Electrical issue on my 1999 Nissan Maxima.

Electrical issue on my 1999 Nissan Maxima. (December 11, 2010)

I bought the car in 2008 from a used car dealership. It worked fine for most of 2008. The electrical (battery) issue only happened once or twice during winter 2008 and part of 2009. I was putting a lot of mileage on the car then, so I did not think much of the battery issue since it happened so infrequently. (I thought it was just your normal, occasional battery jump issue).

In 2010, the issue seems to be occurring much more often, though intermittently I do not drive the car as often as in 2008/2009. Sometimes I drive short distances every few days, sometimes long drives but sometimes not at all for a week or so.

I have a 1999 Nissan Maxima that intermittently keeps draining the battery. This has been happening on and off, but more often in 2010. The battery, alternator and starter have all been checked and are not malfunctioning per a mechanic. (I have already changed the battery 3 times under warranty). Sometimes, the car will turn over fine the night before, but by morning, the battery will be almost completely drained. (No lights have been kept on accidentally). The engine will try to turn over a few times but will drain further and not start the car. It happens in dry, wet, hot and cold weather. I also tried putting the car in the garage for a few days and still had the battery issue. Once I have the car jumped, it starts fine. Then I take the car for a drive on the highway and it recharges the battery as normal.

The battery issue intermittently occurs whether I have driven the car every day or had it parked for a week. The car is not used everyday. Sometimes the car starts right up, other times it does not. Due to the issue, I had to buy a portable battery jumper and keep it in the car.

As I mentioned, it does not happen all the time. Sometimes I can go for weeks, month without any battery issue, and then unexpectedly it will start occurring again. At no time during this has the dashboard battery light come on.

I had a mechanic check it over but they could not find the cause, i.E. No shorts, etc. They suggest the issue is probably not an item that should stop drawing power when the car is turned off, i.E. A relay or some other device. It would not draw enough power to drain the battery completely over night. In addition, even if it did, it should not happen intermittently.

I do have an alarm system, but do not have the remote control. The used car dealership did not have the remote. I can activate the alarm by turning the door key. (The security light starts to flash on the dash).

I noticed something else recently and not sure if it is related to the battery draining issue. I recently had all brakes repaired/replaced (Front: new calipers, routers and pads. Rear: calipers and Drums pads). The job was done about a month ago. Since then, I have added very little mileage and had no issues with the items fixed. However, I did have battery draining issue again.

In the past few days, I started getting two dashboard lights going on at the same time. They go on and off occasionally with no seen reason. The two lights are for the battery and (emergency) brake. They only come on at the same time. When both the lights are on and off the brakes still feel fine. They are tight and the petal does not sink to the floor at any time. There was no work under the hood, i.E. The alternator belt, etc.

Do you have an idea of what may cause the issue with the battery draining? Plus, any idea about the dashboard lights? Could the dashboard lights both going on be some kind of signal about why the battery keeps draining?

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks !