Jc61990
11-24-2014, 02:43 PM
So just about this time of year, when it starts to get real cold, my car always gives me trouble starting in the morning. The past week I had to jump start it every morning. During the summer if it sat for 3-4 days the battery would die. Now that its colder, its happening overnight. I've done the usually googling and searching many forums for suggestions and answers, tried just about everything I could think of. I bought a new battery a little less than a year ago thinking it was the battery, but the problem still persists. About a week ago I had read on several forums that the Bose amp is to blame if it goes bad, giving it a shot I removed fuse 42 (radio fuse) and let the car sit overnight. Sure enough the next morning the car still did not start and needed to be jumped. Today I had some free time so I did some digging. I took my multimeter and placed it in series with the negative of the battery terminal and negative wire. With the key out of the ignition, doors closed, lights off etc.. I was getting a reading of 90 milliamps. The only thing I suspected that could be drawing current was the fact that the hood was open. Even still 90mA isn't that much, it shouldn't drain a 70Ah battery in less than 24 hours. Next I just did a simple voltage test on the battery, with the battery cables connected back up, engine off, doors shut, radio off, only the hood open, I read 11.85 volts, Started up the car and it was just over 13volts. Im pretty sure now that when the engine is off I should be somewhere around 12.4-12.7 volts and running it should be over 14volts. I suspected the battery could have gone bad, so I took my car to autozone to have the battery tested since I bought it there, and if it was bad I could have it exchanged under warranty. They threw the tester on it and it said "Battery good.. Needs Charge". Thats now where im starting to get confused, today I did a decent amount of driving, at least an hour or so in the car, I would think that should be enough time to have the battery recharge. Im pretty lost, so if anyone could give me any helpful ideas on something to look for or try that would be great. Thanks.