Anyone have a list of things to check for battery drain?

I pulled each fuse last night hoping to find a small current across the circuit with an ampmeter - no luck, except for the clock and stereo booster - very small current.

my (new) battery runs down in about 10 days... doh!

Thanks

 

What is your current draw? It should be about 40-50 milliamps. Did you remember the fuses in the engine compartment? If the current draw stays the same with all of the fuses removed, then the problem is related to a device connected directly to the battery without a fuse. There are not too many of these (battery, starter, alternator).

 

Checked the fuses in the rear...

How do you check the 50 miiliamp draw?

 

Sorry for last post - got it here...

http://www.pcarworkshop.com/images/0...994_620294.pdf

 

A couple threads as reference

https://rennlist.com/forums/964-foru...rent-draw.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/964-foru...all-fuses.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/964-foru...g-battery.html

 

10 days is really not that bad for the battery running down on these cars without a tender.

 

My battery drain was caused by a faulty bonnet light switch. The bonnet (hood) and engine lid lights were permanently on. Difficult to see but would drain the battery when left.

 

My alarm and tracker will flat my batt in under a week.
Trickle charger is the way forward.

 

It is not terrible, but I have gone four weeks and still started. It was a little weaker than normal, but it fired right up. I recall my stand-by draw is around 25 mA. It was over 100 mA and no-start in a week until I found the leak in the spoiler module.

My boat once started after sitting five winter months with no charging. That is how things should be but never will be again. All new cars seem to require standby draw from the battery.

 

Probably one in a million but the metal bracket that the front bonnet switch presses against to close was bent on my car. When I went through the checks, I would close the switch by hand and the current dropped. I assumed that when the hood was closing the switch was closing too but it was not. I bent the metal piece back into place so that the switch hits it again and everything has been fine since.

 

Checked the drain last night...

(BTW dont start with a 200mA fused ampmeter when you have a 300+mA drain, or you will be delayed by a trip for a new fuse or meter.)

Also - the stereo booster apparantly is a some sort of capacitor - it starts the charge at about an amp them drops off. Pull this fuse first.

Found the culprit - an aftermarket GPS antitheft? tracker "teletrack" 5A fuse that was drawing about 300 mA.

Now for the fun part......

Does the trunk (front) light always come on with the interior light? Mine does - even with the trunk latch switch disabled!

Apparently there is some glitch with the lights... the drivers door switch does not work - open the passenger door & both lights come on - cycle the ignition and they go out. Sometimes they go off after the 20 sec delay, sometimes they dont.

But if you have the interion light in the off position and the drivers door is opened... the trunk light is on and you dont know it... doh!

more to come...