I've had an electrical issue with my car since before I got it...my uncle, who owned it before me, found that if he let the car sit for more than a couple days at a time, the battery would be drained and the car wouldn't start. I've experienced this same problem, which is particularly common in the colder months.

Today, I called AAA for a jump-start, and the responder said that he used to work as a mechanic, and had some experience with these cars. He ran some tests to make sure it was charging properly (it was), and to see if there was a heavy drain (there wasn't), and then said that if it wasn't one of those things, all he could think of was this...he said that it looked like the battery I have is a bit small (which is true, the plate that it sits on has plenty of space for a larger one), and suggested that maybe I have a Cali or Canada spec car, which would be intended to take a heavier-duty battery, I think he said type 24F, and if I've got something smaller in there, that could be the cause of my problems.

I looked under the hood after driving around for an hour to charge it up, and sure enough, I have a Cali-spec car. The battery in the car right now is an Interstate MTP-35, and a quick look at the Interstate website DOES show a separate, 24F model, for California and Canada.

 

my cali spec 95 came new with a type 35 I since changed to a 24F and no problems.

 

Did you ever have any problems with the 35? Such as leaving the car for 4-5 days in the winter (a little longer in the summer), and finding that it was completely drained?

 

yes but only with the original factory type 35 ,, I had another type 35 diehard gold which worked ok,
but the 24F seems to crank much better in cold weather than the 35's ever did.

 

Interesting. Do you think going to a 24F would solve my problem, though, since that's what the car was intended to have? FWIW, my understanding is that this issue only surfaced relatively shortly before I got the car, which was in Fall of 2007.

 

if you only have tried the battery that is installed now I would definitely get a new battery and see if that solves the problem, if you have tried other new batteries than you may have a small parasitic drain which needs to be found

 

Have you had the battery load tested? Tested for a parasitic drain?

The group size of the battery isn't going to affect how long it takes to discharge (within reason). Certainly nothing to do with fully discharging within a few days.

 

I have a 1999 cali spec and I had that interstate battery. I just replaced it with a Maxx battery from walmart. It cost me $75. It has a 3 year replacement warranty and a 9 year pro rated warranty after that. You can choose from many batteries but I wanted the most powerful one that would fit. I bought the 925 cranking amps one and it fits perfectly into the maxima battery tray with a little room to spare. They recommend 700 for cold climates and 500 for regular temps. Consumer reports rated interstate number one and Everstart Maxx number two. Walmart is awesome.

 

Yes, it was tested for a drain today...nothing showed up, or at least nothing major/out of the ordinary. I don't think it's been load tested, but I could be wrong.

 

was the battery replaced at all??
when a battery drains completely(i mean completely), the battery loses it's ability to keep a charge. you can jump start all you want but it won't be able to function as it use to.
only answer is to replace the battery.

 

This seems to be a fairly common and poorly understood problem with our cars. You need to find out exactly what the drain current is. It should only be 10 milliamps when the car goes into sleep mode and the car has to go into sleep mode.

See:http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...rain-help.html

I checked my 98 SE which works normally and does not have this problem. I opened my hood and checked current with everything else off and closed. The draw was approximately 0.1 Amps = to 100 milliamps. This is the same as Matt's result. If I depress the switch that senses if the hood is closed after about 30-60 seconds the current draw goes down to about 0.01 Amps or 10 milliamps. This must be the sleep mode kicking in. That is quite a a difference. I can understand if a switch from the alarm system is malfunctioning, of missing, the car would never go into sleep mode.

As Matt found out 0.1 Amps is enough to drain the battery over the period of 1-2 days.

 

good call Nopike.

Yeah cali spec batteries are different

 

If I'm understanding something in that thread correctly, the red LED for the security system should flash once every second for the first 30-60 seconds, and then slow down when the security system goes into "sleep mode"...when I left my car tonight when I got home from work, I stood and counted, and it definitely went for over a minute without slowing down. I'll take my multimeter out and check it tomorrow to see what it's reading, and if I have time, see if I can track down the source of the non-sleeping.

 

I took my multimeter out to the car just now, and disconnected the negative terminal on the battery, and for some reason, got a reading of 0.00 mA between the battery terminal and the connector, with the car off and all lights off. Could this be due to not having the security system fuse in there? I took it out a couple years ago when someone suggested that the security system could be the cause of my drain.

 

bump