battery draining

[cutty]

Buddy's got a 2000 Honda 500, said he replaced battery, lasted a week and dead. Connections were good.
So what are we looking for?

[Roger45]

Bad ground until proven otherwise! Probably rotted next to the frame. Could be a short as well. My personal favorite is to leave the key in the 1/2 on position(don't ask why).

[Porterwagner]

I've got the same problem on my 2004 Rubicon. Very annoying problem- can't find the culprit.

[Snowwolfe]

Disconnect the negative terminal when not in use and it will not drain.

[AkHunter45]

I'm with Roger on this one, check your ground and make sure there is no corrosion and that it is tight. What aftermarket stuff does he have on it? Winch, lights, hot grips, etc, etc??

[Formerly Montana Bob]

Battery Tender

My Foreman started doing the same thing about a year ago. It will pull start right up but lights and winch kill it. I just hooked up a battery tender and it works fine.

[Porterwagner]

I do have a winch and one direct wired switch (from my plow angler), but why would the winch or angler switch bleed current if not in use? It would be a real pain to unhook/hook the lead on the battery terminal every time I go to use the wheeler. I've been use a tender lately- which works, but wish I didn't have to use it.

[MacGyver]

It is not hard for a person with the test equipment and skill to find an electrical problem such as a current drain. If you don't have test equipment disconnent one item at a time and see if your problems go away.

If you get water across a switch or terminal and the switch has power, it will cause a hi-resistance short. The hi-resistance short in some cases may not go away after the water has dried causing a long term problem.

[AkHunter45]

I never hook anything directly to the battery, I run everything so I have to turn on the key, that way I know it's not getting power. Contacts, springs, and switches can weaken which can allow current draw which in turn will drain your battery. I ran my hot grips through my fusebox and and also put another fuse inbetween in case they shorted as I didn't want it to blow the fuse that was actually powering the grips, which would kill 2 systems instead of 1. I'd rewire that plow angler through the key switch and see how that goes.

[MacGyver]

I don’t know how much current a plow angle draws; you might consider using a relay or a master battery switch.

[Porterwagner]

I agree with the desirability of not running any accessories directly to the battery terminal. The winch solenoid is designed for direct contacts, and the only other thing I have is one switch, so I guess the switch must be the culprit? Wouldn't a high resistance short affect the switch's operation? I guess the thing to do is disconnect that one switch from the battery terminal and see if the drain still exists. Thanks for the insight.

[akursus]

Try using marine grade switchs. It worked well for me.

[skip olsen]

Had The Same Kind Of Problem On My King Quad 700, One Thing You Might Want To Think About Is That Your Newer Atvs Have A Didgital Gauges, With Those Gauges There Working Seven Days A Week Weather Your Running It Our Not And With The Cold Weather It Will Drag A Battery Down Me I Put A Battery Switch On Mine Never Had A Problem With Again Had To Do It To My Boys To, If You Look At Your Newer Cars That Have Digital Radios And It Has A Clock It Will Do The Same To A Car If You Don't Run It Over A Period Of Time In Clod Weather.

[MacGyver]

A very long time ago, I needed to find a hi-resistant short in a car and all I had was a vom (volt, ohm meter). The vom would not read the hi-resistance short on the hi ohm range. So I put the vom on dc voltage, removed the battery cable and put the vom in series with the cable.

(+ battery terminal / vom / + battery cable)

If the vom read “0” volt there was no hi resistance short (open).
If the vom read “12.6 v (battery voltage) there was a low resistance short.

The meter read somewhere between 0.1 and 12.5v. I started removing fuses until the meter read “0” volts, I replaced the fuse and continued tracing the circuit until I found the problem.

Any cheap vom or dvom (digital vom) ($15/$30) will work just fine. If you have a dvom that is >> 1m ohm you could parallel it with a 1m ohm resistor.

With the newer electronics ATV you may be sidetracked by a memory circuit; so follow the lowest resistance first.

If you decide to try this let us know what happened.

Happy hunting.

[Porterwagner]

update:

I found it isn't the battery draining as I first thought. Turns out it has something to do with ignition/electrical sys. I turn the key and nothing (maybe a short singular click but thats it) hence my assumption the battery needed charging. No problem starting with pull (thankfully). But once the key is turned off, turning it back on does nothing (need to pull start again). I don't know that its related to the starter exactly, because the whole display is dead unless the engine is running, and when running everything seems to work just fine. Any thoughts on what to check first?