2004 RANCHER BATTERY WON'T CHARGE. I ASSUMED THE BATTERY WAS BAD SINCE IT IS 5 YRS OLD. REPLACED BATTERY AND IT WAS DEAD IN A FEW DAYS.
THE ONLY ADD-ONS I HAVE ARE A PAIR OF EXTRA LIGHTS AND A WARN WINCH.
I UNHOOKED THE EXTRA LIGHTS TO ELIMINATE A PARASITIC LOAD THERE.
THE PROBLEM HAPPENED ALL AT ONCE. ARE THERE ANY RELAYS OR ANYTHING OBVIOUS IN THE CHARGING CIRCUIT THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR?

 

I guess first you should determine if the charging system isn't working, or if there is excessive key off drain.

Recharge the battery and put it back in. Take a voltage reading with the engine off, and with the engine running and reved up.

To check for drain, unhook the netagive cable and take an amp meter reading between the neg terminal and the neg cable, with the key and everything else off. You should get a reading of only a few miliamps, but start with the meter on a higher setting so as not to peg out the meter if the draw is much higher.

Hondas are generally set up so that positive runs to the key switch and to the voltage regulator/rectifier, so if you get more drain than a few miliamps I'd first disconnect any aftermarket addons. If that doesn't make the loss go away, try unhooking the regulator/rectifier plug. They don't fail very often, but sometimes when they do they can create high key off draw (like several amps).

If unhooking the regulator doesn't make the drain go away, you could also unhook the connector for the ignition switch (but I doubt that's it).


Anyway, welcome to the forum. Good luck with the problem, and let us know how it turns out.

 

THE PROBLEM WAS IN MY ADD-ON LIGHTS. HAD 3.9 MILLIAMPS WITH LIGHTS CONNECTED, AND ZERO WITH LIGHTS UNHOOKED. THANKS FOR THE INFO.

 

Good deal. Glad it was something simple.