Battery keeps dying
 

I've been having a repeating problem with my car dying. I see in someone's old post Sept 07 - with similar problem. I came to the same conclusion: If you leave the door open for any amount of time (ie: unloading groceries), the car will not start the next time I try. This does not sound right. A chrysler tech suggested keeping the car running which is a stupid idea.
Anyone with a similar problem?

RE: Battery keeps dying
 

My Interior lights are on a timer that shuts them off after about 10 minutes (door or hatch). I leave my hatch open in the garage all the time with out problems.

RE: Battery keeps dying
 

I knowone post mentioned that the "time out" feature may be failing.
I also noticed that one gal had a 2006 with no problems but bought a newer one with more bells and whistles and that's when the problems started.
Just doesn't seem right - some suggest a stronger battery

RE: Battery keeps dying
 

There may be a problem with your charging system. The alternator may be putting out 2/3 or 1/3 of normal capacity and not keeping the battery fully charged. You have no warning when this is happening. The battery dash light will not come on.

I had the same problem that you are having withlittle battery reserve.I had thealternator tested and repaired. I now have no problem with not being able to start my Pac after the doors were left open.

RE: Battery keeps dying
 

I have a 2007 Pac Touring, it has NO daytime running lights which I want, So I just leave the headlights on all of the time, when I shut the engine off I just leave the headlights on and they time out and shut off in a couple of minutes. have not had any battery problems yet.

RE: Battery keeps dying
 

I would suggest that the battery may be at fault, with the load that you are suggesting, (eg: interior lights)when the vehicle is parked, and it's losing a charge that quickly, then something has happened to the batt or there are some poor connections that are not allowing a correct charge.

A quick way to check if there is an unknown load in the vehicle that is supposedly "OFF", (not the safest way to checkI might add), is to have a fully charged battery, everything off, including any lights under the hood, then disconnect the ground, and reconnect, if you get the slightest spark (the unsafe part) when you reconnect, then something is drawing from the battery.

With the info that is given in this situation, it sounds to me like the battery is toast.

Atip on jump starting a vehicle... with all the computers in cars today, and jumping these vehicles from an outside source, be sure to turn on the headlights, BEFORE you hook up cables. Any energy spike from the outside source will be directed to the lights, not computers. And this does happen, it's rare, but it does.

Hope this helps.

RE: Battery keeps dying
 

THANKS for all the ideas. I had the service guy check out this sight (good job Terrill!!) Gave him some things to try. He's put in a heavier duty battery and going to leave the doors open last night to see if the "time out " feature was working. Just frustrating on a vehicle with only 5000miles on it![>:]

RE: Battery keeps dying
 

What year is the car? I would be heading back for warranty. Depending on the year and date of purchase, you could be up for a new one, or maybe a small betterment. Just a thought tho.

Re: Battery keeps dying
 

Hi!
One simple way to check if you have any draining of your battery is as follows:
Remove the negative battery wire.
Connect a test lamp between the negative battery terminal and the negative wire.
If the lamp lights up you've got a drain.
Next step, which is boring..., is to remove fuses one by one and check if test lamp goes out. Unless you suspect the alternator. If so, read the last paragraph.
Replace each fuse before removing next one.
When test lamp goes out, it means you've got a drain on that circuit.
Make sure you test all circuits.
If you still got light after all fuses have been removed, you're in for a bigger task, that normally means you have a drain on multiple circuits. So then the easiest way to find out where it is, is to remove all fuses and put them back in one by one. Make sure you put them back in at the correct position!
When the lamp lights up, note which fuse, pull it back out and continue with the rest. This way you should be able to register if there are several circuits that causes the drain.

By removing the negative cable and connect the test lamp, you may also find if you have a faulty alternator. This of course if you suspect so, ie. if the charging voltage is low. Then you remove the cabling from the alternator to see if the lamp goes out. If it does, it normally means you have a problem with your alternator. If it doesn't, it's back to the "fuse pull".

Hope this might help.:confused:

Any luck on your dying battery? I see this post is an older one.

I had the same issue when my '04 was brand new. Dealer tested and said it was fine. I got tired of the problem and put a new battery in '06 which solved the problem. I also installed a new alternator last year and it has continued to work fine until last week. Battery started going dead again with the doors left open. I had the battery tested today and was told it is fine.

Just looking for other suggestions or solutions.

Thanks!

