99 ElDorado Battery Drain

[Matt Taylor]

I have searched this forum a bit, and can't find anything fitting what my issue is.. If I'm wrong, I apologize.

I have had my 99 Eldorado ETC for a year now, and apart from the darn heat/ac not working, it's been a great car. About a month ago I had to replace my battery. It ran fine for about a week or so and then it started having issues with the charging again. When I'd stop it'd drain rapidly if I didn't keep a decent 1500 rpm or so idle. I took the battery out, fully charged it on a trickle charger, and it worked again for a week or so before it started doing the same thing.

I bought a new battery, which ran fine for a couple weeks, before it started it all over again, and now it sits in my driveway unable to start. It's not overnight that the battery drains, it's while its running.

I am by no means a mechanic, and was wondering if that sounds like an alternator issue. I don't get why it works some time, and then doesn't.

Any ideas, or am I just being stubborn and not wanting to change my bad alternator?

[KHE]

If the alternator is not charging, there should be a BATTERY NO CHARGE message on the information center and the battery light should be illuminated on the dash. Have you pulled the diagnostic codes? Press and hold OFF and PASSENGER WARMER buttons and the codes will appear on the information center. Maybe there is a code that will point to the problem. Just because a battery is new does not mean it can't be bad.