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So about a six weeks ago I come back from a 6-day biz trip to find the battery in my '96 is all but dead. AAA comes to the airport, jumps me and all is good. The volt meter is reading 13.0 to 13.5 on the 17-mile ride home. Not as high as I expected, but car starts fine the next day.
But to be safer, I throw a trickle charge on the batt, get it to 100% charge (according to the trickle charger) and all seems fine. Driving around the past few weeks voltage shows to be 13.0 to 14.3. Had the system checked at AutoZone (where the battery came from) and they say there are no bad cells and the Alt and the VR are doing their jobs.
Now just back from being away for 8 days, the car just sitting in the driveway. Go out to start it and the battery is back at 9.4 V, won't start the car.
I throw a trickle on it for 20 mins, it starts and is OK for a couple local errands, but only 5 miles away. Am now giving it a full trickle charge.
So, the Batt is 2 years old, alternator and VR are 6 years old but still doing their thing. It all TESTS okay, but it is a tad frustrating. Am thinking that at 23 years old the hot and ground wires to the battery may have some internal corrosion, So I could replace those. I might also have a parasitic drain, but have no idea what that could be, or how to identify it. I know the anti-theft system can sometimes drain a battery. But I've had this car 14 years without any issues like this, so am a bit baffled.
One thought.... I work at home and can go 2-3 days without driving anywhere, and then only drive 10-15 miles total. So the battery only rarely gets a full charge. It's a 2-year old AutoCraft from AutoZone so could it just be showing its age, even though it tests well?
Any ideas out there?
TIA!
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