Help please!!!

[elleronnie]

Okay, so I bought a 2004 Chevy Silverado 1500 (5.3L) last August. It has 230,000 miles on it. From the weekend I brought it home I started having problems. The worst problem is that every single time I shut it off, the battery is getting drained by something. Like it's completely dead, no lights or anything. I tried replacing the battery, twice. Learned the hard way how to ruin one. It sat at the Chevrolet dealership for a month with their mechanics trying to figure it out. They fixed my leaking problems but not the thing that matters. I have not yet tried replacing alternator, that is my next step. If the alternator were the case, could it get this bad to where it drains the battery everytime it gets shut off? It drives perfectly fine, but who cares about that if I can't even start it. 

 

It will start with a jump, just thought I'd make that clear.  I'm a 19 year old girl so don't attack me for anything. I just need help. 

[Black02Silverado]

Hello, and welcome to GMT.  

Start with cleaning all the ground points around the truck.  Take them off, clean them up and make sure they make good contact.  The alternator can be the issue, you can take it off and take it to a shop to have it checked.  There is an alternator/generator repair shop here that does great work and can test for all kinds of issues.  Hopefully you have one close to you.  Not sure if the auto part stores can do a full test but it couldn't hurt.  At least taking it off is easy. As for testing it on the truck that is possible but to me the best way is to take it off.  At least that is my experience.

 

How long does it take to drain the battery?  Overnight, within a few hours or longer?

[CamGTP]

If you have a digital multi meter you can also do a draw test on the electrical system. There are many youtube video's out there to help with doing that test.

 

Basically you slowly start removing fuses and relays to figure out the draw.

[elleronnie]

21 hours ago, Black02Silverado said:

Hello, and welcome to GMT.  

Start with cleaning all the ground points around the truck.  Take them off, clean them up and make sure they make good contact.  The alternator can be the issue, you can take it off and take it to a shop to have it checked.  There is an alternator/generator repair shop here that does great work and can test for all kinds of issues.  Hopefully you have one close to you.  Not sure if the auto part stores can do a full test but it couldn't hurt.  At least taking it off is easy. As for testing it on the truck that is possible but to me the best way is to take it off.  At least that is my experience.

 

How long does it take to drain the battery?  Overnight, within a few hours or longer?

Thank you for the reply and tips. It only takes a few minutes for the battery to be completely dead. 

[asilverblazer]

A few minutes to completely drain the battery, something sounds like its shorted out, alternator? 

[elleronnie]

On 5/11/2021 at 9:23 PM, CamGTP said:

If you have a digital multi meter you can also do a draw test on the electrical system. There are many youtube video's out there to help with doing that test.

 

Basically you slowly start removing fuses and relays to figure out the draw.

Already did this twice, found nothing sadly

[elleronnie]

On 5/12/2021 at 12:39 PM, asilverblazer said:

A few minutes to completely drain the battery, something sounds like its shorted out, alternator? 

That's the 1 thing I haven't done yet. I did bring it to O'Reilly to test the alternator and they said it was fine... do I trust that or spend the $200 on a new one and hope for a miracle?

[BlancoSilverado]

Disconnect the alternator (completely) and see if the battery still drains, if it doesn't then buy a new one, if it does still drain, then it not the alternator. 

[Black02Silverado]

Did you figure this out?