I have a 2005 dodge mangnum RT, its got about 130,000 on it. I had a no start condition about 6 months ago, it was just dead. flat dead. Pulled the battery (orig mopar batt.) had it tested was told it was bad. Replaced it with a new one, had the same issue creep up.

if the car sits more than 3 days its almost a guarantee it wont start.
Sometimes it wont start from sitting overnight, like 8 hours.
The battery will be dead to the point no interior lights come on, the keyless entry is gone etc... just flat out dead.

Has anyone heard of this?
know of sure fire way to detect ABNORMAL drains?

Just to rule it out, I'd have the new battery tested.

i will do that, but for it to RANDOMLY not start with a dead battery... i just don't get it, no rhyme or reason.
this gets to be very frustrating

IF THE DRAW IS HEAVY ENOUGH IT SHOULD LIGHT A TEST LIGHT BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE BATTERY TERMINAL AND THE NEGATIVE BATTERY POST. YOU MUST REMOVE THE CABLE FROM THE BATTERY AND PUT THE TEST LIGHT BETWEEN THEM. iF THE BULB LIGHTS THEN START UNPLUGGING THINGS STARTING WITH THE ALTERNATOR FOLLOWED BY FUSES. LEAVE THE FUSES OUT UNTIL THE CIRCUIT WITH THE DRAW IS FOUND. iF YOU DO THIS AND THE TEST LIGHT NEVER DOES LIGHT THE BULB YOU MUST USE ANOTHER MEANS FOR CHECKING A SMALLER DRAW WHICH CAN BE DONE WITH AN OHMMETER.

thanks, i will be trying this tonight. I was hoping that others had had this issue and knew exactly what it was.

I had a 94 LeBaron conv, that started doing this battery drain, found out it was a short in the inst. cluster.

I had a PU of that era that would drain the battery if the key was left in the ignition.

As posted, pull the battery cable and use a test light first to check for current drain between the batt cable and battery post. If it lights up, start pulling fuses one at a time until you find the problem circuit. If the test light is faint, you can use a multi meter ammeter to test for drain. On a modern car, 20 mA drain is normal (good) up to 40 or so MA is OK.

Draining a battery in a day or two would take a lot more than 40 mA.

thanks, good info. does not look like ill be getting to it tonight.... hopefully tomorrow!