Battery Drain

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 12:37 PM

Ive searched the forums and found some great tips on testing for parasitic drain, my problem is I cant get a reading at all on my multimeter. Ive got it set to 20mA, tried removing both positive and neg cable off battery and putting meter inline but it always shows 0. My car is dying if i dont drive it for like a day, jumps just fine and will keep going long as i dont let it sit. Idle im getting around 14.4v running. Also checked and my brake lights arent staying on. Any help would be apprecaited, ive got the next 2 days off work so id like to try to atleast find the problem area so I can take it in if its wiring or something outside my scope, Thanks

**DTP** · 10-20-2011, 01:29 PM

Do you have any lights staying on, like your trunk light?

Do you have an aftermarket radio?

Alarm system?

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

**qnz** · 10-20-2011, 01:39 PM

Not insulting you, but are you sure you are using the meter correctly? With the car off, the various electronics in the car should still be drainingg .3a atleast.

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 01:42 PM

No lights that ive seen on, trunk bulb is removed, I do have aftermarket radio which i thought might be the problem so i pulled the fuse, still had problem so i completely pulled it out for week and its still dying. The thing thats confusing me is why im not getting any reading on a multimeter. ive tried setting it to 20mA and too 200mA but its always 0. With nothing on and car off i get a reading of like 12.3ish volts and I can watch it every min or two it will drop 12.34...12.33..As of now i just disconnected the battery cables till i can figure it out. Im sick and tired of jumping the car haha. Done it 4 times this last week so far.

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by qnz

Not insulting you, but are you sure you are using the meter correctly? With the car off, the various electronics in the car should still be drainingg .3v atleast.

No insult at all, this is my first time ever using one, but I did google bunch for my specific meter and followed what I saw others do. Im using the Innova 3306

I set it to green setting 20m under DCA. red probe in far right side, black in middle. Am i missing something or setting something wrong?

**qnz** · 10-20-2011, 02:54 PM

To measure what the current drain is, the red probe should be in on the left and black in the middle. The dial should be set to the DC 10A. Then take the probes and connect it inline to the positive cable so that its positive cable -> meter -> battery. You should get a reading now. If the drain is huge (larger than 10A) it will pop the fuse in your meter (or break your meter if it doesn't have a fuse)

This provided some good info for me when I first started hunting for my drain
http://flashoffroad.com/electrical/B...teryDrain.html

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 03:05 PM

Thanks! ok im getting a reading now, but I thought it would be higher, im reading like .35-.40 was highest i saw, it gives reading for about 10-15sec then drops down to 0. I have to remove one of the leads and put it back on and get reading again.

**qnz** · 10-20-2011, 03:10 PM

have you cleaned your connectors?

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 03:22 PM

the negative has tiny bit of corrosion but the positive is clean and thats side im using right now. Not sure if its something in the meter that has a timeout to prevent fuse being blown or something, either way i should be getting reading more then .35-.40 right? I cant figure out how its dying =(

**galantlvr34** · 10-20-2011, 03:37 PM

Change your battery terminals and see if that helps.You should also see how many volts your battery reads when the car is off.If it is low the battery is most likely shot.I kind of went through the same thing and it was my battery.Do you know how old the battey is in it?

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 03:40 PM

Battery is only like month or so old, ive gone through 3 or 4 batteries in the last 4months, Its still under warrenty at autozone, last few ones I left my car off for 2-3 days and couldnt get it jumped, took battery in and they just swapped it out each time. With the car off right now its sitting at like 12.17v I havent driven it since yesterday

**galantlvr34** · 10-20-2011, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by Tricyclethief

Battery is only like month or so old, ive gone through 3 or 4 batteries in the last 4months, Its still under warrenty at autozone, last few ones I left my car off for 2-3 days and couldnt get it jumped, took battery in and they just swapped it out each time. With the car off right now its sitting at like 12.17v I havent driven it since yesterday

If that is the case then it sounds like your alternator isnt charging your battery like it should.What does it read with the car on?It should read around 14.5 volts any lower or higher your alternator is shot.

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 04:05 PM

Was 14.4. Last time i had it jumped I took it to autozone and they did an electrical test and said battery, starter and alternator all pass

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 04:09 PM

It seems like it all points to drain, If i drive it everyday dont have a problem staring/running it, its when i leave it for a day not driving that the battery is low and not enough juice to turn over.

**galantlvr34** · 10-20-2011, 04:15 PM

who wired your radio in?Did you recently have it put in?

**Tricyclethief** · 10-20-2011, 04:21 PM

It was already in when i bought the car, theres an adapter from back of radio to stock harness. I thought that was issue originally but I took whole unit out for like a week and still had issues so kinda ruled it out