Battery problem

[Mr_Pat]

My H3 has some sort of power drain going on. If I leave any thing pluged in for more then an hour or two it kills the bat. Or just when I go out and start it up in the morning it may not start some times. There is only supose to be a 70 mili-amp draw when the truck is turned off, mine is drawing 350 mili amps. I am taking it in on tuesday.

[KingVinnie]

Originally Posted by Mr_Pat

My H3 has some sort of power drain going on. If I leave any thing pluged in for more then an hour or two it kills the bat. Or just when I go out and start it up in the morning it may not start some times. There is only supose to be a 70 mili-amp draw when the truck is turned off, mine is drawing 350 mili amps. I am taking it in on tuesday.

yea 350ma is way to much

[Scooter911]

Update:

I went out this morning and the truck BARELY started... so there is definitely something fishy going on.

I think rather than measuring the DVD player I'll pull a battery terminal off and measure the engine off current drain like Mr.Pat.

Scooter

[Tex_h2]

pick up a yellow -top battery, well worth the cost.

[KingVinnie]

Originally Posted by Tex_h2

pick up a yellow -top battery, well worth the cost.

second that... if your gonna replace it, Optima yellow top is the way to go

[Scooter911]

I think I may be limited in my choices of battery. Most stores here don't carry the type of battery the Hummer takes. The AC Delco battery has 880 Cold Cranking Amps - most after market batteries here are less then 700 CCA.

Canadian Tire has a 1000 CCA battery - but it's the wrong size.

I'm going to check with the dealer on Tuesday, as well as NAPA Auto Parts.

Scooter

[dna]

I've had my 03 H2 for about 2.5 years, and I've had battery problems almost from the start. I didn't even have to leave any accessories running - I would just find it dead about every 2-3 months on average - after a jump it would be fine again until another 2-3 months. I too had the battery and alt checked by GM (while still under warranty), and they said nothing was wrong - though they still put in a new battery for free (nice guys I guess). The new battery had the same problem after about 6 months.

I have a solution that works for me. I too live in Canada (Vancouver), and bought a battery guard from Canadain Tire (about $50) - it connects to your battery and monitoirs the batteries voltage - if/once it goes to a dangerous low level, it automatically disconnects the battery to prevent any further drain. Then when you return to the truck, you use a cordless remote to re-establish the connection, and you have enough power to start the truck - then as you drive the battery gets charged. This device is great too as a security measure not only does it always monitor the battery and disconnect when needed, it also has 2 settings on the remote which you can use if wanted - one is to purposely disconnect full power which prevents someone from stealing the vehicle or is great is you plan to park the truck for a week or so (like when at the airport; though all your clocks need to be reset once you reconnect) - or the 2nd setting on the remote provides only a very low voltage to the truck which keeps clocks, lights, auto locks, etc going but is not enough to crank the motor/starter - this feature too will prevent someone from stealing the truck while it keeps enough power for accessories.

I also find that even if shops tell you the battery is OK, a new battery every year is needed in my truck. I too tried to find a replacement at Canadian Tire, Lordco and other major outlets, but none had them (they all said I needed GM for $200). I bought one from Costco for $80 - it is 800 amps vs the 880 amps, but I have had no problems with it in the last 12 months (it also has a full 48 month 100% replacement warranty, so if it dies just go get a new one again). This battery is a little smaller length, but same height and width and fits perfect and tight with the stock clamp.

Go get the Costco battery and Canadian Tire battery guard - you will never need to jump your truck again, but can still let the kids watch the movies - the guard will kill the power once the battery gets low.