Quick electrical question

[sandrew]

I was futzing around under the dash when running 4ga wire through the famous grommet and had starting taking bolts/nuts off of the fuse panel before I figured out I didn't have to. The middle bolt appears to be a common ground - when it was loosened everything inside the car died.

I had only tightened it hand tight thinking that was good enough but when I went to start the car last night the battery was almost dead. Jumped it and got it started so I just left it on the charger until it showed charged. Ran some more wire today (RCAs, remote lead, antenna) and the car door was open for awhile but nowhwere near long enough to **** the battery. I went to start the car and same thing. BZZZZT.

So I remembered not using a wrench on that common ground bolt, took care of that (it did tighten about 4 more turns) and then put the charger back on the battery.

So the question is: Would that loose ground cause a power draw (remember the door was open for awhile so the interior light was on) large enough to drain the battery? Or is my battery finally dying? Or did I maybe loosen something inadvertently while messing around under there? Given the metric crapload of wire under there I hope it's not the last one.

<---- n00b when it comes to electricity

thanks,

Scott

 

[sandrew]

I had a new battery sitting on the bench so I just dropped it in after topping off the charge with the trickle charger.

The car started twice a couple of hours apart just fine with the new battery.

I'll let y'all know if that didn't do the trick.

The old battery had an installation sticker on it that said 02/2005...so yeah, it was past due.

 

[rubydist]

With that bolt loose, there could easily have been a ground loop that pulled just a little current out of the battery so that it ran dead. Most likely will be okay now that its tight.