Need help diagnosing a battery drain issue...

[ero]

...in my grandpa's 2000 camry.

Two placed I was suspicious of are
1) his aftermarket remote starter shorting somewhere
2) we had to extend his + battery cable so we had to do some ghetto-rigging of two battery cables and took a terminal post and attached both cables to the terminal post. Covered the whole thing with a shitload of electrical tape, but I think there definately could be a short there.


I'm going to have those two checked out but other than that are there any known trouble spots for shorts in these cars?

[GaryGoatse]

Is this a new battery or did you let it go dead a few times and now its not charging? Because every 3 years or after the battery dies completely about 2 or 3 times you need to replace it. Disconnect the ground cable going to the battery and hook up a DVOM or Ammeter in series from the terminal to the disconnected battery cable and check for any amperage. Anything more than a few mili-amps (usually required for clock, radio, computer memory etc...) means you are shorted somewhere or that something is using up voltage and current. Try discconecting fuses and checking how many amps you are still drawing and when it suddenly goes down that fuse you just disconnected is what is drawing all the power from the battery. Did you hook up a fuse with your remote starter? Find a way to disconnect the remote starter and see if you get a current draw still.

Thats the easiest way to diagnose a dying battery. Could just be a loose belt for your alternator :P

[ilovecorollale]

My battery is leaking acid i think or so.It has a small crack enough to leak located next to the two positive and negative battery terminal...so since i used and put those felt pads there...the pads are just absorbing those leaks and getting very wet and soggy now.Should i replace the battery or not because the battery still work fines its just the leaking at the top next to each of those terminal.

And the battery i think is from 9/2007.almost 3 years.

If so change...should i just go with a duralast one?

[GaryGoatse]

I would definately replace the battery if it is leaking. Battery acid is not a nice thing to play with and the battery will slowly discharge and you will be stuck on the side of the road pretty soon.