Intermittent rundown battery

[Todd Jacobson]

I'm at a loss. My '92 Explorer is giving me fits! Here's the scoop: Every few days I will get a near dead battery. Sometimes it will happen overnight or won't happen for days at a time. I will try to jump it but it won't start until I disconnect the battery and then reconnect it while I'm trying to do this. Almost like I'm resetting something. Here are some other facts:
1. I have tried different batteries and have come to the conclusion that it's not that.
2. No interior lights, even the engine bay or glove box are being left on.
3. I had trouble with my alarm/lock system last year so I don't use it. One time I found my door locks cycling up and down, but I've never found them doing that again.
4. My wife is about to shoot me! Todd J.

 

[TPLYNCH]

Have you tried replacing the battery cables themselves? They tend to rot on the inside......

 

[TSTONE]

do a search on fuel pump relay, it's a common problem for your year

 

[Paul Gagnon]

I have heard of the door lock thing before. I can't remember if it was on here or a guy at work. probably a guy at work. Anyway have you done a load test on your alternator? You can buy a tester fairly cheaply but most electrical/battery shops will do a load test for free.

 

[karl_burns]

same thing on mine

I won't get into the semantics of the Fraud Dealer near me tooling with my engine the day before I started having problems with my battery and charging system, but here is one way to potentially isolate the drain: If you're finding the battery almost drained in the mornings, when you get home one night, disconnect the alarm from the battery terminals. When you go out in the morning, if you don't see the battery as drained, it's in the connections regarding to/from the alarm. After that, it'a all you.
Best of all, this check is FREE!
Karl

 

[stroud13]

In my experience, its the fuel pump relay that's causing the problem. When the relay is bad it will allow the fuel pump to kick on intermittently. Eventually, it will drain the battery.

In my case, I'd hear it kick on while the truck sat in the driveway (key off and out, amazing!). This went on for months, before it finally killed the battery, and I got serious about fixing it.

TSTONE is right....you'll find plenty of posts about it.