milliamp range. If any more the Test light will work

[Mini-L320]

Hook up an amp gauge for parasitic draw. There should be 0 amps when everything is off. Any amps means you have a parasitic draw. You can keep guessing or know for sure by hooking up the amp meter. My wagon draws 27 amps while running with the wipers and lights on. A 50 amp alternator should be fine but the stock 35 is to small.

 

Did you do anything to the car at all, just before this started?

 

the only change I've done was installing an electric Fan. I just took that out today and put the original back on, Car seems to run better and with less stress on the electricals. And I also re-wired my 12V Red Wire from the MSD to my switch.

[thisismatt]

I feel like a total Idiot now :angry: . Found out that my Red Wire to power my radio was stealing power, cause I had it hooked up to my Tail Lamp Fuse instead of the Heater/Radio Fuse which is On the top Right on the fuse box. So Stupid little Problem solved :)

Thanks everyone for you input on helping me out.

Yellow should be constant to battery, red should be switched. Even so, having the red hooked up constant without the radio on shouldn't be much draw if any.

[Mini-L320]

Yellow should be constant to battery, red should be switched. Even so, having the red hooked up constant without the radio on shouldn't be much draw if any.

 

Yeah your right but when you leave a car sitting for like 1 day which is 24 Hours a little bit of draw can turn into a big Draw over that amount of time. Like I said before, 2 days ago I was sitting down for a good 10 minutes staring at my Volt Meter and I saw the Voltage drop by .01 every 2 minutes. And now that I switch the Radio (Red Wire) to the Radio/Heater Fuse Voltage doesnt drop now. So that was the problem.

[ariascarlos1990]

Thread jack since you figured out your problem. :)

 

Ok so I've been having some draining issues with my 510 lately so I charged up the battery real good. Put her in hooked up the pos side of battery but, I left the neg side off. hooked a test light between the ground post and ground terminal. The test light lit very bright.

 

Heres the problem do I have two voltage regulators or am I just dumb? I thought the one on the top was the VR and the other was some type of relay.

 

I have both of these types. The one on the bottom clicks when I connect the battery.

 

 

anyways I disconnected the one on the bottom then tested for draw again. The light lit up then died. seems like the system charges back up because I test it again 2 seconds later and it lights up again but, dies so on and so on. It keeps charging back up.

 

so after all that I disconnect the main power supply on the alt. then tested it again it light up but, then died. disconnecting the alt. made the system not charge back up again. I can keep testing it and it wont light up.

 

Its starting to sound like I have a short in one of the diodes in my alt.

 

idk what do you guys think?

 

 

p.s. this is a Saturn alt. not a stock one and yes I did the wiring correctly.

[Mini-L320]

Bring it to your local Autozone and have them run it in there alternator machine tester.

[ariascarlos1990]

eh we'll see.

 

Anyone know the deal with the voltage regulator and relay thing?