My car keeps killing (completely ruining) car batteries. Where to start?

[eb2phkingood 10+ year member]

Started with a new red top optima. Was completely gone after about 8 months. Replacement red top, fried 8 months later. Called optima, they said my system (2 sundown 12's and 6 type R 6.5" speakers pushed by correctly sized amps) was too big and that I should use a yellow top and that that was the problem. Yellow top just fried yesterday. Now the batterys don't just become weak. They go DEAD. I trickle charged it for 12 hours overnight and in the morning the battery wouldn't even hold an ounce of charge.

Gauge in car reads 14v. However, when the turn signal is on, it slightly "ticks" back and forth each time the turn signal clicks. You can also hear the turn signal through the speakers if you have no music playing, just white noise. I pulled head unit, went through all the wires, nothing.

Lastly, I have a horrible speaker whine. I've tried everything. re-wiring, opposite side rca, shielded rca's, quality amps, 3 different grounds all less than 6" in length with a 0 gauge cable. I have NOT done the big 3 however.

So those are all my clues. Not sure the whine or turn signal are correlated with the dead battery, but I figured they probably were. Where should I begin? I pulled every fuse 1 by 1 and nothing fixed the whine issue. Even the fuses under the hood. Thanks everyone!

2000 trans am ws6

P.S. I only drove this car a total of 1,391 miles last year. I did however make sure it was started at least every 7 days if it hadn't been driven and I let it run for 25 minutes each time, religiously.

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[SPL.Pantie.Soak]

Well with your batteries I would assume it would be your alternators fault because they are being constantly discharged and recharged because the alternator isn't enough to power them while "bumping" for your other questions I really don't know.

 

[rfluvinmf 10+ year member]

While pulling the fuses, you should have been checking for a parasitic draw. You should also have your alt tested.

 

[argenis69 10+ year member]

Test your alternator first

 

[brian84corvette 10+ year member]

i cant stand optima batterys. ive killed my share of red and yellow tops. they are junk compaired to most other sealed agm batterys.

i recomend deka intimadator - the biggest size you can make fit safely in your battery location.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I went through 3 sets of redtops about two years ago,and they are junk!they ruined my 255 amp alt as well as the batts themselves and a damned good amp in the process.Get that alt checked out,and as stated get a good AGM battery under the hood,and even one for the system in the rear.Ive been happy with my Orileys Super Start Extremes group 78 for the past two years,that Ive got four in the truck now, and two in the Honda CRV

 

[brian84corvette 10+ year member]

an additional thing to check is the alternator output - your wanting to only see dc power. alternators make ac power in the windings as they spin and there are 6 little diods in them (3 for the positive and 3 for the negative ) if any of them are messed up they may allow ac current to leak thru the system - and i bet that would cause some issues with a battery for shure.

how to check ?

i would imagine you would need an o scope