Pardon me for being not too bright here, but I'm wondering something:

Say you have a parasitic power drain. Say you've come up with a multitude of items that cause the drain, and the drain only goes away when ALL of the items are disconnected. Now say that ALL of the items are on two circuits with a common connecting point at the distribution block (parallel circuits, both main wires attached to the same spade connector which attaches to the distribution block). Now say that each of these circuits have other items on each one which DOES NOT show any signs of causing the power drain. How is this possible?? Is it that each item is causing it's own drain, or is it a shorted item (or relay or whatever) not de-energizing and causing a bleed-over effect?

My situation is as follows: I have the two grey wire connector at the distribution as the ONLY one causing my .068A power draw. On one circuit, the ABS Bat Fuse (fuse 4 in the under hood fuse block) pulls the draw. On the other circuit, the ECM Bat (fuse 4 on the instrument panel fuse block), The Courtesy Fuse (fuse 8), and the headlight switch (haven't troubleshot the fuses, but with the headlight switch disconnected draw disappears with all other drawing fuses disconnected) all cause the draw.

Just trying to figure this out. I know someone around here has got to be electrically savvy.

 

Since I was born and raised in Jersey and respect the military, I'll give it a wack.

The first question is, the entire draw on the battery from everything when the engine is off is .068 Amps (68 mili-amps)?????? Or are you saying its that much from just those circuits and when they are connected, there is more draw?

What happened that made you start looking for such draws, for example, the battery goes dead after sitting for some time etc.....?

Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary when driving? Like performance issues, braking issues, SES light, lights dimming or blinking, noises or radio noise etc...?

What happens to the current draw when you remove all the other fuses EXCEPT the ones in question?

Does the PCM go through the diagnostic check at pre-start up as it should? (lighting and then extinguishing the dash lights)?

I'm not versed in 93's so If I'm off the mark on this next question, for give me. Usually the ABS BAT fuse will supply the EBCM with 12 volts. The other fuse, ABS IGN will supply the EBCM and the ABS relays with power. Have you tried unplugging the EBCM and see what the current draw is?

As far as any of the devices are concerned with that are plugged into the questionable fuses, have you tried to unplug any of them and measure the current draw? If not, give it a try. If you can give us some of the results, we can give you some pointers as to where to look.

 

The total draw is .068A. Any of the mentioned circuits cause it however. All of the mentioned circuits have to be disconnected for the draw to disappear too.

Battery goes dead in 1-2 days. I drove it on Wednesday for 2 hours, one in the morning and one in the evening. Parked the car at 5:45 PM, checked the battery which showed 12.5 volts. At 0630 the next morning the car wouldn't start. At 6 PM the next day (24 hours later total) the battery had only 10.00 volts on it. This has been a constant problem with the car since we've owned it and since the previous owner bought it in 96 at 40K miles.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

No change.

Yes.

Have NOT disconnected the EBCM. Was going to give that a shot today along with checking the tail lamp and tail light fuses (don't know how I missed those and went straight for the headlight switch).

This is where it gest dicey. How exactly should I measure the current draw at the device?? I can get to everything (I think) and unplug it, but how do I go about measuring draw?? Simply connect the multimeter in line between the positive and ground connection tabs?

Thanks for the help.

 

Measure the current draw exactly as before. Inline with the battery I assume. Then disconnect the suspect component like the EBCM and measure it again exactly as before.

Can you also tell me if the battery has been replaced and when and if the voltage across the battery has ever been measured with the engine running and if so, what was it?

Dave

 

68 mA is not enough to kill a healthy car battery in two days. Your problem is elsewhere.

 

The battery has been replaced (although it's suspect and going to be taken in for replacement tomorrow as I charged it off the car to 12.5 volts this morning and it's dropped to 11.74 as of about 4 hours later, but that still doesn't help the fact that something continues to drain the battery anyway). Voltage across the battery with the car running is approx 14.0 volts, directly corresponding with what the gauge in the dash shows.

If it's not a 0.068A draw killing the battery then what is?? The car has aparrently always had problems with staying charged for anything over a couple of days. How long should a .068A draw take to drain a battery to a point where it won't start the car??

Come to think of it.....what if.....

Say there's actually a much healthier draw coming from a component NOT de-energizing when the car gets shut off. But disconnecting the battery de-energizes the component. Once I put the DVM back in line with the battery, the only draw shown will be the .068A draw, and not what could be killing the battery. I need to find a local place that sells a parasitic draw test switch. That will at least tell me if there's a substantial draw with the battery still connected, and thus the componenet still energized.

 

You need to have the battery load tested. You needn't worry about the current draw for now. If you know the battery is good and you have the problem reoccur, you want to try this experiment. Using jumper wires, jump the battery directly to the starter. If it still won't crank, the starter is bad. My money is on the battery being defective.

 

Yeah, the battery is going back today. It went from 12.5 volts fully charged down to 11.5 volts as of yesterday evening without being hooked up to the car.

But, I think the battery went bad because of the power drain from the car. Too many times draining and recharging.

Oh well, tomorrow it's going to the shop.

 

Well any update ?????

 

Yup. It's outta my hands and in the shop. I'm sick of charging it every time I want to drive it and the multitude of power drains was a little much for my limited expertise.

 

Go Figure.

Shop called me yesterday. The man working on it intentionall left it sit for two days. He says "It fired right up, no problems. I took it out and around the block for a couple of times, bring it back and tested it. I got a .024a draw that after about 20 seconds dropped down to a .010a draw and stayed."



Something told me that was going to happen. As someone else put it, it's like a dog doing stupid tricks. Only when no one else is around.

I'm having him keep it for a couple more days just to be sure nothing "wiggles" around on it.

 

Has he load tested the battery and checked anything on the charging system?

 

You sure it's .068 and not .68 amps???

.068 is approximately the normal drain on the battery when the engine is off. It would take months to kill a healthy battery. .68 amps would be a little more than an interior light which would take about 2 days or so to kill it.

How did you measure the current draw? Did you use a multimeter between the negative terminal and the battery. If you measured it this way and you truely have a .068 draw, you have a battery problem. .068 isn't even 1/10 of an amp and would take a long time to kill the battery.

 

It sounds to me liek one of the cells in your battery is defective, and won't hold a charge. Good idea to take it in and get it replaced. Hopefully warranty will cover it.

ZMAN

 

LMAO, this just got better. The guy at the shop called me yesterday: "I intentionally left the car sit for two days. She fired right up with no problems. So I took her around the block, and brought it back into the shop and checked it at shutdown. You had a .024a draw which dipped down to a .010a draw after about 20 seconds and held."

Figures, like a dog doing stupid tricks. Won't do it for anyone but the owner.

He's keeping the car through about mid-day tomorrow, and if all is well I'm picking it back up.

Granted, it's on a brand new battery, but what are the odds of having two in a row with a fried cell (my last one and the one from the previous owner who had it for who knows how long)?? I'm still skeptical. We shall see though.