so long story short, i didnt drive my car for about 2 months, and the battery was dead when i went to start it. no biggie, jumped it and went on my way. now though, if i dont drive the car every day, the battery dies when i go to start it up. since yesterday, it didnt even have a charge after 4 hours. i have an aftermarket alarm and stereo system, but they have been on the car for years, so i dont see how they could all of a sudden start a draw on the battery. im almost certain i need a new alternator, but i dont have access to a charging system tester to let me know for sure. btw the battery is a red top optima, about 2 years old.
Alternator possibly bad. thoughts?
- Thread starter DerekStangGT
- Start date
fobra559
At least it's more erect and not floppy anymore.
I'm thinking it's the alternator but to be sure, the charging tester would nice to check on before you go about replacing the alternator.
the98stang
Active Member
From what your telling me, it sounds like the battery can't hold a charge anymore. Take it to autozone or Pep boys and have it tested for free. They can test your alternator as well.
ok, so my battery and charging system checked out ok. the battery was low at 419 amps, and said it should be charged. anyway, so theres some sort of parasitic draw. its gotta be the stereo system since i unplugged the alarm and the battery still went dead. so my question is are there any known problems with draining the battery?
MaxxMundo
Member
I'd like to know this too.
I've got an optima red top, also, and my battery would drain overnight. I took it to Autozone and Advanced Auto parts and the both said I had a slow drain. I took it too a shop and they said they traced it to my Mach 460 amps. They unplugged those and my battery doesn't drain, but now I have another problem, that I don't want to discuss here because I don't want to thread jack.
Would factory amps do this, or is there anything else floating around that would cause our cars just drain batteries out of the blue?
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