Dead battery - Is the alternator bad?

[dghii]

I understand that you wrench for a living and appreciate you taking the time to help a fellow owner. If these were expensive parts requiring lots of man-hours to replace, I'd be right there with you.

I've replaced ignition switches on Boxsters because of weird symptoms (radio on/off), lighting, AC blower working sometimes but not others. Never had the ignition switch determine what the charging voltage went to my battery, nor cause otherwise working accessories to suddenly draw more current and run down a battery.

Hopefully, he'll get it sorted out.

[Ian c]

I suspect on of the aircon faults caused by the faulty ignition switch was causing the drain , but never really diagnosed it as the switch was known faulty so got changed out.
After this , When the car was driving again I had no fault

It had BAD problems with the key not springing back after activating the starter , and sometimes being difficult to remove ...

[3point2]

Thanks for the replies! Yes I did take beer break and friend stopped by an ended up abandoning the car to continue with the beer and a BBQ lol

Ok I'm back on the car now and am going to begin the fuse check and drain. I'll be posting updates here shortly. Thanks so much for the help!

-Leo

[3point2]

I have the positive cable connected to the batter and the negative cable disconnected. I have my meter set at 200 milliamperes and touching the red meter cable with the negative battery cable post and the black meter cable to the disconnected ground cable. And I'm getting 0 readings. I've adjusted the scale but still no readings?? What am I doing wrong?

I checked the voltage on the battery and its still reading 12.2V so the meter is working.

Thanks,
-Leo
510-710-8320

[Steve Tinker]

Leo...
Try attaching the red probe of the meter to the end of the ground cable and the black probe of the meter to the battery terminal. You had the polarity wrong and depending on the meter it may not indicate any mA drain.
At 12,2 volts your battery is barely 50% charged.

[3point2]

I tried reversing the cables as you had mentioned and still no readings.

[Steve Tinker]

Just to verify your Ma scale is working, switch on an electrical load (interior lights say) still with the battery negative terminal disconnected and connect the meter up in series again in the Amps scale.
The meter should show a reading (the load of the interior lights) when you connect the meter across the end of the cable and battery.

[3point2]

I am using a different meter. It works now. I'll be posting results shortly. Thanks!

[3point2]

I pulled each fuse and all the readings are at 1.70 amps. No big fluctuations anywhere.

Is that ampere normal?

[cas951]

Originally Posted by dghii

I've replaced ignition switches on Boxsters because of weird symptoms (radio on/off), lighting, AC blower working sometimes but not others.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I just realized this could be the problem I'm having.
My Bose system is acting really weird. It started with audio fading from low to high volume. Now when I hit a bump on the road it turns on or off on it's own. When I want to turn it on I get nothing. When I hit a slight bump on the road the radio comes on automatically. This was on my last road trip last weekend.

I went for a long ride yesterdday and the radio did not turn on at all. Drove over 300 miles.

[Ian c]

Originally Posted by 3point2

I pulled each fuse and all the readings are at 1.70 amps. No big fluctuations anywhere.

Is that ampere normal?

No it is not .
1.7 mA is normal .
Are you sure you're reading it right ?

If the meter you're using now is the same as the one you posted a pic of earlier , what are you set to in the dca range ?

[Ian c]

It looks like we missed each other again while I was out today , and you're offline now just as I'm getting ready to watch a movie


Here's a few more quick tests if you're still working on it .
With your meter in the same position , click over to Vdc ... What are you reading volts?
You need to clarify that your drain is 1.7 mA ...
Next do the same check on the alternator connection BATT . What are you reading mA?
(Be carefull not to touch this wire to anything !! The best way is to disconnect the battery then remove and secure the wire with the test leads fitted , then reconnect the battery. )
While you're in this area , a alternator drain can be checked at the same time (preferably with assistance so nothing shorts) . Does the battery mA reading drop when the alternator is disconnected ?
Next reconnect everything and go from the alternator BATT , to ground and set to ac volts . With the engine running and lights on , What are you reading ~voltsAC ?
Now you need to do your first test again
Across the battery with the car running with lights on for a few minutes , what are you reading Vdc ?
What are you reading immediately after turning the car off ?
Turn the lights on for a few minutes , then take a reading again .
Finally , if you can , disconnect the battery completely and take a reading after around 30-60 minutes . Then again in the morning .

[3point2]

Woah, lots of instructions there! Haha jk. Thanks for the help Ian! I'll have to perform this test another day. I went ahead and reconnected the battery again and am going to try and replicate the problem.

For the 1.7mA readings, I had the meter set at DC10A and I'm assuming it was reading in Amperes and not mAmperes. It was readying 1.7A or less when pulling each fuse. When I opened the door and the door lights came on, the reading would be at 3.3A.

I'm using a different meter than what was pictured in this thread earlier. I'm using the following meter now. I had the red cable connected to the red hole on the left side of the meter and the black cable connected to the center. Then I had set the meter to the DC10A setting.

Equus Innova 3320 - Multimeter | O'Reilly Auto Parts