Car will not hold charge

TTWIGGS

MEMBER
1999 BUICK PARK AVENUE
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
140,500 MILES

Recently my car was dead. I replaced the battery. Three days later it was dead again. So I replaced the alternator. This was on Saturday. Car worked fine for 3 more days. Tuesday afternoon, it is dead again. Why is my car not holding a charge? The car is a 99 Buick Park Avenue V6 Supercharged. Thanks!

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 AT 1:12 PM

2 Replies

WRENCHTECH

MECHANIC
20,761 POSTS

Sounds like it's time to stop throwing parts at it and do some testing. Start with the battery. Recharge and test it. If that is good, move on to the charging system and test the charging voltage at idle with no accessories on. You should have between 13.5 and 14.7v.

You could have a parasitic draw but judging by your sequence of events, I doubt that. I'm expecting a charging system problem.

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Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 AT 1:54 PM

RETIRED

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Sounds simple but this happens on those dashes. When dusting the dash it is a common mistake to slide the head light delay switch all the way to the right with the dust rag. This turns the dash lights on all the time! I looked for this 'bug' for over a week on one of these cars. If you only drive it during the day, or live in a sunny area it is easy not to notice this. I wore my volt meter out on this one til a accidently discovered it. I tore the seat wiring apart, trunk antennae electrical, etc. I turned off the dash lights and that was all it was. Recharded the New battery that I had replaced. Hope that you fix is this simple. If not begin with checking every fuse on the car.

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Thursday, March 31st, 2011 AT 6:22 PM