Something is draining my car battery

mone, May 15, 8:27pm
I'm now on my 3rd battery this year. Each from different retailers. This is getting way too expensive considering its just an old legacy. My gues is either its the alarm or alternator

saxman99, May 15, 8:40pm
The alarm obviously does use a small amount of power, but not to the point of needing 3 batteries in a year.The alternator cannot drain your battery, but it can fail and then not charge it while you are driving.Have you tested the cars operating voltage when running!Should be 13.8V ~ 14.4V. Too low and there won't be a decent charge getting in.If it's too high this will be cooking your batteries.

Is there a red light on your dash with a picture of a battery while you drive!

bellky, May 15, 8:42pm
Job for Auto Electrician imo.

martin11, May 15, 8:44pm
Alarm will run a battery down over 2-3 weeks not overnight

n1smo_gtir, May 15, 8:49pm
Mone: is it a legacy turbo! if so do you have turbo timer! when i had my legacy GT wagon (91) and other turbo cars, i've always made sure it had a turbo timer for few reasons. 1/monitor battery voltage at all times (i programme min and max voltage alert) 2/ when i need to just pop into dairy for a min or two i can leave it running while locked and immobilised (when handbrake drops, engine cuts out and alarm goes off if not disarmed) and for times when i can't be arsed to sit and wait for car to cool down from a good run.

does your headlight/parklight or fogs have a beeper to alert you when its still on after engine off and key out!

edit to add, how sensitive is your shock sensor cos i've seen a few cars that seems to set off alarm

cowlover, May 16, 4:15am
Did the battery die or was it just flat!If they died I'd say an overcharge problem, if just flat could be anything from a door switch leaving the light on to burnt wiring causing a short.Either way really needs an auto sparky.

dave653, May 16, 11:43pm
Replaced a 'not very old' battery recently, eventually found the switch for the bootlid light was bent sideways. light was on constantly. Now have perfectly good spare battery!

footplate1, May 17, 12:38am
I found out the hard way that the AA batteries will not suit the complex European cars.Also went through three batteries until I found that out.In the meantime, Team McMillan ran tests on all logical areas, including the alarm.And I had that tested by Mongoose.Even and annoyingly changed my hands-free cradle from first stage to ignition stage.But a decent battery seemed to be the answer.Car no longer dies in one week.

sparkyz, May 17, 7:43am
See #3. Job for an auto electrician.