Ok, about two weeks ago on my way to work my alternator took a crap on me and i had to drive the car until there was no juice left in the battery. Yeah, it sucked cause I had to hitchhike to work and leave my car in the side of the road over night. So, i changed my alternator on the side of route 98 in the morning and it started right up. Now, the problem: after i got the car home i let it sit in the driveway all afternoon and evening. It was probably 10 or so hours before i went out to start it and there was nothing. Battery was dead. So thinking that it just needed a good charge from being drained, I did so. Started right up.

Now the problem is that every time my car sits for more then 6 or 7 hours the battery is drained completly and needs charged. I cannot figure out why my battery keeps draining when it sits. I have checked the battery and its putting out 12v when not running and the charging system is good throwing out 14v when running.

If i take the negative terminal off the car when it sits and put it back on when i go to drive it, its fine and starts right up!

I have tried a few thing to figure this out and one thing has got me stumped. When i take the negative cables off and put a test light between the cables and negative battery terminal, it lights up. Meaning, there is power running through my grounding system and most likely draining my batter slowly during the sit time. Another thing is if i take the positive side of the alternator off, the light goes out but not instantly, it goes out slowly. WTF?

what should i do??

Hook the test light up as you had it and then have someone start pulling fuses until the light goes out. When it does, the drain is on that circuit.

the parasitic drain test ^^^^ mentioned above... is a good test, I prefer to use a DVOM in place of the test light..... if you use the DVOM you want to see no more than 50 milliamps of draw....

also since your battery was drained and then recharged, I would also check the battery to make sure that you do not have shorted cells in your battery

ok how do i check the battery for shorted cells?

also , my dad ( master technician ) said the same thing about the milliamps. I will do so tomorrow.

to check for shorted cells you will want to load test the battery... to do that you can take it to advanced auto parts and they can do it for you for free....

the other way to load test the battery is to use a VAT 45 .... your dad probably knows what that is if you do not

well, i had the tool for the job. i have a battery load tester and just had a major brain fart!! I have already tested the battery and it is still good, runs a constant twelve volts when the car is off and goes up to 14 with it running. Also, when i load test it , she reads 10.8 which is fine.

I will be pulling all fuses and trying this method in depth in a day or two.

for now i just keep pulling the negative cable off when it sits for awhile.