Vandit

Help me out, for some reason my car killed its battery the other day after being parked for a little under a week.

I recharged it completely using a battery charger on Weds., then turned it on, let it idle a bit, and shut it off. Tonight (Friday), I went to see if it would crank and sure enough, dead battery. Not as dead as the last time, but dead enough to not even crank the car.

The car has an Optima Yellowtop battery w/ an 08/09 sticker, so i'm assuming that means it is only a 2-3 year old battery.

I have left the car parked for over a week in the past (owned the car since March of this year) and it has always been fine.

After I recharged it on Weds, I bought a volt meter and tested the numbers per the Adrian Streather PDF (*link*). The mAh reading when parked/unlocked/turned off/no dome light on/etc. was within the range I think. With the car idling, the battery voltage was in the lower 13v range (stayed consistent even with headlights on) and with the car off it was in the 12v range. So it doesn't seem like a charging problem, especially since it died again while parked for a couple of days, not being driven.

I just did the current draw test again, just to confirm what I tested on Weds. I'm new to volt meters, so here are a couple of pics to show you the results, in case i'm misinterpreting what the meter is telling me.





These measurement were taken with the car unlocked, trunk open, but the plunger depressed (i.e. no lights on). I've also verified that closing the trunk causes the lights to go off.

I'm recharging the battery again and will take it to my local Vatozone tomorrow for an official battery test.

Are Optima batteries known to die out so suddenly like this? It's not completely dead since it still has a voltage and will accept charge, but it seems like it can't hold charge at all, unless the car does some type of current draw that i'm not identifying. Hmm...

Rocket Rob

Normal current draw is 40-60 milliamps. My car draws around 50 ma.

The way I'm reading your pictures, its either 17 ma which is lower than I would expect or its 17 amps which would be too high. Not sure either makes sense. What mode in your multi-meter in?

Laker

Mine draws 30ma

Henry964

I got tired of my battery troubles, I´m on my third battery in 4 years of ownership and two different mechanics couldn´t find anything wrong ....
So I installed a battery cut-off switch and now every time my car is parked for more than one day the battery is disconnected from the car...end of troubles and I am now a happy owner
The only problem is putting the clock back on correct time and re-doing the radio memories,but that takes only two minutes at the most
I fully recommend this solution

Jim Richards

I just repaired my CCU (replaced transistor T1) to get the battery draw where it should be. I used to have a flat battery after a couple of days if I didn't keep it on a tender.

Vandit, I think your current draw is OK.

Vandit

I feel fairly confident it is 17mAh. If I let the trunk plunger go, turning on the trunk light and interior dome light, the draw goes up significantly (~2amps).

My only concern is that this is some type of draw that stops immediately after unplugging the battery. I need to see if I can devise a way to never open the circuit when setting up to test the draw. Ideas?

Jim Richards

Excellent point! I used a clamp-on DC ammeter (SEARS sells them) to measure the current draw without breaking any circuits by disconnecting the battery. This is the best way to monitor the current draw. You just clamp the meter around the battery leads.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...u=03482369000P

Vandit

UPDATE:

I took the battery to Autozone, they tested it and said it was a good battery. Hmmph...

So, I did the test again, this time w/o breaking the circuit. I haven't bought the tool Jim recommended, but was able to do the test with the volt meter I already had.

I turned the car on for a bit, then turned it off. I loosened the positive terminal (but did not remove), then I placed one meter contract on the positive terminal and one meter contract on the battery post. I then slowly removed the terminal while constantly maintaining contact on the terminal and post w/ the meter contacts.

The result


If I break the circuit and try it again, I get the reasonable results I posted earlier in the thread. I need to turn the ignition on and off in order for the drain to restart.

I can't use my method to troubleshoot w/o extra hands helping me, so looks like a trip to Sears to buy the clamp-on meter is in order. With the new meter I can start removing fuses and hopefully find the cause.

Jim, what fuse is CCU-related? I wouldn't be surprised if my car haa a similar issue.

Jim Richards

Fuse 17, I think. But the fuse doesn't kill everything in the CCU. You have to pull the unit out of your dash and disconnect the two long connectors on the back of the unit. When I did that, the current dropped to a normal level. BTW, your 231 mA looks more like what I was seeing before the repair.

Vandit

Alright, I think i've found the culprit. Fuse #4, window regulators. Upon further inspection, my pass. side window switch is loose/broken. Pulling the #4 fuse immediately dropped the current draw from 200+ mAh to 25mAh.

Unfortunately, in messing with the switches troubleshooting, I partially lowered the pass. side and now it won't go back up.

If I disconnect/remove the pass. side switch, will the pass. window work with the driver's side switch?

Vandit

Answered my own question, the answer is "no". I guess they're wired in series so if one switch is out, neither switch works.

What I did to close the window was take the driver's side driver's window switch and temporarily place it in place of the broken pass. side pass. window switch, which allowed me to close the pass. window.

dfinnegan

No. you need two good switches for the pass window.

Use the drivers side as a temp to get the pass up, them swap out back

Richard Curtis

If the passenger side window won't raise using EITHER switch (driver's door or passenger door), then it probably isn't a switch problem.

remove the passenger side door panel and using a test light, test for 12v at the window motor. If power, then the motor is suspect. If this IS the case, try tapping the electric motor with a wrench or hammer (lightly!); you might find then that the window goes up. If so, replace the motor.

If you don't have 12v at the motor, suspect a switch upstream.

Vandit

Alright, bad news just when I thought I had it all under control.

I removed the broken switch, repaired it, and reinstalled it, all window switches now work and the windows work properly, but the drain still persists.

I then removed ALL 3 window switches, retested w/ no switches install, and the drain still persists.

I know for a fact the drain relates to the power windows since when I pull Fuse #4, for the power windows, while performing the test, the drain immediately drops from the elevated ~230mAh to the normal ~17mAh.

I'm lost right now with how/where to proceed next in order to identify this problem.

tasracer

It's the power cutoff from the door switch

When u turn off car the power stays on until u open door... It's a German car thing

It's broken hence power stays on and drain battery

Took me over a year to figure out