I have the same issues with the battery going dead, from seemingly little things on... while cleaning the car or having it worked on.... Have replaced battery once already, the new one has died 4 times already... Have read other posts about alternator problem. Going to try replacing alternator possibly next month, and the wiring to upgraded ones like another post suggests, although I'm at a loss as to how to find which cables to upgrade to, hopefully my mechanic will know. Also next time I buy a battery, I will buy a battery with more power.

we started out having the same issuses. then all the dash lights would come on and it would drain the battery the only way to get them off was to unhook the battery cable. then turn the I O D fuse around to shipping mode so i replaced all the relays turned the I O D back around and we still had the same problems. HELP HELP HELP this has been going on for more then a year wife really not happy
also the car has a really bad wining sound to it thought it was the alteranter but it checked out good changed the serpenteen belt and that didn't help any more thoughts

One possible cause of a battery drain is a light left on somewhere in the car. Kids like to play with lights in the car and will fail to turn them off, just like in the house. Or, it could be one in the glove box or trunk that you can't see.
Failing that, there may be a short somewhere. There are some posts here that are not correct about getting a little spark or hooking up a test light between the negative cable and the battery post. Keep in mind that there is ALWAYS a little drain on the battery under normal circumstances. The clock and the receiver for the remote lock/unlock feature are always on and draw a little current. These can be defeated by pulling the IOD (ignition off draw) fuse. The normal range of current draw for these features is about 0.050 amps (50 milliamps). If the draw is more than that, look for a short. You'll need a digital volt-ohmmeter with an ammeter function to measure the current. There will be a small surge at first which should settle down after a very short while to the minimal level (computer booting up). If you have an excess current draw, pull fuses one at a time until it stops, or at least settles down to the minimal number. Once the fault is isolated to a particular circuit, you'll have to track down the short. It could be a faulty component in the circuit. It could be from collision damage if there was come. It could be a wire chafing where it goes through an opening in the sheet metal. It could be lots of things so you'll just have to be patient to track it down. This isn't rocket science but it can be tedious. It's worth it to try it yourself because you don't want to be paying $50 or $100 an hour to have a mechanic do the simple but time-consuming work. Even if you can only isolate it to a particular fuse you will be able to give a mechanic a big head start in finding the problem.
Problems with the dash might require outside help:

Mr. Whizard Technical Services - Instrument Cluster Repair, Speedometer Repair, Odometer Repair and Digital Dash Repair

As for your whining noise, it's virtually impossible to diagnose strange sounds from long distance over the internet. Belt squeal can come from a loose belt. It can also be from a bad belt that sat on the shelf too long and got old and hard before you bought it. Could be a bad bearing in the alternator or power steering pump. These are just guesses.

Also be aware that if your battery is weak, the car's electronics might do weird unpredictable things.

That is a very helpful tip to troubleshoot battery drain and shorts.
Thanks.

My "battery issue" turned into much more, and most mechanics don't look for it since it's pretty rare.

My alternator is going bad, which i thought but didn't think there was a problem as long as the battery was staying charged. Well it caused the battery to overheat and pop a terminal, and battery acid coming out, all of which the 3 different people I had look at it said no problem, just clean the acid off. But it was dripping down onto my wiring harness which is pretty much toast now.... and so may the body harness be.

So frienly warning, if your battery starts having acid around the terminals, a decent amount (mine was only on pos) check to make sure it's not leaking, also if alternator suspected of going bad, change the battery. Chrysler wants to charge us 6k for the whole job... I'm gonna have to search for used parts. I have a site I got from a nice person here. They are about 250-280 per... so that's a lot of $ difference there....

Anyone found the solution to this problem?

My 04 Pac has had the same problem as long as the tread has been going on. :)

Since I bought it four years ago - After just some minutes with the doors open the battery is too low to start. All features consuming power like headlights staying on after doors locked has been turned off to make it possible to live with. It works every day as long as I am aware of it.

All the time when starting it sounds like the battery is low. After giving it a boost with a charger the starter sounds OK for some starts before it is back to "normal". This indicates that the charging does not work as it should. I have changed the battery three times in three years because it wears out from constant too low tension.
The idling tension on the battery is low, but the charging tension is Ok and well within the spec.
Sometimes there are a little flickering in the lights, but not a lot. I have checked out the power supply to the CPM, known from another tread. It is completely ok. Also all other wiring has been checked out.

I am an electric engineer/generator technician of profession and have 25 years car experience from my extensive car hobby. I have picked the alternator into its smallest pieces two times to examin it, but I just can`t find anything wrong with it! I expected to find a defect diode or something, But no! I have also measured all possible parameters, but no answers. And it does not have to do with draining power leaks!

