what kills a battery instantly?

AC91GT

Member
Aug 13, 2003
36
0
6
Belmont, NC
Disconnect my battery to do some work. Reconnected afterwards and I had interior lights, fuel pump would come on. Turn key and nothing. Then the lights are gone and no fuel pump. I had the battery tested and charged. Reinstalled, turned the key to start and it is now dead again. Completely. Sounds to me like a short but where? Help vert is dead and the weather is going to be nice. STBM
 
are u sure the cables have good connections?

Excellent advice.

A voltmeter is handy if you are familiar with how to use it to find bad connections. Measure the voltage drop across a connection while trying to start the car: more than .5 volts across a connection indicates a problem.
See http://www.fluke.com/application_notes/automotive/circuit.asp?AGID=1&SID=103 for help for help troubleshooting voltage drops across grounds.
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well when i first got my mustang a few weeks ago it would do that, and come to find out it was just dirty corroded loose battery cables, took them off cleaned them up real good and the tightened them up and the problem was fixed

Excellent advice.

just speaking from experience on this one man, has happened to me quite a few times
 
Thanks for the support. I did not have my meter at home last night so I just walked away to think and post. I will check all of the perscribed resoultion tonight and over the weekend. I know it has to be something simple as where I was working was on the opposite side of the engine bay from the battery. All I did was disconnect so I could pull electrical connections. Battery did test good and took a charge. I took it to Advance auto parts for testing. Oh well let the fun and diagnostics begin. Thanks to all