Battery going dead....Again.....

[Damian_Z31]

On my 87' na I've killed two everstart batteries in about three months to the point they will not even hold a charge for more than two mins to get it pushed started. I have a small system in the car that was in it when I bought it. When I have my radio on I can sit and watch my RPM gauge go very quickly from about 1000rpm to about 500 rpm and back and sometimes it goes even lower like 200 rpm or so, but the engine doesn't idle lower or higher like the gauge says its doing. Has anyone had the same problem or know if the two are related. I'm going to Wal-Mart tomorrow to return the battery and see whats up but if its something other than my system than i'll leave it in instead of removing it. Please help me out cause I think wal-mart will eventually stop taking batteries back.

[Domdogg123]

alternator?

[SATAN]

There was another thread where a guy posted a vid of an DIGI dash rpm jumping around like that. Cant find it now. but nobody ever figured out why it does that.

sounds like you have a short somewhere in your car that slowly drains the bat. I have the same problem only I removed the stereo completely the heater the ac, pretty much everything except power windows. But I dont feel like chasing down an electrical short so I just unplug my battery every night. (heh, dont have to worry bout losing presets on the stereo though)

[Jason84NA2T]

Those everstart batterise have worked fine for me in the past, so I would guess your car is in need of a solution. Check your current with the car off by hooking a fused ammeter between the battery and positive terminal, this will tell you right away if you have a slow drain outside of the obvious system.

You might need a slightly better alternator, consider the maxima 90amp unit which puts out 20A more peak and ~10A more at idle than a standard Z alternator. Also consider a small cap, I think all systems over ~150w should have one.

[Damian_Z31]

Yesterday I had a buddy of mine look at it and the power wire for the system was only holding on by a few threads, we fixed that and took the subs out and changed the positive terminal to see if that would make a difference. I've watched the RPM gauge w/ the rdio on minus the subs and I haven't seen it jump a bit so I hope the Problem is solved.

That Maxima alternator is something that i've heard of before and Firehawk that will go on the list of things that will eventually put more of my money in your pocket than is in mine. :wink:

[Firehawk]

Damian_Z31 wrote: Yesterday I had a buddy of mine look at it and the power wire for the system was only holding on by a few threads, we fixed that and took the subs out and changed the positive terminal to see if that would make a difference. I've watched the RPM gauge w/ the rdio on minus the subs and I haven't seen it jump a bit so I hope the Problem is solved.

That Maxima alternator is something that i've heard of before and Firehawk that will go on the list of things that will eventually put more of my money in your pocket than is in mine. :wink:

I would go the quest alternator route, since its even bigger at 125 amps.

[Damian_Z31]

Would I really need it if I'm not going to run alot of electronics, and wouldn't that be more of a drain on the motor?

[Firehawk]

If you are not planning on a stereo system, then no, but it will not put a bigger load on the motor, and if the cost is the same, then I would go for the bigger unit.

[Damian_Z31]

That sounds good but since i'm on somewhat a tight budget how much are you talking about?

[Firehawk]

Damian_Z31 wrote: That sounds good but since i'm on somewhat a tight budget how much are you talking about?

A $100 or so. I really don't remember right off.