FI-2026-000039SolvedEveryday

Car battery dies within two days of a full charge

Reference
FI-2026-000039
Category
Everyday
Published
Oct 26, 2026
Read by
2

The problem

The battery is nine months old and tests fine at the shop, but if the car sits for two days it will not start. A new battery did the same thing.

What we told them

Two batteries behaving identically means the battery is not the problem — something is drawing current while the car sleeps. Put a multimeter in series with the negative terminal and wait forty minutes for the modules to go to sleep. A healthy parasitic draw is under 50 milliamps. Anything above that, pull fuses one at a time until the reading drops; the circuit you just interrupted is the culprit. Glovebox and boot lights that never switch off are the usual answer.

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