Anyone use one of these on a car? Either have a parasitic draw somewhere, or my alternator isn't adequately charging my battery. Not sure. But if I leave the car parked for a few days it struggles to turnover. And if I recently left it parked for 5 days, and it didn't have enough juice to turnover.

About to leave the vehicle parked for a few days and don't want to risk anything. But not sure if it's better to just disconnect the terminal or use one of these.

Autozone just tested it and it says good. 2 years old.

On another note, is there any potential downside to installing a larger battery if my battery box can hold it? Will my computer get confused? Still 12V obviously, but would just have more cca.




Thanks

If your battery is discharging, and after driving the vehicle, it starts ok, then your alternator should be fine. You have a parasitic draw or a bad battery (have it tested at another store). The adapter you posted will be fine to stop the draw, but it won't help a bad battery.

Find a shop or parts store with a digital load tester where you got to input the type of battery and CCA. On a suspected bad battery a proper load test is the only way to know for sure.

Might look on youtube about tracking down a parasitic draw. If you can get your hands on a multimeter you might be able to narrow it down. If its a non essential equipment you can pull the fuse and get on down the road.

Amps, car alarms and stereos and door sensors are the biggest offenders here. The get some sort of internal fault and start drawing power. If it's as simple as that you can disconnect it or ground out the sensor until it can be dealt with.

Autozone guy inputted my battery CCA. But will try another shop and see.

I've heard the OnStar module sometimes activates and doesn't turn off. But it's intermittent, so I haven't been able to isolate it with my multimeter and my checks for a parasitic draw.

It had happened a few years ago, but my batter was also really old, so I changed the battery and everything was fine. But I think I'll pull the OnStar fuse since I don't use it anyways, and see what happens.

How old is your battery?

I have one of those on our '66 Mustang. I use it as a disconnect when the car is gonna sit for a while. It's been on there for years and works - simple device. That said, if you have a parasitic draw, this would be a band-aid. You could install it and carry a battery jumpstarter device, but you wouldn't be fixing the root cause. Could buy you some time.

TdoubleH said:

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How old is your battery?

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Manufacture date is 6/22, but I put it on my vehicle 10/22.

And I know it's not a permanent solution, but it's such an intermittent problem I don't know how to fix it. Have tried testing with a multimeter with no luck. Don't want to pay the technician for hours of labor. Gonna pull the OnStar fuse and see if it continues.