Battery drains every night

2005 PONTIAC VIBE
66,000 MILES • 6 CYL • FWD • AUTOMATIC
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LACHILLI
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  • 1 POST
Hi,

For the last few weeks i have been having a lot of trouble with my car. well, every morning i have to give it a jump with cables. After i give it a jump it will hold a charge all day but for some reason over night my battery is dead. i mean dead nothing turns on and when i jump it it turns right on. i have bought a new battery and every fuse checked i have taken it to 4 different mechanics and they can't find nothing wrong with it. i have no check engine light on. can you please give me some advise in to what to do next?
Apr 21, 2014 at 5:58 PM
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RANDICO
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  • 174 POSTS
Battery drains overnight? This can be from a key in ignition circuit fault. Taking the key out and the ignition is not properly set to the off position , this can drain the battery overnight. So a proper key in the off position should be insured. When the engine is off and there is a slow drain a relay that is stuck in the on position can also do this , it would be warm to touch let say in the off position for about 3 hours.
Apr 21, 2014 at 8:17 PM
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KASEKENNY
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If the battery is draining this quickly then you have a pretty large parasitic draw. This means something is remaining on when the vehicle is off and it is draining the battery.

If it is draining a new battery in a night then this is a pretty large draw.

Here is a guide that goes over the most common causes of this:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-dead-overnight

Basically you need to hook up a meter in line of the negative battery cable and see what the amperage is. Then you start unhooking fuses until that drops to 15 milliamps or less.

Once we find what is staying on we will need to check the alternator and battery again just to make sure we don't have an issue there as well.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-check-a-car-alternator

Please reach out if you have questions on how to do any of this and we can go from there. Thanks
Apr 2, 2020 at 5:19 PM
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