Once I experienced the problem during summer vacation after being on the road, driving for 28 hours! 10 minutes with the doors open unpacking the car, and it was too low to start.

Just can`t explain it! Anyone else?

One year old the battery is about to die again, leading to other issues. Had It disconnected for charging yesterday. Now - after two starts the break warning light, ABS and TC light came on and stays on. I don`t even have TC!

I am so tired of this. Thinking about changing Alternator anyway just to try something.

Also the heater fan does not turn off anymore. Constantly running on maximum. This started some days earlier. I first thought it might be because of low/erratic tension on the electronic controller, but it`s maybe not related. Planning to check the resistor assy.

Same issue
 

My daughter's cruiser has a new battery since it was dead one day when she went out to drive. She only drives every few days or so since she lives on campus.
Now with the new battery it's doing the same thing. Took it to a mechanic that said it must think the doors are open. However, no interior lights were staying on. So, we decided to just shut off all interior lights from the dash (which is annoying when getting in at night), that doesn't work. It's still dead after about 2-3 days of not driving it. Its ok if driven daily. We even had the alternator checked. Not that either. What else could it be?
We even get the passenger seatbelt alert coming on for at least the first 10 minutes of every ride. It usually goes off after a while, but one day we were in it for a long time and that came back on. Again the mechanic thought it was more to fix it than it was worth. I just want a car that works. I want to fix it. I don't want to have to wait for a jump. I'm now driving this car since my van is in the shop. Why would I let my 18 year old have it back if it could leave her stranded at night in a college parking lot?
BTW, no we have no 'extras' added to this car. It has the stock radio etc. We even unplugged the chargers in the car thinking maybe it was that. However the radio doesn't stay on the same station if you turn the car off then right back on. I hate this car!

I was wrong, it's not the seatbelt light and bell going off, it's the airbag signal....as if it thinks someone is in the seat but not weighing enough. And it happens with or without someone (of any size) in the seat. Probably has nothing to do with the battery. But those are the ONLY issue with the car at all. It has 72k miles.

It's not easy to say what the problem is from what you describe. Of course there could be a current drain. That would have to be checked out. But from Your description my best guess would be that the car are being used too little? You don't tell how long trips the car would be used for, when it's being used? And how many days between each trip? is it normally used once or four times a week? Cold weather conditions With heater, defroster and wipers on, or AC? If it's being driven less than 30 minutes a week and several short rather than one long trip this sounds normal. some current drain is normal as some of the Electronics(alarm ++) is alive all the time. It would need a trip of at least half an hour to top up the battery once a week. A New battery would normally not be delivered fully charged. And unless it was, you would have the same issue even With a New battery installed. A solution could be to install a tricle charger to keep the battery topped up, or to take the car for a longer trip once a week With as little Power consumers as possible? You may also have low charging tension(see my follow up to my own problem above), or an intermittend problem With the alternator or charge Control Circuit.
You say the radio change the channel if you switch off the ignition? Does it loose the "memory"? could it be the IOD (ignition off draw) fuse is in wrong position? Yet this would probably have caused Your other problem to disappear if it's caused by normal current Draw.

The airbag problem is not related and a known issue. It could be the occupancy sensor or the belt buckle sensor. Should be diagnosed.

It's dead if it sits for 3-4 days without use. And the days it is used length of use varies. Somedays it might be just to the store and back, some days it might be all the way to her school to pick her up for a weekend. She's 45 minutes away. I've never owned a car that couldn't sit (with a new battery) for a few days without draining. And we've had this car nearly a year. It's only been the last couple months it's done this. I live in TX so it's never cold, even in winter. Yes we've had the ac on lately, but we've been turning everything off; interior lights, ac, radio, unplugging chargers etc to try to figure it out. Heck after typing this earlier, I went out to see if the hood had a light, it doesn't. Neither does the glove box. It has 2 overhead lights and a cargo area light. All go out when the door shuts (when they are in the on position on the switch). No running or headlights are on either. Sunday we let it sit running in the driveway for about an hour while we washed it. And we've started twice today without going anywhere. So, it's still starting now since we keep turning it on. But what a pain and waste of gas. We have a trickle charger but last time it was too dead to charge it. Had to use another vehicle to get it running. The radio will revert to satellite when we turn off the vehicle and start it again. But we don't have the service so we just have to change it to radio each time. It does keep the preset stations though. Weird. The battery is about 2 months old. The old battery was beyond dead. We immediately drove the 45 minute drive to our house after we got the new battery from where our daughter lives. Should have been sufficient to charge it fully. Thank you for trying. I think I'm going to have to swallow my 'mechanic's daughter' pride and go to the dealer....which I dread. My Daddy was a car guy. I hate paying more than I should for anything on a car. And this one is not half as bad as my van. I just need to find a better mechanic. I don't have my father to do it anymore.

