Left Out in the Cold - Plight of 84 4ksq Battery

[George Butler]

Hello all,

 

And please accept my belated best wishes for the New Year...  

 

THE PROBLEM: 

 

Up until a snap of single-digit temperatures two weeks ago (in this
otherwise balmy winter in the northeast) my 84 4ksq was starting flawlessly.
However, when I went to start it one very cold morning...the battery...a 3.5
year-old Sears International Try-Hard ;-) ...was dead.  I recharged the
battery a few times and got...as I expected...the identical symptom each
time. The first few times I recharged it I took the car for a long ride
afterwards. If the outside temperature was reasonable (above 20 degrees F)
the car would start the following morning (but not a few days later if left
idle. as I didn't trust the charging system enough to take the car to
work...thank God for my Taurus wagon.) As an experiment though I
specifically didn't take the car out after the last re-charge in the event
that the voltage regulator on the alternator was flakey (BTW, alternator
belt is adequately snug and cables coming off alternator have been checked,
cleaned, and have solid continuity) and would be draining the battery during
the drive.  The results of the experiment were the same...dead battery the
following morning.  

 

Fast forward to last Saturday (1/13)...I decided to put fresh batteries in
my multi-meter, put the leads (+DC amps) between the negative car battery
post and chassis ground cable and check for parasitic current draw by
removing one fuse at a time.  Of course the only activity I got was on S4
which controls the dome light, trunk light, radio, etc. The circuit drew
about 40 milliamps...which I suspect is OK.

 

Thinking something was wrong with the battery itself, I brought it back to
Sears for a test... and everything looked fine per their test equipment. As
I'm going through this diagnostic process, I'm beginning to recall a similar
problem I had way back in my VW days,  I had one battery that was less than
five years old that was temperature-sensitive (and another with a dead
cell...what a PITA).  I'm wondering if I haven't run into another one.

 

Earlier this morning (brrrrr...) I threw the leads of my multi-meter
(resistance) across my disconnected battery cables. At 100K and 10K-ohms I
got nearly dead shots...but I'm guessing that this is simply the resistance
of the components in the S4 (fuse) circuit...especially at those settings.
At a 1K setting I'm getting about 400 ohms (hmmm...about 40 milliamp draw in
the DC current draw and 400 ohms of resistance across the battery
cables...makes sense...I think).

 

After this clearly verbose description of my problem...and being cognizant
of our Audi electrical gremlins...are there any of you folks who've run into
a similar situation.and if so...how did you fix it?    Anyway...does anyone
have any ideas relative to the remainder of the diagnostic path I should be
following...or what I should be telling the guys at Sears?  Any assistance
would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

George B.

84 4ksq

88 5ksq

Massachusetts

 

P.S. I do have a test-light for shorts (the type that pierces wire
insulation)