parasitic draw

ok so i have amps hooked up to relay. i have a draw from the amps when the car is off. huge spark when disconnecting neg bat cable. pulled main fuse on the power wire to my amps and when i disconnect the neg bat cable it still sparks but its itty bitty. i assume thats probably just the computer on my car cause i didnt wait 30 min. anyways why are my amps still sucking power and killing my battery when the car is off? i have checked the wiring on the relay. its fine. ill get a meter out in a few days and start checking stuff but i need to know what im looking for. shouldnt the relay tell the amps not to turn on? ask me anything else you need cause im at a loss.zombies will eat your brains if not decapitaded first

You need to quantify "parasitic draw". How many mA are you drawing? Stating that something sparks isn't scientific enough to determine if you have a problem. The sparking is most likely related to the caps in the amp(s) draining and quickly recharging. They'll spark at first but as soon as the caps charge back up (<1s) current will stop flowing. Are you having an issue with your vehicle?Kevin Pierson

well i cant quantifiy anything as of yet need to get meter. i will have it in a few days and post numbers. what do you need me to test? mA from relay? or what. and yeah im having problems. car died overnight wouldnt start. went and bought redtop. installed it drove for work. battery was dead again the next morning.all the amps are in audio turn on mode atm with rcas disconnected. i have a short in a speaker that im trying to find. i was attempting to find short old fashioned way by driving and having one plugged in at a time to figure out which one was screwed up and go from there( short only appears when i go over rough roads). thats another problem in itself and im confident i can find it. the dead battery over night boggles me though. as there is no spark when on neg term when main power wire is disconnected from amps( fuse pulled) dead battery is coming from my amps. you say the caps in my amp are dischargeing and recharging? i understand that but shouldnt they quit after awhile when car is off? let me know exactly what you want me to pull numbers from ( between what? ie bat to amp, and so on.) thankszombies will eat your brains if not decapitaded first

You typically wire the meter in series with the positive lead on the battery and measure current (mA). Anything over 50mA is too much. If it is dying overnight chances are you are well above that. You can measure the current with the amps connected and then disconnect them and see if the current draw drops to an acceptable level. The amps should stop pulling current when all the caps in the amp are fully charged. If you have a bad cap, or a bad amp, they can continuously charge.Kevin Pierson

Caps won't spark when disconnecting power - that will be something inductive. Even small relays will spark, but a HEAVY spark indicates more than a normal relay - maybe a bigger solenoid (relay coil) for a BIG relay for the amp.... A test lamp will indicate if there is voltage at the output of the relay... The relay should be off when de-energised. If not, you may have connected to the NC terminal (87a) if it exists, or the relay has failed (contacts fused etc). Else the relay is still on or you have some other connection. You may have to isolate various circuits/loads to determine what is drawing the current. BTW - switches don't tell Amps (current) to stop - they break (open) the circuit. Technically it becomes infinite impedance/resistance hence infinite voltage drop and zero current - but nothing tells electricity what to do - we merely ask very very politely.

gf is coming over tonight and bring my meter and test light back. so ill post more info tmw. its probably something dumb i did, and ill shoot myself when i find it:). and yes old i know how polls for switches work. i was just using layman terms cause thats how i speak. i have a basic understanding of electricity( i took 3 years of carpentry welding and apartment maintanence) obviously i cant spell sometimes though. but que sera this is how we learn. well atleast it is for me. i screw up and then dont make the same mistake again:) like i said though ill post more tmw thanks guys. u guys are prozombies will eat your brains if not decapitaded first

It's an incidental issue for those in the know - I say/write similar things too. But some do think that way - not so much switch operation, but like "boosting current" for alternators (it doesn't - it merely maintains voltage), or "robbing current" from parallel branches... neither of which are good examples nor convey what I mean! Maybe "... an alternators excess power..."? It can make such a big difference realising what actually happens, and give greater insight when viewed differently. But misconstruing usually leads to huge complications and undue cost & stress.... that's what I try to prevent. Not that it matters in this case.... BTW - I have also had a few dumb parasitics. Sometimes though I will be clever finding them. Sometimes.