90 240sx hatch battery dies when parked and off

[vegita1647]

alright 1990 240sx hatchback...(sil80 future) running the stock ka24e sohc for now runs strong but has a few electrical problems new alternator and battery but the battery dies when the car is off sometimes it doesnt some times it does i can pushstart it and every once in a while it will crank over sounds like theres no spark ngk wires and v power plugs new distributor cap and rotor. ive covered the basics really fuses conections terminals etc etc does anyone have a clue of what it could be or should i throw the rb20 in and worry it will have the same problems help if you can slap me upside the head if i missed something obvious thanks

[s13_chris]

The hard thing about electrical is that its hard to diagnose over the internet. You just gotta suck up and start looking everywhere. Battery corrosion (could be a dead battery too). Look for anything that stays on that could be pulling any power.

[vegita1647]

so many things ive went over lol i dont think its parsidec drain tho cause some times it will turn over and it will keep cranking and cranking like it has no spark its weird like that... thanks for the help and advice tho man

[nissans13240sx]

Stupid question, but are your battery terminals tight? I know the factory ones get worn out over the years and sometimes pop off. Also make sure your ground cable from battery is making good clean contact with frame and motor.

[sommmatt]

Replace your grounds and terminals. Even if this doesn't solve your problem, you will be thankful for it.

Do a test for parasitic draw. Then have fun finding out where it comes from.

[vegita1647]

terminals changed what is that little black box that connects to the terminal it was loose now its tight tho car still died took the battery to get tested it passed so it was charged i swapped it with the kinetic out of my srt4 and it died in the srt4 lol kinetic holding strong hopefully itll hold over night if it dont im lost lol new kinetic on the way for the 240 thanks for your help if it dont work ill figure it out eventually and post what the problem was

[vegita1647]

im almost fed up with this car battery still does it and the parisitic drain teat showed no results ftw

[Wretched]

So which is it here, a dead battery or a no spark issue? And if a perfectly good battery is going dead overnight because it's connected to your car, I assure you there is a parasitic draw on it. How exactly did you perform your test?

[danshaz82]

So which is it here, a dead battery or a no spark issue? And if a perfectly good battery is going dead overnight because it's connected to your car, I assure you there is a parasitic draw on it. How exactly did you perform your test?

what were the results of the test? cause if theres a parasitic draw, you can pull fuses and see if the draw gets dropped when a fuse is pulled.

[OutToWinPAHC]

from my tech tip in the technical section

BOTH THE BATTERY AND ALTERNATOR CHECK OUT GOOD, BUT AFTER A FEW DAYS MY BATTERY DIES?

Parasitic battery loss is the technical term for this problem. It is caused by two root factors.

A – A circuit or device in the car that stays on drawing current. All cars have circuits that do this such as the ECU, clock, and headunit memory. Those items are not issues usually, unless something breaks down in these devices causing them to draw more current. But if you have added new devices like amps, caps, engine electronics, they could be wired incorrectly causing them to stay on all the time. The other thing that can cause this to happen a nick in a harness shorting to ground. It may not be a hard short due to a painted surface, but if there is a current loss you will drain the battery.

B – The other thing that causes this… A leaking battery. When a battery drips or leaks it leaves a trail of electrolyte down the side of the battery. The chassis is grounded so if the battery is leaking a little (like a single drip that runs down the side of the battery) it will make a trace to ground. Kind of like a tiny solder trace on a board. Current flows down this trace to ground causing a small but steady discharge of current. If your battery is leaking replace it. If you have wet mark around the terminals or green fuzzy looking stuff known as copper sulfate on the terminal replace the battery and cable.

[OutToWinPAHC]

Do you have a current clamp or multimeter?

[danshaz82]

a multimeter would be a great tool for this

[vegita1647]

most helpfull so far man thank you for all people posting to this thread i am using a multi meter trying to trace the parisitic draw im assuming its in the hack job done by the radio installer if you saw it youd laugh but the head unit and clock dont hold the memory could that be a critical flaw?????

[vegita1647]

its not just over night its after a few start ups but once the battery is half dead or dies and the car is jump started is when it gets the no spark or timing off sound to the motor kinda sounds like a cammed sti but once the battery is changed out with my charged spare it starts up and runs smooth like it should im assuming its cause the ecu resets no clue tho

[s13_chris]

Are you SURE your alternator is good? This sounds a lot like mine when my Alternator died. I was driving and noticing power loss and my headlights were getting pretty f***ing dim and then it just started slowly loosing power tell it died on me and wouldn't start again. Sounds more like your alternator. Are you running a big a** sound system that the alternator can't keep up with? Jsut an idea. Ummm ya.

[Arrow]

This might be a real lame answer / response...

Have you taken a look at the light inside your hatch? I had a parasitic loss with my '90 and came to find out that the light in the hatch was staying on all the time (well some of the time) due to something involved in the switching mechanism. I just removed the light completely and solved my dead battery issues.

[Klits562]

check your alternator fuseits on the intake side fuse box marked fl75 altthen take your terminals off(replace if they are messed up) and check your battery cables make sure they are clean and not all green if they are cut them back n expose fresh wire. This really helped when my car had trouble starting.

[vegita1647]

no sound system hell not even a radio now lol disconnected the radio still died... the alt is new its only been on the car at most 25 miles its the second brand new one put on in a month i doubted the first one cause it kept dying anyway multi meter is showing no drain ima check the alt fuse again today if theres any corrosion ill get that too

[vegita1647]

so it finally got to me i took it to a repair shop having them look into the problem... there still looking into it and so far theyve had it 2 days and they as "proffesionals" cant seem to find the drain anywhere either i kinda want to laugh cuz i thought i was losing my mechanical touch but they are losing this battle too

[jeff420]

i saved my 240 from the junkyard and it had a similar issue. the headlight switch would make the headlights turn on at random times. i found it out because when i lived with my mom she went out to her car early one morning and i had left my headlights in the up position and my car spotlighted her. she went to my car to yell at me and found out i was still asleep inside. lol. may not be your issue but i figured id throw it out there, previous owner never caught it because he always left the headlight flipped down. well that and he was a huge fat dumbass that diddnt deserve a 240 but thats a whole other story! lmao

[vegita1647]

hey fat people deserve 240s its fun to see them try to fit lol but yeah i know thats not the problem its at the shop now wires tested good and all that alt is good but i think that the voltage controll regulator isnt getting the signal to kick the alt into charge mode for some reason