Suggestions for tracing water related slow battery drain?

We have had 2 days of Monsoon weather, several inches of rain, and 50 mph winds at times. Having not driven my truck for those days I went to start it this morning and only got click click click....

The battery still had some juice, but not enough to start (bat looks in very good shape, came with truck though so I don't know how old it is)

The truck jump started OK and after a 15 min drive to work it restarted. I'll see if I am stuck here at lunch though...

I surmise some connection got wet with the crazy weather and drained the battery. I have no idea how to trace this though.

Any known weak points for a water related short in a first gen?

Thanks.

 

your battery just gave you a warning....drop by an autozone, advance or O'reilly's and have a load test done on the battery...

my bet is you need a new one...

 

I replaced the battery in my 1st gen twice in the ten years that I owned it and I never got any warning at all! It just died! That being said, if it is a short somewhere, it is a very difficult problem to troubleshoot. You have to start from the battery and work your way back until you find it, and even then, how do you know that you've found it? Good luck!....

 

^^^ What he said.

 

My gut says its not a bad battery, but I don't know how old it is, just that it has worked great for the past year, and doesn't look old.

I appreciate your input.

 

Have you cleaned your battery connections? Make sure the battery posts and cable leads show shiny lead. And then get a load test done just to be sure. Hope this helps.

 

X3
Batteries these days don't give us much warning.

 

Interestingly I had just cleaned the terminals and coated with dialectic grease last weekend.

I had to leave town for 2 days, and didn't have the time to test the battery. I just bought a new one and swapped it out. Fired right up after sitting 2 days, so it was the battery. Best case scenario I supposed, but it sure was sudden. The last 2 batteries that dies on my (one massive AGM in my diesel Mercedes and a standard one in the Honda I wrecked before buying my taco), both gave me lots of warning (months) when they started crapping out.

Thanks again.

 

Even with a new battery and a healthy charging system, I would check the parasitic (key off) load on the battery. Please see Section 10 in the Car and Deep Cycle Battery FAQ on www.batteryfaq.org for more information and troubleshooting.