gregamuffin

ive got a 90 lx with a battery draw. everytime i go to start it after letting it sit more than a few hours its dead as can be. however i bought a test light thinking i could find it but when i hooked up the light didnt come on to indicate a draw. my car idles poorly and the battery needle on the gauge bounces and sometimes when my steering wheel is at full lock my car will stall. i just need some direct in the right way please. would love to fix this today please help thank you

mustangsneverdie

how old is the battery what about the alt? where does ur car idle at?

mattdel

read this then read this.
Then, stop driving with the wheel in full lock position. It's bad for the rack.

gregamuffin

the battery is from my jeep cherokee that i sold is there a chance im using the wrong battery for it and its causing these problems? i didnt have problems for about 2 months after buying the car but now this happens. thanks for that idle reset thing ill be using that once iget my battery in order but anything else would be great thanks

mattdel

doubt it. truck batterys tend to have higher CCA than car batteries, so you're probably overdoing it, but it won't hurt it at all.

gregamuffin

ok new problem. i know my battery it charged because the domelight will come on when i open the door and its a strong light not dim or flickering. so what would cause it to not start. everytime i put the multimeter on it it doesnt read a drain of anything and my test light will not come on. however the test light comes on when i open the door so i know i have it hooked up right in order to read if there's a drain. so now what? this is really kicking my butt here and electric is certainly not my forte i appreciate all the help

gregamuffin

scratch what i said before. took my battery to be tested and after recharging it they found it was swollen. so does that mean my old battery was just discharging itself? i bought a new one and brought it home and used a test light to see if i had a short or drain and the light didnt turn on so i would assume ive taken care of this. still need to reset the base idle tho because it wont idle first thing and when it does its slightly over 1 grand.

stang8689

probably could use a altenator upgrade the stock ones suck

gregamuffin

noted, and will be done soon