Wahooz

So I've been havin' some issues w/ dead batteries and I had this revelation last night that maybe I'm killin' batteries b/c I always leave the hood open on my car (it's always garaged). I would leave the hood open to cool the turbo after driving, and would find that if I hadn't driven the car in a week or two, the battery would die?? For the longest time, I thought I had some electrical problem which I couldn't diagnosis...I pulled and tested the alternator (it was fine), I traced all my grounds (they were immaculate), and nothing seemed to work. I then thought I had a parasitic draw from something, and while researching this, I came across some info that got me thinking that the car may not be going into "sleep mode" b/c I always leave the hood open. Does this sound legit? There's no hood light so I know I'm not killin' the batteries that way. But I believe my alarm (it's a Compustar) will trigger if the hood is opened when the alarm is armed (although I don't see any plungers, so not sure how it knows the hood is open). Since I never arm the alarm (since it's always in my garage) I didn't think leaving the hood open would matter. But after reading a bit on the internet about sleep modes and parasitic draws, it got me thinkin'. Any thoughts?

imdarkrider

no, i'm a compustar dealer and that's not true. The hood trigger works on a grounding of the pin to the chasis. It won't trigger anything unless the alarm is armed, therefor the brain is "dead" unless armed, the alarm will pull very very little amps when it's on and even less when it's off

Gooseman

Well if you don't drive the car for about two weeks, they have a tendency to do that, I believe. Especially if your battery is an older one, or perhaps even smaller one considering you are running a turbo application.

If it's a smaller battery, the cranking amps required might not be up there after leaving your car sitting for a couple weeks.

As far as the alarm, like imdarkrider stated, hood pins are grounded; there isn't any current draw from it being in the up-position.

Otherwise, I have no clue.

HotDamnitsDavid

I have a question about compustar alarms. I have one installed and if I don't drive the car for a few days it drains my battery. Is this normal?

imdarkrider

no, it shouldn't kill your battery. The s2000 battery is small to begin with, and if you have an older one they're prone to dying anyways. If you want to test it, and you ahve the ability to leave your alarm off try, try not arming it for those couple of days and see if your battery still dies, if it does then it's your battery not holding full charge, which needless to say happens.

HotDamnitsDavid

I replaced the battery 2x since installing it. I'm not sure whats taking causing my battery to drain so fast.

imdarkrider

you're probably going to want to do what's called a current draw test. You'll need a meter t do that, what this is going to do it show you how many milliamps are being pulled out of the battery at a given time, you'll be able to see if something is pulling more than it should. Basically you'll start to pull fuses and look for a huge drop in amps on the meter, whatever fuse you pulled that caused that drop is your problem.

camuman

def do this. turn car off. pull neg bat terminal put your meter in amp mode and put the leads in line with the neg termn of battery and neg battery cable. now meter has amperage draw being pulled thru it while car is off. if you see 1 amp you have a problem. it should read really close to 0. also, MAKE SURE the interior light is off. i did this test and was like WTF, 1 amp of draw with car off? then looked inside car and i had door open, so interior light was on. if draw is really close to 0, your battery just sucks.

DO NOT click key on while doing this, and def dont start car. your average meter can not handle 100 amps running thru it. you will cook the damn thing. you need special meter to read amperage while car on.

erenyes

i have a compustar alarm in my jeep, i like it, has remote start and all
am thinking if getting the compustar pro 900 fm 2way put in my S2K, another audio shop is suggesting the viper 1002, which is the better alarm?
im happy with the jeep alarm and thinking of sticking with the compustar, the install will be around $700 installed, with all the modules except remote star, does this soind about right?

NFRS2K83

that sounds wayyyyyyy over priced... where are you from.. you should only be paying somewhere around 500-600 for an alarm/alarm remote start... with amenities like proximity sensor/backup battery....where are you located... if your anywhere near NY i can do it for you ... pm me..