My 99 Ram 1500 5.2 won't start. I am thinking it might have a drain on it, but I have no ability to test for it. Is there any simple method to test it?

Why it might be the battery:
Battery is at least 4 years old. Actually, cannot remember when it was installed at all and cannot find a date on it.
Ran a trickle charger on it for several hours yesterday, it started yesterday, but ran very weakly.
This AM the battery is drained to the point the door chimes won't even light.

I was inclined to just replace the battery, until I saw the price of them.

UPDATE:

I was able to know it was a drain. I was not able to figure out what was draining it. I took it to a garage. While there it operated perfectly without draining at all. I got home from work and had a friend drive me to pick the truck up. I am figuring, it is going to be one of those really annoying intermittent problems and I am going to fear driving this thing. Anyway, I left the truck in the middle of the pull around jumped in my regular car to take my friend home. When I returned I pulled in behind the pickup and saw the backup lights were on. the lights on the top back of the bed were shining nice and bright. the way I normally park it I am not able to see the back of the truck.

Now I have to see if I can find out why. My first guess is the linkage on the shifter isn't hitting the switch. But I actually have no idea how it actually works.

Just had a thought...

I am going to trickle charge it.
Then disconnect the battery overnight.
See if it will start in the am.
This should tell me right?

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...cal-problems-79-lebaron.html#Post2077065

how to measure a drain with just a regular volt meter.

also be sure to tape the switches closed like door and hood

If you have a few days and a voltmeter, I would check the voltage sitting in the vehicle hooked up. Then check it again in the morning while hooked up. Then unhook it, charge it, check voltage, let sit overnight, and check it again. I'm not very good at electrical, but this should let you know if the battery is losing juice or if something is drawing juice from it.

I'm assuming that you dont have (or can borrow) another good battery that you could sub in for a check.

4-5 years is time for new one

I have my grandfathers voltmeter around somewhere, but no idea how to use it. He, the electrician, would be very displeased with me, but I don't know how to use it.

I suppose my evening will be finding it and watching some youtube videos.

Very simple to test for a draw, especially with a multimeter. You can pull the negative battery cable, hook the multimeter between the cable and the battery and measure the draw in current mode.

https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/experience/2010/12/what-normal-parasitic-draw

There is a video link at the end of the article on how to do it

Tell me which model multimeter you have and I will tell you how to use it.

Don't forget to close the door and if you have a hood light pull the bulb with the hood up. Basically, you do not want to turn anything on while doing this test or you will end up chasing your tail.

Easy way to check draw.Close doors make sure nothing is on.Disconnect neg cable.Attach test light to neg cable couch other end to neg terminal.Should be no light or super dim as computer,memory etc darw a bit.As for batterys being 4 or 5 years old and needing replaced thats bull.Last one in the 04 Ram was replaced last year.The one in my 65 was at least 8 years old.Not saying its not bad but could be.As for running bad they will with low battery voltage and or not charging right.That and they have to relearn after battery goes dead/low.Best to charge it and take it to say Advance or AZ and have them check charging and battery.Its free.Rocky

Yes slo charge it overnight then take it in for load testing

A trickle charger does almost nothing for a very discharged battery. It will need to sit on a 5-10 amp charge for at least overnight to get things charged up again. But like said, if it is over 4 years old it is not wasted money to replace the battery anyways.

Definitely a drain.

It is only a guess, but I had tires replaced just before this issue arose.

Any way the tire guys screwed something up? It is a 99 but it does have ABS.

You can use an inexpensive test light and follow the advice of sniper. If it glows there is draw.

Just for giggles, I went to the garage and checked my car. I put a test light on the negative terminal and negative cable while attached and no light. Tested with the battery cable off and same. I did get light from positive to negative with it connected. Voltage sitting is 12.55. Are you sure this method works?

Did you watch the video link I supplied? Because you don;t seem to be doing it right.

I quoted the test light scenario. I have to read the manual for my multimeter to figure out the current draw test. I watched the video and plan on attempting it tonight or tomorrow. My battery and system is fine, but I am just curious and like to learn new things. I see there is not supposed to be a light if np draw, just now noticed that. Maybe I needed more coffee before posting.

When I had a problem like this it turned out to be the radio. It was very fun/educational learning how to do this test.

A test light s a poor choice for draw resting on modern vehicles. You will have a draw, the computer itself draws a bit even when the key is on the counter in your kitchen. That draw may not be enough to light up the test light though. Which is why you need a meter on these newer vehicles. In the video they talk about what is a normal draw for later model vehicles and what it too much. 35 milliamps (that's 35/1000 of an amp) is typical, over 85 milliamps gets into the too much category.

Tell us what meter you have and I can tell you how to set it up for draw testing.

This is beyond my ability and I will be taking it in to a mechanic to look at.

I could not find the voltmeter. I might have tossed it, I don't know.

If I had an inside shop, had a little more electrical knowledge and all it might be interesting to learn this, but for right now my regular job is such that it is more reasonable to pay someone else to do it while I work.

I work on my vehicles as relaxation from my regular job, this would not be relaxing to me.

Have you tried the simplest thing by having the battery tested and replaced as necessary before paying some one big bucks per hour to do the easy work? These newer computer driven cars are very hard on batteries they don't last near as long as the used to.