Aztek Battery Woes

July 1, 2009 10:47 AM

What is draining the battery in my 2001 Pontiac Aztek?

I am part owner of a 2001 Pontiac Aztek (I know you think it's ugly, don't really care) and am having trouble with the battery. Before we got the vehicle, it sat idle in a garage for about six months, having been driven once or twice in that time. It started right up in January and was fine for a few months, until I let it sit for about 48 hours in April. The battery was dead, but after a jump start, it ran fine again. Ever since then, if it sits for more than about 36 hours, the battery needs a jump.

I assumed I was leaving something on, taking care to turn off everything I could think of before turning off the engine, but we still had the same issue. Two weeks ago we bring it in to be checked, the shop says they checked the "whole start-up system" and the battery (which was 3 years old) itself was the problem, so they replaced it. Then Monday night it happened again, the new battery is dead after sitting for around 36 hours.

I have been over and over the thing looking for anything left on or plugged into a power socket but can't find a problem. I think it may be the headlights, which we leave on "Auto" all the time. When I shut it off, the radio and lights stay on after I remove the key. The radio turns off when I open my door and the headlights turn off about two minutes after I shut the door. I'd turn them off completely but there is no "off"!

My sister had the same issue and was the one who brought the car in, so she will be calling the shop to tell them their fix did not work and ask what they are willing to do. I think we should get some of the money for the two hours of labor back and bring it somewhere else.

Do you have suggestions of anything else we can do to find out what, if anything, is draining the battery? Does it sound like it's a drain, since the jump starts always work? Is there some other headlight setting we should use? Thanks

posted by soelo to travel & transportation (14 comments total)

IANAM but it sounds like your mechanic went for the most obvious solution - unfortunately putting your wallet into play. Call the shop and (nicely) tell them that you will be bringing the car back in because the problem was not fixed with the installation/purchase of a new battery. They should do a diagnostic that includes an altimeter to fish out the culprit.
posted by heather-b at 11:06 AM on July 1

Oooh, ooh, you sound like my Ask Metafilter question. The hive said the alternator was broken and they were right! (I.e., the problem was with the charging mechanism, not with excessive drainage.) On the other hand that's the kind of thing you'd figure the shop would find--do you have any sense of whether it's a good shop or not?
posted by phoenixy at 11:08 AM on July 1

IANAM, but this sounds like an alternator issue. I don't know of any tertiary device in a car aside from the ones you say turn off that would be draining that much juice. I would take it to a different technician and at least mention the alternator. They're pretty cheap to replace, generally; the cost comes into having someone install it.
posted by ZaneJ. at 11:09 AM on July 1

A short search suggests that you should turn off the headlights completely when you park the car:

# TSB #01022 -- VEHICLES MAY HAVE THE POTENTIAL OF EXHIBITING A BATTERY DRAIN CONDITION IF THE VEHICLE'S INSTRUMENT PANEL IS ILLUMINATED AND THE VEHICLE IS TURNED OFF WITH THE PARKING LAMPS STILL TURNED ON. *TT (NHTSA ID #619395, APRIL 10 2001)

I'm not a mechanic, but that seems like a good place to start. They may have implemented a fix to this, or you may just need to give up on the "auto" setting.
posted by explosion at 11:10 AM on July 1

I had a similar problem recently. Car wouldn't turn over, so I replaced the battery. A week later, the same problem started occurring. I took into into the shop, they checked out everything (electrical system, alternator, et al), and concluded that I just got a bad battery, which wasn't putting out enough juice.

Take it up to whoever sold you the battery and have them test it. Even shops like AutoZone or O'reilly's have battery testers. If you're lucky, it just may be a dud battery, which means they should replace it for free.
posted by chrisamiller at 11:18 AM on July 1

Thanks for the answers so far. Just want to reiterate that this has happened with two different batteries, old and new, so I doubt it's a bad battery. Also, if I could figure out how to turn of the lights, I would! There are three settings, "Auto" and two others that are not words, just pictures, and none of them turn the lights off. It's rather annoying to me. If I can get a picture tonight to illustrate, I'll do that.
posted by soelo at 11:29 AM on July 1

Maybe check the manual for these words?
posted by heather-b at 11:34 AM on July 1

I would be looking at perhaps hooking up an ammeter inline with the battery connection and go through the fuses one by one to figure out what is pulling the current. This is pretty easy to do but since the multimeter and fuse box are probably in different places you'd probably have to get the help of someone to read the meter as you work through the fuses.
posted by crapmatic at 12:27 PM on July 1

I had the same thing happen to me and it was not the alternator, rather the trunk light wasn't turning off even though the trunk was completely shut and that was draining the battery.

Fixed the light and problem solved. It took me two trips to the mechanic before they figured it out.
posted by ephemerista at 12:30 PM on July 1

Unfortunately, the Aztek is notoriously plauged with electrical malfunctions. The Body Control Module (the computer that controls lighting, central locking, etc) suffers any number of malfunctions and does stuff like activate the tailgate on its own, causing the courtesy lights to come on and drain the battery, just for instance.
The best way to diagnose this is to systematically connect an ammeter in place of each fuse one by one, and determine which circuit is staying live after the car is off.
Your GM dealer will probably have the best solution. Given the history of the Aztek, there are likely a number of recalls and Technical Service Bulletins that may apply to your vehicle.
Be prepared for this to take a few visits. Also, be prepared for this to be a whack-a-mole adventure where one problem is fixed and another one pops up in the near future.
posted by Jon-o at 12:44 PM on July 1

Perhaps you could check the fuses to try and troubleshoot the problem. You could do it via process-of-elimination (ie. taking out the fuses of the most likely culprits) or by purchasing a ammeter and finding out which fuses have power going through them when the ignition is off. Either way, it should narrow down the problem area.
posted by talkingmuffin at 12:44 PM on July 1

Oh man, beat to the punch.
posted by talkingmuffin at 12:46 PM on July 1

Seconding the trunk light, happened to me too.
posted by Dean King at 1:22 PM on July 1

Battery gnomes.

Or maybe you could talk your awesome boyfriend into taking his multimeter to your fuse box and looking for the culprit circuit.
posted by SquidLips at 1:14 PM on July 3 [1 favorite has favorites]