Parasitic battery drain!

[firewalk]

So I’ve been having this parasitic battery drain for some time now. I’m geting tired (and broke) of replacing batteries all the time. When ever I install a brand new and fully charged battery, it will be flat after 5-6 days at most.

So I bought a “prioritystart battery protector” which goes between the battery and the positive cable. Whenever the battery goes bellow 11,7 volts for more than 1 minutte it will disconnect power totally, thus ensuring that there is always enough power to start the car.

This actually works. However, My batteries still keep dying! My battery which was brand new 2 months ago now won’t hold a charge. It will start the car, but a few hours after parking the car it will read only 11,87 volts.

So the question is:

1: Will a battery die from geting drained down to 11,7 volts? I know they will die from geting flat. But 11,7 is far from flat?..

I know that in order to search for the problem you are supposed to set up the multimeter between the negative terminal on the battery and the negative cable, measuring amps. Then you remove the fuses one by one. I’ve don this. The only problem is that in my case it seems like EVERY darn thing is phulling amps to some degree! Even hours after parking the car.

I will typically phull one fuse, and it will decrease the load by a few miliamps.. Then I phull another one and it goes down by a few more miliamps. Seems like I have to phull nearly every darn fuse to get it to go down to aceptable levels. So as you can imagine, problemsolving this isn’t easy :unsure: Nor can I just replace the entire wiring. And I can’t drive around with no fuses, as nothing would work!

Any Ideas? I was hoping the prioritystart would get me around the problem. Could it just be a bad battery from the dealer? Or are they simply not designed to widhstand beeing drained down to 11,7 volts, then started and charged up to 12,6 again.. ?

I need some advice! This is eating at me.. ::(

Topic

[firewalk]

It is not armed. But i could try unpluging the alarm computer totally just to make sure. The car wont start with it pluged out so i cant leave it that way. what about the simular drain on the other circuit? should i be looking for a short? and if so, is there a way to narrow it down? Weird that they draw exactly the same amount of power..

[firewalk]

It is not armed. But i could try unpluging the alarm computer totally just to make sure. The car wont start with it pluged out so i cant leave it that way. what about the simular drain on the other circuit? should i be looking for a short? and if so, is there a way to narrow it down? Weird that they draw exactly the same amount of power..

[college man]

A short would blow a fuse.you need to see what else is
on those circuits.

[college man]

A short would blow a fuse.you need to see what else is
on those circuits.

[firewalk]

can i use a clamp amperemeter to measure wires or are theese currents to small to read with a clamp amperemeter?

[firewalk]

can i use a clamp amperemeter to measure wires or are theese currents to small to read with a clamp amperemeter?

[college man]

you could try the clamp on.But I don’t know if
you will pick anything up.:ohmy:

[college man]

you could try the clamp on.But I don’t know if
you will pick anything up.:ohmy:

[twiggy]

The product info on whatever clamp you buy will give you the range that it can measure. But I have yet to see one that measures in the mA range due to the very small magnetic field given off by the wire being measured.

[twiggy]

The product info on whatever clamp you buy will give you the range that it can measure. But I have yet to see one that measures in the mA range due to the very small magnetic field given off by the wire being measured.

[EricTheCarGuy]

You haven’t checked everything according to your list. For me the alarm is at the top of the list of things to check. With the parasitic draw test once you find the offending fuse or fuses you NEED to look up the wiring diagram for that fuse and unplug each and every thing in that circuit till you see the drain go away. It’s scientific NOT a guessing game. Hook your ammeter back up and start disconnecting the connectors for the components on the circuit that you find the draw on and eventually you’ll find the cause. It does take some time and it sucks but I know you’ll find the cause if you use this method.

[EricTheCarGuy]

You haven’t checked everything according to your list. For me the alarm is at the top of the list of things to check. With the parasitic draw test once you find the offending fuse or fuses you NEED to look up the wiring diagram for that fuse and unplug each and every thing in that circuit till you see the drain go away. It’s scientific NOT a guessing game. Hook your ammeter back up and start disconnecting the connectors for the components on the circuit that you find the draw on and eventually you’ll find the cause. It does take some time and it sucks but I know you’ll find the cause if you use this method.

