new/good battery keeps dying

I have a 2008 chevy aveo .. with absolutely no bells and whistles... automatic, no power doors, no power locks, no power seats, basic am/fm radio that does not work. The car is old and has a lot of miles (170k) but it runs and works, gets me from A to B and right now B is work .... im desperate. What on earth could be causing the battery to not hold a charge ...

The battery keeps dying. The battery loses 100% of its power, to the point that the car cannot move into neutral, and the hazards won't even work. I mean DEAD. This happens while I am driving, when I am parked with it on, While the car is turned off (like when I leave for work in the morning and it is just dead, but was perfectly fine before)

When I jump it, it starts right up, runs great/normal - but dies soon after .... at some point the battery seems to get . enough charge or something happens and it will be absolutely find for weeks or months at a time...then this happens again ... sometimes it goes on for days or just one day ...

The connections all seem good.

NO lights are being left on, I am extremely paranoid about the battery so I am anal about making sure stuff is OFF. I even make sure I turn off the a/c fan and lights are all off before I even turn the car off so they don't pull even one second off the battery.

The battery is new, less than a year old and in good condition... ive had it tested etc, the batter itself is good.
The alternator is new. Also about a year old. The alternator is supposedly working, or so I am told by the mechanics looking at it.

I had a previous issue with the belt slipping off due to power steering fluid leaking on it and causing it to snap, and an oil leak but that has all been fixed, the belt is new, working and in great condition, the oil leak has long been fixed, the power steering is also no longer leaking.

The motor mounts did break a few months back and when that happened it broke the air conditioning pipes/tubes and I have yet to fix that - motor mounts were replaces, are in good condition and no other damage was caused by this, supposedly.

The O2 sensor is bad, and needs to be replaced. I know this and need to do it, but I am not wanting to do it if the car is not going to actually work.

check
- http://www.aveoforum.com/forum/f108/...nnector-21745/
- http://www.aveoforum.com/forum/f108/...parking-22597/

good luck

Sounds like it could be a bad connection more than a bad battery. But a bad connection will kill the battery.

Connect a metre and pull the fuses one by one

You mentioned that the alternator was replaced. If things stop working while the car is running, it points toward an alternator problem, or a bad connection such that the alternator is not functioning as it should. Also have a load test done on the battery. A battery can indicate full charge when recharging it, but a bad cell won't be indicated.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thymeclock

You mentioned that the alternator was replaced. If things stop working while the car is running, it points toward an alternator problem, or a bad connection such that the alternator is not functioning as it should. Also have a load test done on the battery. A battery can indicate full charge when recharging it, but a bad cell won't be indicated.

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This is easy to check. Good fresh battery has voltage about 12.8v, when the engine is off. If alternator is working you going to have about 14.3v when the engine is runing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thymeclock

You mentioned that the alternator was replaced. If things stop working while the car is running, it points toward an alternator problem, or a bad connection such that the alternator is not functioning as it should. Also have a load test done on the battery. A battery can indicate full charge when recharging it, but a bad cell won't be indicated.

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I agree . If the battery dies while the engine is running , it is not charging , for what ever reason .

With the engine running , check the voltage at the alternator + terminal to the alternator metal case . Next , to the - terminal of the battery .

Wyr
God bless

I think your altanator intermittently quits charging or cuts the charge down. I would try and Conect a digital volt meter to the altanator. Red lead on altanator out put post. Black lead on negative of battery. You should see 13 to 14.5v. Then swich to a.c. voltage and check to see if your rectifier brige is going out. A lot of a.c. will make funny things happen. Then if no a.c. voltage is found switch back to dc volts and wigle the wiring plug in the back of the alt. This is your voltage regulator and watch your meter if it changes the out put. a bad conection or loose pin could be turning the charge off. You should do this cold and hot as things heat up conections can separate.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by amunati

I have a 2008 chevy aveo .. with absolutely no bells and whistles... automatic, no power doors, no power locks, no power seats, basic am/fm radio that does not work. The car is old and has a lot of miles (170k) but it runs and works, gets me from A to B and right now B is work .... im desperate. What on earth could be causing the battery to not hold a charge ...

The battery keeps dying. The battery loses 100% of its power, to the point that the car cannot move into neutral, and the hazards won't even work. I mean DEAD. This happens while I am driving, when I am parked with it on, While the car is turned off (like when I leave for work in the morning and it is just dead, but was perfectly fine before)

When I jump it, it starts right up, runs great/normal - but dies soon after .... at some point the battery seems to get . enough charge or something happens and it will be absolutely find for weeks or months at a time...then this happens again ... sometimes it goes on for days or just one day ...

The connections all seem good.

NO lights are being left on, I am extremely paranoid about the battery so I am anal about making sure stuff is OFF. I even make sure I turn off the a/c fan and lights are all off before I even turn the car off so they don't pull even one second off the battery.

The battery is new, less than a year old and in good condition... ive had it tested etc, the batter itself is good.
The alternator is new. Also about a year old. The alternator is supposedly working, or so I am told by the mechanics looking at it.

I had a previous issue with the belt slipping off due to power steering fluid leaking on it and causing it to snap, and an oil leak but that has all been fixed, the belt is new, working and in great condition, the oil leak has long been fixed, the power steering is also no longer leaking.

The motor mounts did break a few months back and when that happened it broke the air conditioning pipes/tubes and I have yet to fix that - motor mounts were replaces, are in good condition and no other damage was caused by this, supposedly.

The O2 sensor is bad, and needs to be replaced. I know this and need to do it, but I am not wanting to do it if the car is not going to actually work.

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Try check the connector to alternator. I have the same problem once. I might be the connector in alternator or somewhere related directly to alternator is loosened. the problem occures when you are driving that the alternator does not supply power to battery but when in idle, the car does not move, the connection seems to be ok. Try tighten the connector in the alternator. i hope this will solve your problem too.

We had that problem with our 09 Aveo, ended up being the On Star module. Called, they will not replace it. Can't unplug it because all the safety stuff goes through it. $500 part. We pulled the fuse to get around it. No more dead battery, now a slew of other problems.

My 09 Aveo is doing the same thing. Everything worked when I bought it but slowly electronics have stopped/intermittently dont work. Did you have any other problems besides the battery dying before you pulled the fuse?
I currently have no airflow at all until nearly highway speeds, rear passenger window gets no power, clock resets, passenger airbag light is always dim or off, lost power to sunroof a few times and recently break lights would work with one press and not the next.
All of these components worked when i purchased the car 7 months ago. The only thing I noticed when I first got it was the rear passenger window, that now doesn't work, was getting less power than the rest and moving slower.

Are you trying to DIY it ?

Wyr
God Bless

I was trying to get to the root of the problem. After some research I’ve found that the 09 Aveo has a defective panel under the clock on the dash that heats up and can cause fires, stalling while driving and cause the airbags not to deploy. Several people have been in serious accidents because of this yet GM will not investigate for a recall. Currently wary about driving it at all.

I occasionally have the same problem with my ‘09’ I was sitting in the car with it running and the radio went out. A few minutes later the engine died. I sat for 15 minutes, restarted the car and drove it home about 2 1/2 miles. I changed the Alternator and everything was fine for about two years. Then it happened again. So I changed the alternator again. The funny thing is that NO check engine lights came on or any warning lights at all. The car only has 115k on it.
I also had to replace the clock module at 60k.