Battery Dying

1999 - all stock, new battery
My XJ has gone from a DD to a weekend (at best) hauler. After sitting for about a week, I found the battery to be DEAD. I charged the battery over the weekend (48 hrs on trickle) and checked using my multi-meter. I see 13 volts on the battery and about .5 amps draw when I install the battery and measure across the negative battery post and the negative battery cable.

As a comparison reading to the .5 amp draw, I took another reading with the interior light on and saw a 3 amp draw.

I had the alternator tested at AutoZone before buying the new battery and it was OK.

The XJ sits for a week at a time and I've lately only used it only for weekend erands - very short (less then 3 miles).

My WAG is that everything is electricly OK, I'm just not driving the Jeep long enough to let the alt recharge the battery. A half dozen (more?) very short trips plus days of sitting have been enough to kill the battery.

Does this make sense or should I still be suspect? I need to take the jeep to the airport and I want to make sure I'll not be looking for a jump start at midnight in Logan airport!

take your battery out and have it checked, if it comes back on, you can buy a battery disconnect fairly cheaply. just install that and when you park it at the airport open the disconnest and leave it like that untill you get back. that way the battery is removed completly from the elecrical system, so there will be no load on it.

oop... new battery didn't see that, soulds like you still have a load on your battery, 3 amp seems high for just an interior light. .5amp seems a little high too, you might have a small short somewhere.

0.5 amps draw seems high to me. I would pull fuses until and record how low you can get the 0.5 amps to go down. Once you find the big hitter, I'd work on solving that issue.

sounds like you have some type of parasitic draw from an accessory in the car.

I had this problem in my MJ last week. I finally figured it out when I noticed the glove box wasn't shut all the way. DOH! That 1/2-amp draw will easily kill your battery within 2-days.