[firewalk]

I tracked town the problem with the DOME sircuit. Turned out to be a factory amp for the original sound system beeing on standby. So I removed the amp and I’m now left with just the power drain on the HAZ – HORN sircuit, drawing a total of 60-80 miliamps.
I’m NOT good at reading wiring diagrams. I’ve studied it as best I could. From what I can figure out that fuse only has to do with the hazzard lights/turn lights and the horn. There seems to be conections going from the Alarm ECU to the horn, and from the turn light switch as well. But the turn lights has its own 7,5a fuse in the cupe, so I didn’t quite understand how that’s hooked up exactly.

From reading the diagram, this is what I’ve been able to come up with beeing in that circuit:

horn switch(dur)
both front turn signals
hazard switch(obviously)
both rear turn signals
theft Deterrent horn
turn signal flasher
theft ecu
horn relay

I’ve disconnected all the above exept the turn signal switch itself as I ran out of time this evening and It is a big job geting to it. However, the turn signals work just fine even with the HAZ – HORN fuse removed. Since they are still working, and the drain is gone with the HAZ – HORN fuse removed, should that not dismiss the switch as a potential source? Again, I see the turn lights has it’s own 7,5 amp fuse. I’m unsure how this is all hooked up.. removing the 7,5 amp fuse makes no differense on the drain.

Is there anything I am missing?

I’m posting the electrical diagram for the fuse/sircuit in question:

Edit:
After looking at the diagrams for quite some time it’s clear to me that the power also goes trough the turn light/hazz lights indicator lights in the gauge cluster in the dash. So I guess I’ll need to take out that entire thing and disconnect everything to see if there is a problem there as well?

Attachments:

• Electrical001.jpg
• Electrical002.jpg

[firewalk]

I tracked town the problem with the DOME sircuit. Turned out to be a factory amp for the original sound system beeing on standby. So I removed the amp and I’m now left with just the power drain on the HAZ – HORN sircuit, drawing a total of 60-80 miliamps.
I’m NOT good at reading wiring diagrams. I’ve studied it as best I could. From what I can figure out that fuse only has to do with the hazzard lights/turn lights and the horn. There seems to be conections going from the Alarm ECU to the horn, and from the turn light switch as well. But the turn lights has its own 7,5a fuse in the cupe, so I didn’t quite understand how that’s hooked up exactly.

From reading the diagram, this is what I’ve been able to come up with beeing in that circuit:

horn switch(dur)
both front turn signals
hazard switch(obviously)
both rear turn signals
theft Deterrent horn
turn signal flasher
theft ecu
horn relay

I’ve disconnected all the above exept the turn signal switch itself as I ran out of time this evening and It is a big job geting to it. However, the turn signals work just fine even with the HAZ – HORN fuse removed. Since they are still working, and the drain is gone with the HAZ – HORN fuse removed, should that not dismiss the switch as a potential source? Again, I see the turn lights has it’s own 7,5 amp fuse. I’m unsure how this is all hooked up.. removing the 7,5 amp fuse makes no differense on the drain.

Is there anything I am missing?

I’m posting the electrical diagram for the fuse/sircuit in question:

Edit:
After looking at the diagrams for quite some time it’s clear to me that the power also goes trough the turn light/hazz lights indicator lights in the gauge cluster in the dash. So I guess I’ll need to take out that entire thing and disconnect everything to see if there is a problem there as well?

Attachments:

• Electrical001.jpg
• Electrical002.jpg

[firewalk]

Now I’ve disconnected the instrument cluster completely.
I’ve taken off the steering wheel and the airbag and disconnected the horn manually.
I even phulled the 7,5a fuse for the turn lights. And still no change!

I’ve checked everything that can be checked. I’ve gone trough everything that is in that circuit according the the wiring diagram. And the drain remains the same.
I just don’t get it. I’m about to give up.
The whole damn thing is just weird!

I disconnected the negative terminal to the battery and used my second multimeter to measure voltage. Seems the drain is about 0,36 volts, and about 50-80 miliamps (it’s fluctuating a bit)

I’ve phulled every relay in the circuit and I’ve disconnected everything thats hooked up and could drain power. No change.

At this point i’m considering just wiring in a relay so that I can have an operative horn and hazzard lights when the ignition is on, and eventually wiring in a switch so that I can enable it and use the hazzard lights with the ignition off if I must.

I guess that’s the second best thing at this point, as I really can’t find the fault 🙁

I’ve teared down the entire inside of the car and Nothing….

Measuring volgate drain:

Attachments:

• voltage.jpg

[Author]

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