kliqzero

Hey guys,

My battery kept dying on my 05 Acura TL (about 120,000 miles) so I went out and bought a brand new battery and had a friend install it for me.

Car seemed to be working well for a couple of days, but I notice whenever I park my car and don't drive it for 24-48 hours and come back, the battery is dead (completely dead, won't even make a sound when I try to turn the ignition).

I did some research on this board and thought maybe it was the wireless bluetooth - so I removed it. At first it seemed like it did the trick, but then a couple of days after the car was dead again.

What could the issue be? I can jump the car and it works fine, but it's annoying having to constantly find people to help jump my car when I need it.

Thanks!

thoiboi

You're going to need to do a parasitic draw test to see what is causing the draw and draining your battery

kliqzero

is that something a noob like me could do, and if so what will I need?

Or is it worth just taking it into a shop and having them figure it out?

webbch

A parasitic draw test is good, but whenever a battery dies w/o other explanation, you want to confirm the alternator is charging the battery when the engine is running. It should be charging at well above the 12.8 volts of the battery - somewhere around 14 volts.

As for the parasitic draw test, you need a multimeter set up to measure current. Disconnect the negative terminal from the battery and insert the multimeter in between the battery(-) and the negative terminal on the harness. Make sure all the doors are closed, and wait a minute or so to ensure all lighting has turned off, and then see what the meter is measuring for current draw. The lower the better, but anything above about 100 milli-amps is cause for concern IMO. If it's a hard zero, you probably don't have things hooked up correctly. When lights are on and such, it'll be drawing well over the 1-2 amp level most likely.

Majofo

HFL.. probably

Majofo

After a fresh battery install, let it sit for a bit and touch the HFL unit by the rear view mirror to see if it's warm. Bingo!
Tons of threads on fixing / replacing / bypassing it.

Jackass

OP stated they removed the Bluetooth already.

OP, the other two posters have provided good advice on the next steps. Test the alternator to confirm it is charging and then test for a draw when the car is off. Testing for the parasitic draw isn't the easiest thing, but it isn't rocket science either. Best if you have an ammeter to use, but you can also just start will pulling fuses and putting them back in. The ones that have a small spark are pulling power still. Some of those "should" be pulling some power, while most should not be. Just a matter of mapping those out to what circuit they are tied to. If you do have an ammeter, you can measure the actual current draw on each of those.

Majofo

Just searched HFL and didn't read shit.
You just need to isolate the leak
First verify a leak, multimeter on battery (in series for current test)
If you see anything over 100 mA.. you have a leak.
Make sure you select the highest amp rating.. probably 10A.

Get a wiring diagram of the fusemaps
Pull the fuses that are most probable
Most probable being active-on or high resistance
These are lights, stereo (amp), or any active-on radio (bluetooth, keyless anything, etc)

Now check current draw from the battery (multimeter in series)
If no draw, start the process of elimination by putting fuses back one by one until you find the culprit.
If there's a draw, note what's left and start pulling fuses from likely culprits first.

Report back.