What the fuck

[Buffalo Phil]

...is killing the Load on my Batteries?? Went out to the jeep this morning and the Jeep just Barely started. This has happened to me twice already and the battery was fine, but then all of a sudden starting it just seems to start dragging ass. We thought it was the starter, but just replaced the battery and it started right up with no problem. This occured again, replaced the battery, started right up like nothing was wrong. We cleaned the Terminals and checked the battery with a high tech gauge and all it did was tell us the battery was no good.

I'm on Battery #3 here and the load just went to shit. Is it the fucking starter or what? I don't get it. What causes a battery to just shit the bed overnight? Once the jeep starts up, nothing is wrong.

[Bigbike]

No expert here, but there is probably a draw somewere in the electrical system causing it to go dead. Or maybe its yo alternator.

[Buffalo Phil]

Could it be the Winch?

[Bigbike]

is there a off and on switch for the winch? Mine has one and the battery has never drained becasue of that. You could try discoing it and see. wouldnt hurt

[Buffalo Phil]

I never really looked. I assumed it didn't have one.

[CumminsJeep]

I believe this is called a parasitic drain. something is slowly taking power from your battery (like leaving a light on) but just not as noticeable. it could even be due to a bad ground. did you check the alternator too?
here is a quick write up i found to do some simple checks for a parasitic drain.
http://www.flashoffroad.com/electric...teryDrain.html

[Lawn Guyland]

my guess is alternator....or maybe vandal is going out at night and turning your lights on.

[ninetysix-ex-jay]

Go to autozone and tell them to check the alternator in the car. It takes 5 mins and its free. In the meantime disconnect the leads from the winch to the battery to rule that out of the equation. Check the glove box light, that happened to mine...the switch was a little fawked

[Buffalo Phil]

I'll bring it down to the Shop tomorrow and have it checked out but it's unnerving because it sounds like it just doesn't want to start but then Fires right up.

I hate electrical issues. Thanks for the input so far, though, guys.

I'll check the battery and the Alternator first and see what happens.

[DrThunder]

Does your jeep have a voltmeter in the dash? Whats it reading?

[Buffalo Phil]

Well, this is embarrasing to admit but it was infact the starter itself. Just decided to shit the bed randomly. I had to tap the starter with my Crowbar in order to start the jeep so it's down at the shop now getting the starter replaced. Goddamnit.

I'm yota bombing for the time being.

[iant333]

Parasitic load is very easy to diagnose if you have a good ammeter.

Disconnect the negative battery terminal and hook an ammeter up in series between the cable and the battery.

Normal parasitic load should be less than 0.035A, if it is high then remove PDC fuses until the load drops to spec. That tells you where to look, as the load will be in the same circuit that the removed fuse controls.

[Ruepart Hoaxley]

Phil, don't feel bad.

I'm rocking the Fag Wagon right now because Junior decided to shit a rear driveshaft.

[ninetysix-ex-jay]

Parasitic load is very easy to diagnose if you have a good ammeter.

Disconnect the negative battery terminal and hook an ammeter up in series between the cable and the battery.

Normal parasitic load should be less than 0.035A, if it is high then remove PDC fuses until the load drops to spec. That tells you where to look, as the load will be in the same circuit that the removed fuse controls.

AMP CLAMP FTW