How do I go about finding out why my battery is getting drained?

bjl95mustang said:

I think this will work.

Set your meter to ohm with tone. Make sure everything is off and unplug the hood light. Disconnect the batt cables then connect the ohm to either ends of it. If it tones then it's grounding out the + side. If you have some clips, clip the meter to the cables and start playing with wires ect.

I hope this is a start.

Click to expand...

It will always tone, because there are lights hooked up. You would have to remove all light bulbs to test it that way. Light bulbs in any circuit will show a short to ground, except that it will have a few ohms resistance, not zero.

You need to get a DC amp clamp and put it on the pos battery cable and see what reading you get (with everything off). An ammeter gauge will work too if you disconnect the pos. lead at the battery and put one lead of the gauge at the cable and the other at the battery.

If you don't have a bad drain on the battery, you likely have a bad battery. Get it tested, as well as the alternator. The alternator should put out 14.4V AC if you want to test it yourself.
Scott