Frustrated! Car battery keeps draining

[Oceana]

I just wanna throw this out there as well. The previous owner said it was a connection to the battery,however its been looked at numerous times and noone can see the issues. Ive had AAA out at least 6 times and theyve never found anything. The last AAA guy looked it over a good 30mins,checked wires,ALT,Starter etc and he said theres no drain. I mean AAA peopl,Autozone and that crappy mechanic looked at it along with other people and noone is seeing anything thats jumping out at them..

[VsandFords]

This is from your other thread.

Tuesday my husband went to start his 01 PT Cruiser and it had no power at all. He tried our portable jumper and nothing,his friend hooked up his car for a bit and still nothing. He went to trade out the battery and he got dim lights and it wouldnt crank,he tried it again and nothing at all! Any suggestions?? We need this car back up and running asap as its our only vehicle. Thanks!

This sounds like a connection problem, especially now that you posted this. You did not post what the battery voltage was when you said the battery was dead. There is a possibility that when the battery is replaced, moving the battery cables is restoring the connection, and movement while driving is causing the cables to lose connection.

When you say that a new battery was installed and there was "nothing", this tells me that youhave a bad connection. Since Cruisers have many ground connections, these should be checked. There are a few under the air filter box. The filter box pulls out easily after disconnecting the rubber air tube going to the engine.


While checking connections, you might want to check the main fuse in the fuse panel under the hood also.

These are a few suggestions from my side of the internet.

[06_PB6_TOURING]

Stop randomly throwing parts at the car.

Pull the battery, have it recharged and load tested. If it passes, move to the next step.

Install the battery, connect a volt meter to the terminals. It should read 12.66 or close to that. Start the engine and read the voltage. it should read 13.2 to 14.5.

Before we go any farther these steps must be done.

[rckstein]

Also, if you get the car started, you can take it to almost any auto parts store (O'Reilly, AutoZone, etc) and they can test the battery, starting and charging system in the vehicle, only takes a few minutes.

[ptprice]

Originally Posted by rckstein

Also, if you get the car started, you can take it to almost any auto parts store (O'Reilly, AutoZone, etc) and they can test the battery, starting and charging system in the vehicle, only takes a few minutes.

AAA, Autozone, the crappy mechanic and others have already looked at it. Apparently this PT has this problem in it's history. Has it been established that this is a poor fluctuating ground connection?
Possibly it's not a grounding problem but might be found by visually checking and testing any positive circuit that might be intermittently grounded on and off. I say intermittently, because it hasn't shown up with all the fine testing that's been done. An errant positive wire with a bit of insulation scraped off is enough to carry 12 volts to a ground it's touching. As suggested something might be askew in the Multi function switch. Any of that'll suck a battery dry in no time. SOOO BIG's last battery went down overnight because I left the overhead interior light on inadvertently. Good luck. Happy PTin', ptprice

[ptcruisersteve]

Originally Posted by Oceana

We have them,but theyve never worked that weve noticed.

Check to see if the fuse was removed for the fog lights.

[Oceana]

Originally Posted by ptcruisersteve

Check to see if the fuse was removed for the fog lights.

As soon as I can get to my car ( we got hit with a big snowstorm and the neighbors literally buried it) ill def check it.

[Oceana]

Hubby said one of the times AAA came out they gave him a print out that said the battery was 341 and pushing .62amps per min.

[06_PB6_TOURING]

Do you still have the print out and can you type in exactly what it says? Those numbers and units are missing some info.

[Oceana]

Originally Posted by 06_PB6_TOURING

Do you still have the print out and can you type in exactly what it says? Those numbers and units are missing some info.

I dont think he does.