I have an 02 wrx I an having a problem with my battery lossing charge all the time. Here is what I know,

the battery tests good
I am only drawing 50 ma when the car is off
alternator is giving me 14.5 V

but if I don't put my battery on a charger everynight it will not start in the morning and even if I do sometimes I has a hard time starting after work. I will be the first to say I don't know anything about cars but this is driving my crazy

any help will be great!!

 

check your wires and terminals for corrosion, possibly bad ground? loose connections? orrr you need to check for a parasitic drain on the battery by taking an ammeter and hook it in series with the neg battery terminal and there should be no more than a 25-50 milliamp with the vehicle at rest and all accessories off. Is it a maintenance free batt? if not check the fluid.

 

it is a maintenance free optmia and it is less them 50 milliamp I have scrubed the terminals and checked the that they are not loose

 

damn.. do you know how old the battery is?

 

a year and a half maybe two

 

other best thing i could tell you is charge the battery unhook it from your car and check the charge tomorrow. thats the only thing i could think of. if the charge drops by a lot obviously its a faulty battery.. if not then youd have to find whats drawing that power from your car

 

do u have an aftermarket deck w/ an ipod hook up? do u leave it in ur car plugged in? i only ask b/c my girlfriend did this.

 

I have a pioneer but no Ipod

 

HOLY CRAP you gave us good info so we can help

the other thing is if you do not tighten the terminal to the posts it will fault like this


i did this two months ago hehe

 

when I was younger I brought my dodge stealth to the dealership because the battery wouldn't hold a charge. They fixed the problem for a half hours labor and then I asked what was wrong. The lady said the neg terminal was loose. I asked if she was sure it took the mechanic half an hour to fix it; she didnt find it humorous

 

How dirty is your battery. dirt and grime on the battery can add to parasitic drain. Since your alternator is charging the battery, and your parasitic drain isn't going to kill your battery overnight. I'd say you have a bad battery going off what you have said. If you can get your hands on a battery tester(one that checks cca, and rc) youll be able to find out if your battery is good or not.

 

yeah wouldnt start cold for me hahha


some peeps just dont have a sence of humor

 

I have cleaned the battery, and tested it, it tests fine.

 

charge it let it sit overnight and compare the voltage