I have a 1996 Oldsmobile Achieva.

I've had this problem for a month and a half now:

I'm using the MAXX-70N batteries from Wal-Mart and have gone through
three of them in the past month and a half.

It'll run for about two weeks. After the first week the battery light
will start coming on and staying on, as well as the break and parking
break lights.

Then it's pretty clockwork that after two weeks it won't start up.
It'll give a soft turn-over chug and then nothing but the rapid
click-click-click of what I assume is the solenoid. After that it won't
even try to turn over. All the interior lights will flicker as I turn
the ignition.

Jumping the car doesn't help. I did that once and it held the charge
for about a block before dieing.

A new battery starts the car right up again until the next two week
failure.

Any ideas as to why the batteries are not holding a charge? Is it my
car's charging system? The cables and contacts to the battery look ok
and have been cleaned, respectively.

Also, today for the first time, either the belt or something around the
belt by the alternator is making a strange chirping noise. I couldn't
isolate the noise though.

Please let me know if you need any more information. Thanks!

I can think of 3 possible problems.

The alternator is/has blown a diode or the brushes are hung up/worn.
Get this checked at a quality shop with load test equipment.

The belt is worn/slipping and probably has enough wear to warrant
replacing.

You have a drain in the system - something is left on and is slowly
draining the battery. A fast check is to disconnect one batt cable
and put a test lite between the cable and the battery. All doors
closed, hood lite disconnected, key out of ingition. The test lite
should not lite up brightly - if at all. A volt meter spliced the
same way will do the same thing - you want less that 12 volts showing.
A bright lite or 12 V or better on the meter means that a system is on
- start isolating it by pulling fuses untill the test lite goes out /o
voltage drops.

Pete





On 29 Mar 2006 10:52:53 -0800, rkfrtsch (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:

Thanks for your response, I really appreciate it!

I put a multimeter between the battery and the cable after taking the
precautions you suggested. It read at 12.1V and after disconnecting
each fuse while checking the multimeter, only one made a difference
(the interior light fuse) but it only went down by 0.1V. I checked the
fuse box in the interior and the one under the hood.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again!

Are you leaving a door open while doing this? Are you sure that all
the stuff that can be turned off is actually off?

Two biggest drain causes are alternator not putting out and voltage
drain. I'm leaning to the courtesy fuse.

Eliminate the alternator as the possible cause. Start up and see if
you get about 14v at the battery with lights, heater, RWD on. You
may have to speed up the idle some. This is a cheap test and doesn't
do the load test.

Something about the voltage drop at the interior lite fuse is nagging
away at me. Experiece says this is a good suspect area. If you can
live without interior lites for a few days , leave the fuse out. It
also powers up other stuff besides inside lites. Might be a good time
to look in the owner manual in the glovebox to see what else is on
that fuse - relays in particular.

One more thing. Get a cheap test lite. Connect it across the batt to
see what is should look like with full batt power. The disconnect one
cable and splice it in to see if it lites up the same. Doors closed,
all accesories off, interior fuse in and then out, key out of
ignition.

The next test using the meter the same way, is to unplug all the
relays under the hood and the dash one by one. After this, it starts
getting a bit complicated.

Pete

Thanks for the reply again.

I will do some more test within the hour, in the meantime I am going
through the car manual to check what runs on the interior light fuse.

These are the components:

Alarm Module (illuminated entry, warning chimes, overhead lamps,
map/reading lamps, glove box lamp, trunk lamp, radio) and anti-lock
brakes.

I am certain that all the doors were closed and everything was off.
But certainty has a way of being elusive at times so I will double
check. I had even removed the bulbs from the hood and rear trunk (they
didn't work anyways - even though they are not burnt out).

I thought similar and have left the fuse out for the interior lights.
I have tried taking out the relays and testing with the DMM and no
voltage drop occurs. Are there relays that I am missing that wouldn't
be in the interior or hood fuse panel?

A couple more observations:

With the interior lights fuse in, the battery light on the inst. panel
is the only warning I get when the car turns over.

With the interior lights fuse out, the battery light and the brake
light and the abs light are all on when the car turns over.

A few days ago when the car had about two days of life left, before I
had to put in a new battery, I noticed that the brake light and the abs
light were both on; this was with the interior lights fuse in.

Some kind of connection?

On the subject of the belts, I tugged on the alternator belt and it
moved under my force but seemed to turn the pulley. Something must be
slipping in there though. I stated before that yesterday was the first
day where the belts were making that squeaking noise. It has subsided
since then with the exception of when I turn the car off - then it
gives a quick squeak as it slows down. Even though these must need
replacing, could this be causing the problem? Is it possible that the
belt is slipping on the alternator and thus is contributing to the
battery not becoming charged? I guess this still doesn't explain the
load on the battery with everything off and the terminal disconnected
though - huh?

Thanks again and I'll get back soon within an hour with the update on
the cheap load test.

I'm a noob... like I said sometimes certainty has a way of being
elusive at times =)

As I started my second round of testing I realized that I in fact had
the door open while testing the first time. I had my wife hold the DMM
between the cable and the battery while I pulled the fuses from the
interior fuse panel. In order for me to do this I have to have the
driver side door open. Tonight I'll have to pull them one by one and
close the door each time before I confim with the DMM that a change has
occured.

I'll report back tonight.

Another update:

I didn't get to do the second round of testing yet, but I needed to
drive the car today for a business meeting.

It drove there just fine, but driving home was another story. It
started thunder storming so I had to use the windshield wipers. I
don't know if this was in connection to using them, but the car drove
very sluggishly. I really had to press down on the gas pedal to get it
to go, albeit hesitantly. The check engine light started blinking
which has never happened before (if it ever came on prior to this it
stayed on). I didn't think I'd make it home but I turned off the
wipers and used them sparingly. When I would press on the gas pedal a
chugging sound would reverberate from under the hood; almost like a
running out of gas kind of chug; I did fill up the car yesterday. The
brake and abs lights are back on again as well as the battery light.

Spend a few bucks and get the trouble codes extracted at a reputable
shop.


Pete

Yeah, I have my appointment set for Monday.

I'm just trying to figure some things out before I go in.

Thanks for your help.