having battery drain issues
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Security and Convenience
Forum Discription: Car Alarms, Keyless Entries, Remote Starters, Immobilizer Bypasses, Sensors, Door Locks, Window Modules, Heated Mirrors, Heated Seats, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=68661
Printed Date: May 02, 2024 at 4:24 PM
Topic: having battery drain issues
Posted By: SilvaStratus
Subject: having battery drain issues
Date Posted: December 18, 2005 at 6:08 PM
i'm having some annoying battery drain problems that are now driving me crazy....what happens is after 2 days of sitting with a fully charged battery, the car wont start
i have a BRAND NEW optima yellow top out of the ceran wrap...trunk mounted....0awg all the way to the front....stinger gold professional terminals...battery tested good at a mechanic
my parents brought it to our trusted local mechanic while i was at college and they said they traced it to the ignition harness so they replaced the ignition switch....it still drains
im curious if it is my alarm because i have much of it tapped into the ignition harness for power...the relays are getting power from a direct line from the battery tho....i have an FM 2-way alarm by the way
i did a small test to see if it was the brain by pulling the fuse for the power to the brain before i left....my parents say its dead again
i have remote underglow by relay....remote trunk pop by relay....the door locks operate by relay off power provided by the brain....the dome light feature uses a relay aswell...i believe i have a relay for starter kill....and a final relay for ignition3
im curious if its these relays...do they draw constant power when they sit off...im not entirely sure how relays work but to me it seems like when i connect the power to them, the switch pops into a neutral position...does that drain power?
the fuses for the relays are really hard to reach so thats my next test...there is a fuse on each relay and most of them are tapped into a 12awg line coming from the car's jump start post
other people have said to trace the battery drain with my multimeter but i dont even know where to begin
HELP!!!! i have to take my car back to college with me in january so i need to fix this.....
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Drive it like you stole it..
Replies:
Posted By: fingaz22
Date Posted: December 18, 2005 at 6:55 PM
well what you need to do is get a multi meter as suggested with an amp setting on it .set it to ma and connect one probe to the pos. terminal of battery and the other to the pos. cable that goes to the battery. make sure nothing is on in the car the doors are shut and nothing like the hood light is on, when you do this (it could damage the meter)and will not let you get a proper reading. you will have some draw on the battery because of the computer and some door lock modules. but anything over 2 miili amps of draw is going to kill the battery. so you take the reading and you start the trail and error part, you will need to start at the fuses and suspected curcuits that may be the problem by disconnecting them and any relays. one by one taking a reading after everyone and when taking the reading make sure everything is off, doors shut , hood lamp off everything ever time. a helper will come in handy in this job. when the high reading drops you have found a draw and if it dont go all the way down to the aloud draw of the car, then you have more than one and the search goes on. it all time and patience good luck. let us know what happens ------------- JUST ONE MORE AMP!!!
hu,alpine cva 1005/dva 5205
sound processor,symmetry(first one).
sub amp,power 1000 the terminator.(1992).
subs,spl comp dual 1 ohms.
punch 150hd on a 10" ev.
alotofhighs
Posted By: dualsport
Date Posted: December 18, 2005 at 6:59 PM
Sounds like you may have the relays wired in reverse, using the normally open contacts as the default position. If you do that, the relay coils are energized and will draw a fair amount of power; if you have a bunch of them wired up this way, that can cause your excessive battery drain problem. If the relays click when you connect and disconnect the line that you tapped off from to power the relays, while the car is off and in standby mode, that's an indication you're using them backwards. Since you said they click when you connect power to them, I'd guess that's what the problem is. You may need to redo the wiring setup for the relays if that's the case-
Posted By: fingaz22
Date Posted: December 18, 2005 at 7:06 PM
i just reread and didn't understand the first time. dual sport is right and you should start there (SUSPECTED CURCUITS)with the advise i gave you. hey dual sport i lost track of that other topic did he ever get back on that issue. did he get a new unit?thankx for pointing that out also you probly save him some time. ------------- JUST ONE MORE AMP!!!
