Battery Being Draining...and I don't Know why...

June 20, 2006, 08:56:35 PM

Ok, let me take this one slowly, and explain everything that has happened up to this point. About 1 month ago, I was having problems starting the car. When I tried to start it, the engine wouldn't even turn over, and eventually when I turned the key all that I could hear was a clicking noise and nothing moved at all. So, I looked at the battery which was many years old and decided I needed to get a new one. I did that and presto! The car started up fine. For a few days. Then 3-4 days later, the same problem started happening. Car was slow starting, then it wouldn't even turn over, the same thing. So, my guess was that it was the Alternator. So, on 6/7 I bought a brand new Alternator and put it in. The problem went away. So, everything was fine...right?

Well, not exactly. About 1 week ago, I was driving home from work and I started smelling smoke. I pulled over and poped the hood to see the Alternator was on fire. Great. I got a jump home and the next morning took the chared thing to Autozone and got a replacement. The strange thing is it was almost as if the fire started inside the Alternator. The guy in the store thought it might have been a bad output connector, but when I told him I used the New one included in the kit, he didn't know what could have started it.

I should mention that after getting this second alternator, just to be sure the Battery was getting the charge, I ran a Wire directly from the Output connector on the Alternator, right to the positive terminal for the battery.

2 days go by and again, the same starting problem. At this point, the only thing I could think was that on the night the 1st Alternator caught fire, I drove the car home (15-20 miles) and it was running off the battery....thus drained it. Of course, there are problems with this theory, but it was the only thing I could think of. So, that day I went the Wal-Mart and got yet another battery. (This was about 4 days ago).

Ok, so everything was fine. New Alternator (2nd) and new Battery (2nd). Until today.

I drove around 20 miles today and stopped to get some gas. When I got back in my car to go, I noticed the engine was slow starting up. The same kind of slow when the Battery was going south. I drove it straight home, and parked it. I attempted to restart her, but the same slow turning but no starting happened. After about 7 minutes, I went back out and attempted to start the car again, and it came on. (This also happened when I was experiencing the same problems before. I would die. Not be startable, but then overnight, the battery would seemingly re-charge itself!)

So, now I am stuck wondering what is wrong with my car? 2 new batteries and alternators and still the same problem. Something is draining the battery and I don't know what. Again, I already ran a bypass wire from the Alternator to the Battery just to make sure it was getting the charge.

At this point, I don't know what's causing the problem. I know there is a white wire sticking out of the Output connector on the Alternator that's not connected to anything, but when I bought the car, that wire was sticking out on the old Connector in the same way, but I didn't have any of these problems.

Is it possible for there to be some short in the Air Compressor that could be doing this? Does that little White wire supposed to hook up to something?

Please help me. I'm at my wits end, and I honestly don't know what's wrong.

Here is exactly what I see:

(You can clearly see the bypass wire I set up)

(This white wire I'm talking about is on the right side of the Connector)

(I've had this Black connector since I bought the car. I don't know if that Black wire on the right serves any purpose, but it's always been cut off since I've owned this machine)

(I have no idea what purpose that blue wire coming out of the Positive Battery Cable is for, but I thought I would take a picture of it too just in case)

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