GrandAm 1993 Battery Drain

Wagner · 2004-06-16T19:14:02+00:00

Suddenly battery appeared flat at morning. It was one year old, one yearwarranty WalMart unit, so I went there and bought a new one, anyway thatis one year deal.Worked nicely for a week, then suddently battery flat down at morning. Jumper Start and went back to WalMart to check everything. Mechanic thereused a portable analyser unit, said battery was ok, alternator was not100%.Took alternator to a repair shop, they tested said alternator was not bad,but it was 8 years old, so I asked them to replace regulator, brushes,diodes, etc. They replaced everything inside, including bearings. Alternator now is supplying 145+ Amps, ok.One week later battery flat down at morning. Car needed to fix water pumpthat was damaging serpentine belt, took to the mechanic and asked him tocheck for this once a week battery flat drain. That mechanic is notspecialized in electric, but he said somethign connected to ALARM fuse isdraining more current than expected.Once at home I went after that. Found that ALARM fuse feeds energy tointerior lights, chime, radio and "passive restraint", what a heck itcould be I don't know.I found out that the door locks energize some magnet while the doors areopen, keep energized for 30 seconds after door are closed, after that thepower consume at the ALARM fuse is minimum.In middle of this battery problem I replace the radio with a JVC CDplayer, so I found the ins-and-outs of the panel for cables. Removing theJVC current on ALARM fuse reduced from 20mA (0.02A) to almost nothing. But 20mA I guess is not that bad for a CD player to keep clock and holdingmemory setup. A battery would take a month to discharge with only 20mA ofdrain.Yesterday battery was really bad, middle charge, around 7V. I installed alamp in between the battery negative pole and the negative cable, measuredthe voltage drop around the battery. Lamp is 6 Ohms of resistance, itdevelopped pulsed from 1.5 to 2.2V over the lamp after 2 minutes of doorclosed. Found out that the CD player...