2002 - Battery draining while dead - radio seems to be problem

cjrollo

I've had my 2002 Impala for about 6 years now and it had been running fine for some time. Last year though, after a 5 day vacation with the car sitting idle in August, the battery was dead. Not a problem, I thought, simply recharge and good to go. However, after not driving on the next weekend, the battery was dead again. Rinse, repeat, and it kept happening. Battery was replaced once, still kept happening. Took it to a local mechanic, and they could not find a problem.

Finally last week we decided to pull the fuse on the radio, and the power drain seems to have stopped. The car once again sat all weekend, but started up just fine again on Monday. Happy days! However, I no longer have a radio to use. Not a huge problem, but any ideas if it may have been the wiring? Might installing an after-market radio solve the problem? Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

yourmechanic

It's a parasitic drain.

Since the problem stopped after you pulled the fuse on the radio, you were able to track the parasitic drain to the radio.

My suggestion is to have an aftermarket radio installed or leave it without a radio.

Your old radio is defective. It was either a leaking capacitor or transistor. Constantly leaking current to ground.

meowmix7121

It's possible something happened to the fuse or a short circuited wire to the radio. My Impala also has battery issues, I jumped it once and now i will have to continue to jump it until i find out whats wrong. Although recently the battery and coolant lights have been on my "message board", one of the fans continue to rotate and clink very loudly for a few minutes after the car is off. It all started after the first jump, I'm sure it has something to do with a power surge or other electrical issue. I installed a new alternator and i just traded my old battery in to pep boys for a new one TODAY and it's already died on me once. When they tested the old one ( which was ONLY 3 month old ) they told me it had a bad cell. Yet im still having the same problem.....