Battery drain problem. Help! Anyone?

[Baby M3]

I currently have an Alpine 8080 alarm, Kenwood eXcelon head/cd changer, PPI amp, MB quart speakers, and an Alpine sound field processor in my car.

The problem is, if I leave my car sitting in the garage for more than a week, the battery would be drained. I just changed a new battery and they tested the voltage so I am sure the battery is fine.

The only problem I notice is some flickering of my dash lights. I think it's most likely either my alternator or voltage regulator that's going bad.


Besides, the alternator/voltage regulator, could it be the fact that the alarm or the stereo equipment is draining the battery? I had the stereo system installed properly so I am guessing it's the alarm. But when I leave my car in the garage, my alarm wasn't even activated.

What could be the problem? Please help! This is driving me nuts.

Thanks

Jon

[ESP]

Though an alarm can drain the battery after a while it is more likely that something related to the stereo system would be the cause of the drain...

I would suggest disconnecting the power leads to the amplifier(s) and letting the car sit and seeing if this makes a difference.

On any of our cars that sit we use a Sears Battery Conditioner/trickle charger (our Kubota uses one too, lol).

My E30 until last week was sitting in Florida since september with a large 4 channel PPI amp and Alpine alarm (alarm Activated) and with the conditioner was fine when I went to start it last week. If I let it sit without the charger it would last about a month till it would need to be charged.

[Baby M3]

Thanks for the recommendations,

Actually, my car had this battery drain problem even before the stereo system was installed.

But before that, my dad did have another system but the drainage occured after I uninstalled the previous system.

Could it be the alarm? But the alarm was unactivated.

Jon

Originally posted by ESP
Though an alarm can drain the battery after a while it is more likely that something related to the stereo system would be the cause of the drain...

I would suggest disconnecting the power leads to the amplifier(s) and letting the car sit and seeing if this makes a difference.

On any of our cars that sit we use a Sears Battery Conditioner/trickle charger (our Kubota uses one too, lol).

My E30 until last week was sitting in Florida since september with a large 4 channel PPI amp and Alpine alarm (alarm Activated) and with the conditioner was fine when I went to start it last week. If I let it sit without the charger it would last about a month till it would need to be charged.

[John (PA)]

with your car off, you can use a meter on the battery to watch current flow.

Start pulling fuses and you will find at least which electrical system is pulling power with the key off. Maybe this will help narrow your search.

[Baby M3]

Thanks for the tips John,

When you said starting pulling fuses, do you mean pulling the fuses in the fuse box?

I have a mini charger with a voltage meter on it. It should be an accurate measurement if I just plug the meter on the battery, right? Should I disconnect the battery first?

Thanks

Jon

Originally posted by John (PA)
with your car off, you can use a meter on the battery to watch current flow.

Start pulling fuses and you will find at least which electrical system is pulling power with the key off. Maybe this will help narrow your search.

[vodomagoo]

someone had posted a question like this before and jim said to check the hood and trunk lights becasue they cause problems like this on e30's. Post it up on the gen. dissc. board, and you will get tons more help

[John (PA)]

yes.. I was referring to the fuses in the fuse box. It's nice there's a fuse for nearly every little circut.

Not sure about your charger/meter. If you connect it if it will work it will show a drop as it is connected. I guess if it has a negative reading as well as the charge reading it should work.

[Baby M3]

Thanks guys! I'll see if I can figure out this problem with your recommendations first.

If I still have a headache about this, I'll post another question on the general discussion board.

Jon

[doreenerzz]

jon.

i had that problem. with the lights flickering and all. and i didn't pay attention to it. then last friday evening, on my way to marita's house, my car died. lights started flickering. a whole bunch of failures appeared. check engine lighted up. abs lighted up. basically everything... headlights started to dim, then turned off completely. it remained on 3rd gear on manual and auto mode. then bammmmmmmmm! it died... lol. anyway, to make a long story even longer, we got it back up and running when her dad let me borrow his battery for the rest of the day. we drove to sunset and guess what? my POS car died again! we'd wait a couple hours to let it charge only for it to drain once again. geez, we were stuck there til around 5 in the morning. anyway, i got it fixed the next day. it was the alternator.

[Baby M3]

Thank you.

Even though I know I have a bad alternator, I didn't know that a bad alternator can cause the battery to drain in a short amount of time. All this time I thought it was either my stereo or alarm that caused the electricity to escape.

How much did you pay for a new alternator? How much was it to get the alternator fixed? Where did you take your car to get it fixed? I might have to pay them a visit if my problems get worse later on....

Originally posted by doreenerzz
jon.

i had that problem. with the lights flickering and all. and i didn't pay attention to it. then last friday evening, on my way to marita's house, my car died. lights started flickering. a whole bunch of failures appeared. check engine lighted up. abs lighted up. basically everything... headlights started to dim, then turned off completely. it remained on 3rd gear on manual and auto mode. then bammmmmmmmm! it died... lol. anyway, to make a long story even longer, we got it back up and running when her dad let me borrow his battery for the rest of the day. we drove to sunset and guess what? my POS car died again! we'd wait a couple hours to let it charge only for it to drain once again. geez, we were stuck there til around 5 in the morning. anyway, i got it fixed the next day. it was the alternator.

[Razor325ci]

new battery. and dont listen to music with your car not on. always have you engin on

[Mikebike]

The answer is simple. You need a capacitor, which is designed to prevent exactly what you are talking about. I have an alarm system, a phoenix gold 600.2 watt amp, two 10" subwoofers, 7 neon lights, 2 indiglo license plates, 2 indiglo still plates. Talk about potential for battery drain (along with the xenons). Only that my amp and subwoofer is supported by a 1.0 farrad capacitor. No battery drain, no flickering lights, no problem

I've heard stories of people having two 1.5 farrad capacitors, blasting their huge stereo systems on the beach for a full day without turning on their engine, and still being able to drive away afterwards

[Baby M3]

Actually, the weird thing is some people said caps are not going to help me because it doesn't seem like I have a big wattage system. Even though I have two amps running in my car, the total output is around only 600 watts or so. Hmmm...

And besides, the flickering of lights and battery drain occurred even before I had my current system installed.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Jon

[Mikebike]

But still.. it will take an unnecessary load off of your battery.. 600 watts is still a pretty big drain

[Baby M3]

Thanks. I'll try that and see what happens.

Jon

Originally posted by Mikebike
But still.. it will take an unnecessary load off of your battery.. 600 watts is still a pretty big drain