For the past several months my 2005 350z has been losing the battery charge. I have a new alternator, new starter, and new battery. If it sits more than a day the battery is dead. 2 times that it's been dead I hear a clicking sound coming from the arm rest where the switches for the window,locks, and rear view mirror toggle are. Is there a common issue with these cars leaking some electrical somewhere? Please help- I'm desperate!

 

No - this is not common. You gave a parasitic draw somewhere.

What aftermarket components have been installed?

 

no aftermarket components added. 1 mechanic I took it to said he traced the draw to the gps and he cut the wire to the gps, but it's still happening. The only clue I have is the clicking sound I've heard in the armrest on 2 occasions. Could one of the switches- windows, locks, and rear view mirror- be stuck? I've never heard that clicking sound unless the battery has been completely dead....

 

No aftermarket components added. One mechanic I took it to said he traced it to the GPS and he cut the wire to it, but it's still happening. The only clue I have is the clicking sound I've heard on 2 occasions, coming from the armrest, when the battery has been completely dead. Could one of the switches to the windows, locks, and rear view mirror be stuck?

 

Very well could be a stuck or faulty window switch, especially if a window was left open in the rain or drinks were spilled in that area. Old infotainment systems can also fail, but usually these are tied to ignition power, so with the key out, it should off. I don't think any of the 350Z infotainment systems were tied in with the canbus, which is far more common on modern vehicles. There is a memory power connection to preserve things like radio presets, so if there was an internal short or failure, I suppose that could potentially cause a parasitic drain, but it would be rare.

But my recommendation is to start with the door switches. You can try and use an electrical cleaner like "deoxit" and see if that helps resolve the "clicking" issue. You may also want to try a window regulator/motor re-calibration.
-Icer

 

Would the window recalibration be done at an electrical shop? Is the deoxit something where I would have to get into the door to spray it or can it be sprayed on the outer switch without opening the door up? Thank you for your help....
another thing I wonder about is the last battery that was put in is some kind of "economy " battery- could that be the problem?

 

Window regulator calibration is done at the vehicle, no need to take to a shop, there are guides/videos about the process, just google it.

Deoxit is an electronics cleaner spray in a can (like WD40). You could try spraying into the switch module as it sits on the door panel & working the switches to loosen any gummed up/stuck contacts. Personally, I would remove the switch module for this type of work vs. trying to do it in the car. The contacts are buried pretty good and you won't get good saturation of the cleaner spray trying to do this without taking things apart. If that sounds like more than you can handle, then you're better off taking the car to a shop for a parasitic drain debug.

Even an economy battery shouldn't die after a 1-2 days. If you had an amp hound or similar tool, you could quickly narrow down the circuit causing the drain by monitoring current draw on the battery while pulling fuses. It's somewhat time consuming to do this, but it works most of the time on older vehicles that don't have a huge number of computer modules (like the 350Z). Note: I don't recommend pulling the fuse for the window switches & door locks. This could disable the keyless entry system and the glass won't crack down when opening the doors (potentially cause damage to the sill cover or worse).

-Icer