chetako

I have a 1991 Pathfinder and my New 6mo old battery is dead. Here is my story.

Spring & Summer 2005 my car battery seemed to be dead every few days, I would jump it and all seemed OK. This happened several times, I figured something was draining battery so I made sure everything was turned off, this seemed to work for a few weeks, but battery died again. I had white powder around the terminals.

Went out and purchased a new battery in July and everything seemed to work great for several months, no problems with dead battery. I noticed in December my two brake lights were coming on and staying on intermittently and eventually continuously. There is plenty of brake fluid and brakes work fine.

Well I didn't drive the truck for all of January, and the battery was dead dead dead. I did jump the battery and it started, drove around for 15 min with no exccessories running. Then left the truck idling 15 min, turned the truck off and tried to restart and nothing. Instruments lighted up, but after ten seconds all was dark. I cleaned and reconnected cables and battery terminals. So i came here and read several posts.

I thought I read something about wire connections near the positive terminal that if disconnected may send a signal to these brake indicator lights to stay on. I looked at the positive terminal and notice that the positive cable end has a black connector attached and two small male connectors that plug into this black connector. It seems the wires from the black connector to the positive cable end are corroded away (no connection). The two wires that run into the two male connectors are in good condition, but the female half that connects these two connectors has the corroded away wires.

Question 1.
What is the name of this Juncture? So I can get the right part to replace this.

Question 2.
And could this be the reason my battery is not staying charged. I think this may solve the two brake light indicators, but what about my dead battery problem?

If this fix won't correct the dying battery problem, any ideas what could be causing this?

Sorry if this is a bit long but I figured the more info I give the better.

Thanks, Chetako