I have a 96 maxima with 180,000 miles on it, and it still runs like it's new... at least it did up until a few weeks ago. Lately I've been having issues with the battery dying after not using the car for a day or more. I replaced the battery and the problem came back after a week or so, which leads me to believe that something is draining the battery when the key is off. I suspect it may be the power antenna, which is stuck in the up position, and have ordered a replacement, but this seems an unlikely source of power drain and more of a general nuisance.

I was wondering if anyone here has had the same problem or is there is a part that is known to cause battery drain?

Thanks for your help.

 

Its called parasitic draw. if you want to find out how much youve got,get a electrical test meter.(a semi good one not that crap you get at walmart).dissconect the negative batt cable, then set your tester to the amps scale, and put the leads in between the batt cable,and the negative terminal. it should read about 25miliamps. if it reads more then youve got a fu**ed up probelm good luck.

 

just a small note....if ya have an aftermarket radio or whatever, installed from a cheep place watch out, i had the same prob in my toy 4x4 and looked for 2 months and found it.....2 wires for the radio touching and that was it....one was draw (could smell some thing sometimes and never quite place it - go figure) and the other ? went by two batt's that way.....ended up taking the whole friggen dash out looking for the problem, auto elec. guys earn bank cause of problems like this....

ps:
disconnect your ant. and see if ya still got a draw. also note could it be your alt. ?
i have seen the alt.'s being the problem before......dads sub.. just had this

 

Thanks for your replies.

I tried using a small circuit tester my dad had (It just lights up if there's a current) but it was too weak and the bulb blew out. I'll try to get to Wal*Mart and buy a voltometer and do it that way.

Also I couldn't find the fuse for the antenna, I even pulled out the radio (I just have the stock Bose radio, it's a pain to take out) hoping I could disconnect it there but there were only two connections, and neither of them looked like an antenna connection. How do you disconnect it?

 

start pulling fuses. or clean your battery cables.

 

A quick way to isolate a draw is to pull fuses and relays, and measure the current draw across the connections. If you have the hood open while doing this, use tape or something to hold down the 'open hood' switch (according looking thing near the front edge on driver's side?) and wait at least 10-15 minutes for the alarm module to go back to a rest state. I'll bet that normal current draw is going to be around 15 mA or less. If it's more (measured across the positive or negative battery terminal to the battery connector) then you can trace is by measuring current across various fuses/relays (helps if you have the wiring diagrams) until you find the circuit(s) drawing too much current. Tedious but will get you going in the right direction.

 

is this how things should be set up? If so I guess I'll get to work pulling fuses.