<I've never owned a car that couldn't sit (with a new battery) for a few days without draining.> No. It was a first for me too. But that was what my pacifica did as well. even when driven every day, a few minutes With the door open drained the battery beyond starting. I'm Still writing on my "follow up" to my case above.

From what you say and as your car worked before there are clearly something wrong. Not just the way it's used. you say its draining too low to take charge. That tells there got to be a rather big current leak. "dcotter0579"'s post above describes a way to find the problem Circuit if you have the Equipment and want give it a to try.
Good Luck.

follow up - solution!
 

<after being on the road, driving for 28 hours! 10 minutes with the doors open unpacking the car, and it was too low to start.> (the battery was one week old).

For several years I had this problem, not being able to use all the cars electrical features because I had to save Power for Next start. I had to change the battery every year during the Cold period as it died of constant low voltage.
The generator was checked out to be fine. The charging tension was within spec. Found no wiring problems, until the ground wire from the engine to the body(under the air cleaner Box) burnt off. Replaced it With a proper cable and added another directly from the engine to the battery.

The slight light flickering I had was gone after this. But the charging problem was the same. five years ago I was fed up and had to come up With a solution or change car. Did some hours of thinking and decided to try to rise the charging voltage some. But the Chrysler dealer said they could not(or did not want too?) do this for me as it was inside spec. Yes. It was inside spec, but in the low range of the spec.

I found a way to rise the tension by manipulating the temp sensor on the battery(described elsewhere on the forum). I Rised the charging tension to 14.7 volts, and Voila! - the problem was gone!

I turned on the "light-off delay". Started using all Equipment I could not use for years. Nice warm seats. Rear window Defroster.... The last battery is now on it's fift year and I never again had starting problems or any other electrical problems. The starter motor spins like it never had a problem!

These cars are now being rather old and the most of them With this kind of problems may have been repaired or taken of the road. But this may still help some others?

Oh, my, what silly advice. I'm a Chrysler mechanic and I can tell you with absolute confidence that you can leave your door open for a while and your battery will not go dead in a car that is working properly. If it does, either your battery is bad or your alternator is charging. Good luck.

Get a digital volt-ohmeter and check the current flow at the battery with everything off. You may get a surge at first as the computer draws some current but it should settle down after a few minutes to something under about 50 milliamperes (0.050 amps). That represents the current draw caused by the clock and the receiver for the key fob. If it's more than that, you've got a short somewhere. You'll have to pull fuses one at a time to isolate the circuit with the short, then figure out where on that circuit the problem is.
This stuff isn't rocket science and you can either figure out the problem yourself using a logical and systematic approach, or you can pay somebody $100/hr to do it.
It's also possible that your "new" battery is bad. Batteries that sit on the shelf for a long time can go bad. It's always best to buy batteries from someplace that sells a lot of them so their inventory is fresh.

2009 Chrysler 300c brand new Battery discharging problem

Hi Forum Members
I have a 2009 Chrysler 300C Touring last week it drained the battery. I purchased a brand new 100ah battery because the battery was nine years old. I then charged it fully and installed it in my Chrysler and it started well.

The next morning I went to start the car up and the battery was dead. I would be grateful for any ideas of what my cause the battery to discharge

Yours Sincerely

Jeananddanny

2008 Pacifica- 2 new batteries totally drained
 

We are having the same issue with our 2008 Pacifica. I used a multimeter to check the charge on the first battery, which had only been in for 2 weeks, and it was dead, this was verified at AutoZone. It was under warranty, so I got a new battery, hooked it up, and two days later, it won't start again. There are no lights on, but I am wondering if the autostarter that we had installed may be the problem. Never had this issue until this year.

Many Thanks
thank you to all the forum members for your helpful advice on the non starter battery. the problem was caused by a faulty electrical connection to the starter motor after buying a new battery because it was 9 years old
many thanks to all

anti-corrision unit could be the problem
 

I had the same problem on my 2003 minivan,, dealer finally told me after replacing at his cost, they disconnected the anti corrosion unit,

I am a licensed body repair tech and never knew my minivan had such a device, I was appalled when he told me this,

Are Chrysler engineers and designers this stupid, appears yes,