Why does my car battery keep dying if I don't start up my car regularly?

Question

So I bought this brand new Sentra SER SpecV back in 2005, fully loaded, and keep having problems with the battery. If I don't start up the car atleast once every 3 days, the battery dies. I've had the battery changed for a brand new one 3 times so far and even within the first week of using a brand new battery, it dies if I don't start the car!

As a solution I've resorted to starting up the car atleast once per day. This keeps the battery charged but somewhat annoying to have to remember to do every day.

So is this normal? I've seen guys go off on 6 month tours, come back in the middle of winter with their cars burried under 3 feet of snow and being able to start their cars. Granted these were old cars that didn't have remote starters or alarms, but are these modern technologies that huge of drains on a battery? I never had any battery problems with my old car which had neither a remote starter or alarm.

The guy's at the garage can't figure out what's wrong with the car (if there is anything wrong that is) so they keep making me buy new batteries every year.

Things that may be worth mentioning:

- Battery dies even faster in the winter, necessary to start once a day.

- Battery dies slower in the summer, necessary to start once every 3 days.

- This is my "fun car" hence why it's not used regularly.

- Nissan's mechanics can't figure out what's wrong, if anything is actually wrong. So the question remains. Is this normal behavior?

- All lights are always off when shutting off the car (even the trunk)

- Only thing I can think of that remains on that requires current is the remote starter and alarm.

- Lastyly, I know almost nothing about mechanics so any detailed help to your possible solutions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

you have a battery drain,,most likely.

without knowing anything about cars you can do the following.And do it exactly the way i tell you.

Charge up the battery.

Disconnect the battery- take off the neg cable first and then the positive.

Go to the alternator and disconnect the thick red wire,,,its the one that charges the battery.

Now reconnect the battery--first the pos cable and next the Neg cable. Wait a couple of days

Now disconnect the battery (same way as before)

Now reconnect that red wire back on the alternator

Now reconnect the battery (same way as before)

See if the car starts

If it does then you need a new alternator-- this one has a cracked diode.

its only one possibility but a good one,,andf you dont need any special tools or test equipment to find out.

Answer 2

have you installed any aftermarket electronics or messed with wires in any way?