!SEVERE! car problem Please Help

[Azaziel]

Hey, this may be a long message, some of you may say take it to a mechanic, but i need to save a few bucks..here goes:

Problem: Car Battery/Wiring related

I have an old '90 Beretta GT. As of late its been having this problem where the battery just dies. The first time it happened (forgot how, the original battery i had in it was old as hell) ,i went and bought a brand new battery. Everything was fine. 1 month later i go to buy a new Stereo system for my car. I hook it up myself. Everything goes smoothly. I put the key in, turn it enough to turn the power on. Stereo works, im happy. Then i go to start the car...nothing, the battery is completely drained, it was at a full charge before i put in the stereo.

Now today i was workin on the car, it has a full charge. It was in my driveway, car wasn't on. I had the driver's side door opened (also had it opened while installing the battery). I had it opened for no more than 3 minutes then i close the door, turn the key...nothing...the damn battery died again!

So my question is, to anyone knowledgeable in this area. Could it be a wiring problem? I know the guy who had it before me wasn't too bright with cars and was a novice do-it-yourselfer. Some of the screws are missing on the running board, where some wires are, there are some extra wires hanging out near the trunk that would go to an amp. Also my little incident today would make my battery only 1 month old.
I originally thought it was the Stereo, because it may be sucking up to much energy out of the battery and wasting it somewhere. But to be sure i took the fuse out (before today's incident). But still, the battery died. Note that the driver's side door was ajar for only a short period of time on both occasions, one for 3 minutes, the other for about 20.

Basically, i'm baffled.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

[Warthog]

Had a similar prob with my last car...replacing the alternator helped a lot, but it still was draining...never did figure it out by the time I sold the car.

Maybe go through the fuses, removing each one by one. Remove the battery plug and then touch it to the terminal see if your battery plug sparks still. Dunno what could be drawing current.

[Chuckiechan]

First, charge it up with a battery charger. Next, check the belt to see if it is failry tight. A loose belt will slip and not charge enough. Pull the terminals and sand the posts and the hole in the terminal that goes over it before you put them back on.

If you try the starter with the headlights on and they dim to almost nothing, your starter is (probably) dragging.

If you won't start again, try this next. Run a jumper cable (red) from the battery to the starter (where the big wire goes), and the black cable to a ground on the engine.

If if starts right up the problem is one of your cables.

[Sweet]

Direct short on the battery...... check both the hot(red) and the ground(black) from the battery. The black will most prob. be bolted to the car chasis, or the engine block. follow the wire to its grounding location. If you have access to a volt/ohm meter, with the car off, check between the + and - posts. If you read greater than 25K ohm's the battery is good. Next check the voltage from + to car ground, (not the neg term. on the battery) and read the voltage. With the car running, you shoud read 13.8 volts. If not, You have a ground fault, and check the connections.

[Brainchild]

Check where the wires run under the door sill plate,could have a screw down through a power wire grounding it out.Also the brakelight switch may be going bad and leaving the brake lights on.
If it just started this upon installing a new stereo I would guess that this is the problem.Have a look to be sure everything is hooked up correctly.

Good luck

I hate wiring <shudder>

[Ed_S]

I'm with Sweet on this - it's likely a ground fault

A friend had similar woes with a T-Bird recently. Negative battery cable was badly corroded - under the insulation, totally hidden. Found it when I cut the original cable to replace the battery terminal.
New set of cables cured it at low cost & little time.

If this is the case, buy both cables & get quality parts

[pickel]

Disconnect your negative battery terminal. Install a 12 volt test lamp. With all accessories OFF, doors closed, disconnect the positive lead to the alternatoer and the light should NOT light. If it does , start pulling fuses til you find the guilty circuit and repair.
Could take ten miutes or ten hours Good Luck!!!

Make sure the cigarette lighter is removed too

[Azaziel]

alright thanks guys, i'll try these strategies within this week.