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Battery draining....every test good

2K views 19 replies 5 participants last post by  itzrivera 
#1 ·
This is a very odd situation. First off the car is turbo'd so my battery is in the trunk. I ran a 4G wire from the alternator to the main harness and connected to where the fuse box is. Ran a 2G line all the way to the back with the battery. I shaved down the pain to bare metal where I was grounding to trunk with a 2G and a 4G wire making it grounded twice. I charge my battery and after driving for short period of time and go to start the car again it struggles and gets a cell for low battery voltage low motherboard connection. Changed battery and took alternator in to be tested. Aternator passes. Take battery in passes. Go back to parts store with everything in passes everything with 100% battery charge. Drive back home and stopped to grab a movie and when I start the car it throws the cel that for that code I'm assuming because it struggled to start (should be easir to start woth 9:1 pistons i would think). Drive to different parts store that was close and they had a better tester, battery with car off 12.29V so battery is good. Charging system test no load 14.06v, 13.49 under load. I am just at a loss and super frustrated with it. I have searched this forum honda tech and everywhere and have been battling this issue for over a year and keep havin to charge my battery up. Grounds inside the bay were also checked. If anyone has ANY SUGGESTIONS no matter how little I would greatly appriciate it.
 
#2 ·
I can't follow everything in the first part of your paragraph. But it sounds like the battery isn't being charged after starting the motor. This may be due to having a not-so-good ground connection in the trunk of the car. If you ran another wire to the OEM grounding point in the engine bay from the negative terminal; it may help. The metal to metal connections in the body may not be enough to carry the charge. /// pics of your connections may help.
 
#9 ·
I can't see the pic with the brown wire clearly.
The pic with the red wire, is it down to primer or bare metal? But either way I don't think it is a problem with your ground.
I am more interested in how you ran your power wires. I think the problem stems from the power side.
 
#14 ·
It was connected directly to the battery when it was tested, I had a different battery that was a year old out of my other car and I tossed it in last night started it up and drove a little. Took it to work today and after I got home I turned it off and started it again and my cel for low voltage came on. So battery wasn't issue. I did not do any test for pasasitic drain. How do I do that? I'm also going to see if radio shack has some big gauge wire and run a line to trans case and under fuse box like bath tissue mentioned above.
 
#16 ·
To check for parasitic drain you need a multimeter. Set the multimeter to read 20amps. If you see anywhere over .2-.3amps (I believe, you'll need to double check this) being drawn then you have a draw that will kill your battery.

To perform the test:
set the multimeter like stated above
You want to ground the negative probe to the negative battery terminal. Now, you will take the positive probe and poke each fuse in the fuse box. I started in the engine bay.
Poke each fuse with the positive probe. If you see one of the fuses cause the amp draw to spike up, then that is the circuit that is drawing power.
Once you know the fuse that is drawing power, research what is on the circuit for that fuse. One of the items on this circuit is the culprit.

For example, you climate control fuse may show a spike in amp draw. If you go to check the climate control circuit you may see the rear defroster, wipers, ac control etc. One of these may be on while the car is off. The one that is on stops drawing power once you turn it off. you turn it off, no more amp draw. voila.

I hope this made sense. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
#17 ·
To perform the test:
set the multimeter like stated above
You want to ground the negative probe to the negative battery terminal. Now, you will take the positive probe and poke each fuse in the fuse box..
That doesn't sound correct. You would be connecting a 'hot' positive circuit directly to ground through the meter. Not good for the meter. Probably blow the fuse too if the meter can pass enough current.

You should disconnect the negative cable at the battery. Connect the positive lead of the meter to the ground cable and the negative lead to the battery negative terminal. This would make any current flow go through the meter to complete the circuit.

If the amp reading is higher than spec, remove and reinsert one fuse at a time until you find the one that causes the high reading. Then start checking things on that circuit for the culprit.
 
#19 ·


Thank you everyone for the input and helpful comments. I believe I fixed it by running the line from battery and grounding it to the transmission. It has been 3 days and have been starting it after I get to my location after turned off and it has been not sounding like it has been struggling. I'll be heading back the the parts store and having it tested again to see if bat charge Is full. I was going with most obvious fix and working up to testing fuses and all that. If the problem persists I'll get the volt meter out and start posting the #'s from terminal ect... thanks again everyone
 
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