Hello:

Have a '84 Toyota Cressida waggon as sort of a "spare" car.

Has a brand new alternator.
Has a brand new battery.

The problem is that it sits in the driveway for, at times, up to three to
four
weeks or so without being used.
After the three-four week period, the battery is totally dead.

My guerss was, that for a car this old, very little is really drawing any
current, as
contrasted to the newer cars perhaps .  Probably some to keep the radio
presets, but hard to come up with anything else.

Certainly seems like something, though, is depleting the battery.
I would certainly think that 3 to 4 weeks should not deplete a new battery;
heck, it
was probably sitting for a longer period on the shelf.

So, today, with the battery removed from the car, I put my voltmeter (VOM)
on the
battery cables (no battery in place) to measure resistance.
Here's what I read for Resistance:

With the red meter lead on the wire that would have been going to the +
battery terminal
I read 12 ohms.

Reversing the meter leads reads 40 ohms.

Wow !

This shows that there are diodes somewhere, but it seems to me that's an
incredibly low resistance.  If the battery was in place, that would be a
current of 12 V/12 ohms = 1.0 amps being drawn (with the ignition off).  No
wonder it's being depleted.

- Am I interpreting this correctly ?
- Is this a meaningful test ?
- Should one expect a brand new battery to run down in 3-4 weeks sitting in
an unused car ?

Any thoughts on this, what possibly to check, and what might be the problem
?

Much thanks,
Bob