New Battery, New Alternator, Battery still dies. Any Ideas?

**bjornbjorn** · 03-17-2015

My battery and alternator are less than a year old and as of late my battery died twice randomly. Once I went into a store for 30 minutes and came out and it was dead and it happened again today. I went into a store for 10 minutes and came out and it was dead. I needed to get a jump and stay connected to the donor vehicle for almost 7 minutes. I checked the voltage of the alternator and battery and both are fine. What could be the issue???? Someone told me that it could be a bad starter solenoid that is draining the battery.

Any help is much appreciated.

**bobc455** · 03-17-2015

Probably not a starter, but something is draining the battery.

To isolate the circuit, you can pull one fuse at a time until you figure out where the electricity is going.

Be sure to make sure your seat belt latch isn't getting wedged next to your power seat controls.

**Scottydoggs** · 03-17-2015

something is drawing a lot of power car off to drain it that fast.

you install a new radio or amp or anything else?

**bjornbjorn** · 03-17-2015

Nothing New installed and seat belt is not wedged anywhere. I though 10 minutes was quite fast as well. How and what does isolating the circuit do and how do I do this?

**Scottydoggs** · 03-17-2015

you'll need a multmeter clipped on the battery car off. if its under 12 volts theres a good draw on it.

leave it hooked up and then start pulling fuses till the volts come back up to 12 volts. once you find what fuse is the draw see what that fuse is for and go from there.

**coolone** · 03-17-2015

Take the negative cable off the battery with the car parked and everything shut off, nothing running, doors closed. Brush it against the terminal and if you see a spark, there is something drawing power. That means a short. Can be a ***** to isolate, so one of the quicker ways is to isolate the circuits by pulling fuses to see if one is drawing power when all else is off. Tracing shorts is a pita... You checked your grounds too? When you say the voltage is good at the Alt. what was it? You use a multimeter?

**bjornbjorn** · 03-17-2015

When using a multimeter when car was off it read 12.5, when the car was on under load it was 14.2

**bjornbjorn** · 03-17-2015

How come this has happened only twice? Wouldn't it happen every time I don't run the car for a period of time? It seems to be random

**mars5l** · 03-17-2015

are you sure your battery connections are good? How sure are you on the battery? I work at a dealer and ive had batteries with intermittent bad cells come thru. Id start it up and be fine, pull it outside and check it again and the voltage will be under 10 volts.

**bjornbjorn** · 03-17-2015

Okay a little investigating on my part found that my tensioner for the serpentine belt wont tighten. Would this cause battery drain? A loose belt. I keep turning but the bolt keeps spinning and it wont tighten the belt as tight as I need it. Also the Alternator makes a spinning noise for 3 seconds when I turn my car off. I tested the alternator and battery again and I get 12.57 when the car is off and 14.72 when the car is turned on (headlights and radio on).

**Scottydoggs** · 03-17-2015

what do you mean it keeps turning? what are you turning? and why? you cant make it tighter, its on a spring inside.

**bjornbjorn** · 03-17-2015

Okay a little investigating on my part found that my tensioner for the serpentine belt wont tighten. Would this cause battery drain? A loose belt. I keep turning but the bolt keeps spinning and it wont tighten the belt as tight as I need it. Also the Alternator makes a spinning noise for 3 seconds when I turn my car off. I tested the alternator and battery again and I get 12.57 when the car is off and 14.72 when the car is turned on (headlights and radio on).

**mars5l** · 03-17-2015

only thing a loose belt could really do is not allow the alternator to charge correctly

**Uno99** · 03-19-2015

I know ive posted this in other threads but maybe this is causing it. Even if you battery terminals are tight you may still have a poor connection due to a small gap that does not always allow for a complete circuit. I placed a steel washer/shim inbetween the terminal and sidepost screw and tightened it up and have had no issue since.

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