dak2007

my battery is drained after not driving it for the weekend. the clock in the dash works and everything it just doesn't have enough juice to crank the car. in the mornings after letting it rest all night it's a little hard to crank but not that bad. i have to give it a little gas for it to crank and my radio doesn't work for a few seconds untill i get my rpms up. i did the alternator check by disconnecting the negative battery terminal after i cranked the car and she kept running. the battery is new. the weird thing is i have a solid metal key and every now and then when i crank the car i get shocked. at night when i touch the keyhole with the key you can see a spark jump from the keyhole to the key. i talked to some of the guys i work with and they said it might be a bad ground but i have no idea where or how to start looking for a bad ground. as always any help is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance

miked808

Did you have the Problem Before the New Battery?

dak2007

not really not that i can remember. before i got the new battery my timing chain tensioner went out and i wound up killing my old battery. i replaced that battery because it wouldn't hold a charge anymore.

sularus65

it doesnt' sound like a ground per se. The problem with a bad ground does lead to shocking yourself, but will not drain the battery. If a circuit is not complete or has too much resistance to ground, then the battery is not being drawn upon enough to matter. To me it sounds like you have a small system that is some how not quite shorted, but may be staying active or continually drawing juice. Here is a question, do you have a aftermarket stereo with subs and an amp? You might make sure that the amp has the remote wired to the remote on the radio and not directly to battery. that will cause a problem like this.
Just take your time and let us know what you find.

Jason

dak2007

i have an aftermarket cd player and 4x6 speakers. i used a wiring harness so it's wired correctly and everything.

sularus65

well its good to know you don't have that draining your batt, but something is. It can be a pain to T/S, but I would start with pulling all fuses out of the car except what is required to run the car. If you don't have any hard start problems for a few days, then start putting fuses in one by one until the problem comes back. That will tell you what system is causing it, and you can troubleshoot from there.

dak2007

that sounds like a really good idea. thanks.

sularus65

np, hope it works out for you. I know it may take a while to find, but it really is the only way to find a not so obvious problem like that. Good luck!