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Battery goes dead after 2 days

itbrokeagain

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Amelia Ohio
If my 98 Xj sits about 2 days it will be dead. Then when I jump it, i have to keep my foot on the gas for about 10 minutes or it dies. Is that normal? Where is a good place to start for the battery issue?
The battery has been tested and it is ok. I have swapped batteries also.
 
Use an ammeter to locate which circuit is running down the battery.
There are two wires that connect to the positive terminal... one goes to the starter, the other to the fuse box/relay center under the hood. If you connect the ammeter in-line between the wire that connects to the fuse box and the place the wire connects, you will see a current draw (if that's where the draw is coming from). You will then need to continue checking circuits to eliminate the ones that aren't involved and isolate the one that is. Once you narrow it down to the one that is shorting to ground, you'll have to figure out why it's happening and how you fix it will be determined then. Good luck!
 
child9 is 100% correct. Diagnosed this in a friend's jeep on Saturday, on his it happened to be the power amp for his sound system under the bench seat but it really can be just about anything. It was drawing around 2 amps continuous, all I did was put my ammeter on the 10 amp setting, insert it between the battery terminal and the cable, and pull fuses one at a time till the draw dropped to under 50mA. Then I looked up what that fuse powered and went from there.
 
His dropped to 10mA, but anything up to 50mA or so should be fine.

Just for shits and giggles, pull the yellow (20A) minifuse in the middle row (there are 3 rows) closest to the right fender and see if the draw goes away. That's the one for the power amp. I doubt it's the same problem as my friend's but it'll be interesting if it is...
 
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