Cadillac Repair: HELP!, negative battery cable, cadillac seville

Question
I have a 1988 cadillac seville.  The car wass working fine until one morning the baby doesn't make a sound.  I was that I had a bad alternator.  Took the part off took to auto zone alternator is GOOD.  Still no sound. the guy at Auto Zone said to run a parasitic drain tests???? How and WHAT?

Answer
What he means is he wants you to perform a test procedure to see how many AMPS are being pulled out of the battery while everything in the car is OFF as if you were parking it for use for the next day.

The FIRST thing you want to do is fully charge the battery and then install an AMP METER between the negative battery cable and the negative battery terminal to see how many AMPS the electrical system is drawing (removing) from the battery .

The maximum amount of amperage is slightly over 1/2 amp (0.55 amps).

You can purchase a very cheap meter from any auto parts store and do it yourself but it is much easier and more reliable to have a service facility do it for you. First they will probably want to charge the battery and test it, Then they will test your electrical system to see if it is drawing (removing) more than just over 1/2 amp from the battery.

Either you have a bad battery , The battery is not fully charged if it is a new battery OR you have excessive draw from the battery.


let me know.