2001 Cadillac Catera Car dies after being off

Tiny
BROWNEE
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 CADILLAC CATERA
  • 6 CYL
  • FWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 94,000 MILES
My car was put in the shop in August because the brake lights weren't working. They said it was a brake switch, fixed it, and also put a new battery on. After that, the radio would cut off intermittently and pop back on with high volume and on a non existant radio station. Last month, the car died. No power at all and so we took it back to the shop thinking it was the battery. They said they didn't really think so, but replaced the battery anyway. Now, less than a month later the radio still cuts off when it wants to, but it also died again. If you give it a boost from another car, it starts right up and drives fine, but once you turn it off it won't turn back on. We're thinking that something is drianing the battery while it's off. But what? BTW, they checked the altenator and it is fine and we turn off the heat, lights, and radio when we get out. Thoughts?
Monday, December 8th, 2008 AT 11:22 AM

1 Reply

Tiny
MMPRINCE4000
  • MECHANIC
  • 8,548 POSTS
You can take the car to most autoparts stores and get a battery, alt, starter, and drain test for free.

I would start there. If you have a drain, connect a multimeter to the battery and pull fuses one at a time to try and isolate the faulty circuit, which may be the radio, since it is connected to power all the time as opposed to a switched ign. Source.
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 AT 8:51 AM

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