can someone explain to me how to use a multimeter to find out what is draining my battery.

 

well first off, try this, run the car, bring the engine up to 1000-1500 rpm and put the positive lead from the multimeter on the positive output on your alternator and the negative lead of the multimeter to a good ground or the case of the alternator. you should get right around 14 volts. any less than say 13 volts, replace the alternator.

 

To check for stray current that could be draining your battery:
1) Make sure the battery is fully charged and holding a charge. Batteries can short out internally and commit suicide.
2) Turn off everything in car, including ignition switch.
3) Disconnect ground cable from battery.
4) Put multimeter in AMP mode
5) Connect multimeter: POS (+) lead to battery cable that was just disconnected. NEG (-) lead to NEG (-) battery post.
6) Meter should show a current between 0 and 0.7 AMP. This is the normal parasitic drain. If it is higher then there is something drawing current when it shouldn't.
7) To find culprit. Remove one fuse at a time and note if the current drops. If current does not change, put fuse back and go to the next one. Do the same with fusible links and big link fuses, if any.
8) Once you found the bad circuit, you will need a wiring drawing to find out what is attached to it.
9) Disconnect one component at a time from the bad circuit until the one drawing current is found.

 

thank you very much, that helps me out A LOT. i'll give it a try tomorrow after i get out of work.