hu,alpine cva 1005/dva 5205
sound processor,symmetry(first one).
sub amp,power 1000 the terminator.(1992).
subs,spl comp dual 1 ohms.
punch 150hd on a 10" ev.
alotofhighs
Posted By: dualsport
Date Posted: December 18, 2005 at 7:07 PM
If the drain is able to take down an Optima battery in just two days, you can just use a small test light to check for the current drain- Connect one side of the test light to the battery terminal, and the other side to the battery post, then disconnect the terminal from the post, so the light is now in series with the battery. With the kind of drain you're probably having, the light will glow visibly- at that point, start disconnecting things as fingaz suggested, and continue until the light goes out- I'd start by just unplugging all the relays from the sockets, since that'll remove the draw from both the relay coil and the things you're controlling with them.
Posted By: dualsport
Date Posted: December 18, 2005 at 7:09 PM
fingazz, haven't heard yet if he's got a new unit yet; hopefully he finds something reliable!
Posted By: fingaz22
Date Posted: December 18, 2005 at 7:12 PM
ya i always like doing it right the first time myself. it just saves time and money in the long run evrytime. keep it wired. later ------------- JUST ONE MORE AMP!!!
hu,alpine cva 1005/dva 5205
sound processor,symmetry(first one).
sub amp,power 1000 the terminator.(1992).
subs,spl comp dual 1 ohms.
punch 150hd on a 10" ev.
alotofhighs
Posted By: SilvaStratus
Date Posted: December 19, 2005 at 12:07 AM
i do have diagrams of how i wired all my relays if you guys want to take a look....let me host the images somewhere real quick...
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Drive it like you stole it..
Posted By: SilvaStratus
Date Posted: December 19, 2005 at 12:30 AM
https://community.webshots.com/album/525440541MmppPu there are all but the doorlocks courtesy of webshots.. also, what setting do i use on this multimeter...im assuming it will be under "DC A" for amps....here are the options i have 200u 2000u 20m 200m 2000m thanks for all the help so far!! ------------- Drive it like you stole it..
Posted By: dualsport
Date Posted: December 19, 2005 at 12:46 AM
Those relay diagrams look okay, so unless one of the control outputs are faulty or you have a bad relay, it shouldn't cause any power off drain.
Always start with the highest setting on your meter, and if it reads close to zero, you can start going down the scale for better resolution. The 2000m would be the 2A setting, which is the highest of the bunch, so start with that, and go from there. If you get an overrange indication with a "1 -" or something like that, go back up a range and work with that setting.
Most meters have a separate high current jack for 10 or 20A range, but they're usually unfused, so it could be a bit riskier if you accidentally tap in between power and ground. If your drain is above 2A, you may have to go with the high current jack, or just use a test light. Use a small instrument bulb to make a test light if you don't have one-
Posted By: SilvaStratus
Date Posted: December 22, 2005 at 4:44 PM
ok....i did these tests on my car with the meter on the 10A setting and the red cable in the unfused socket the initial drain of everything read .38 when we started...not sure what units thats in when i pulled the IGN Fuel Starter fuse, it dropped to .25 when i pulled the Stop LPS INT LPS fuse it dropped to .27 now from time to time the overall drain would jump between .38 and .48 and the readings would rise .1 accordingly so the drain is still the same....i think the meter might have gotten fried towards the end cuz it was reading 19V on my battery when my autometer voltmeter was reading 12V ------------- Drive it like you stole it..
Posted By: dualsport
Date Posted: December 22, 2005 at 5:38 PM
Assuming you had the meter's switch in the right position for the 10A input jack that would be a reading in amps, so the 0.38 you measured is 380 mA, similar to having an instrument panel lighting bulb turned on. Not a huge amount, but it's still too much.
While usually the goal is to keep it more around 20 mA, I would have expected your drain to be even higher than the 380mA if it drained your battery in only two days.
Do you still hear the relays clicking when you connect and disconnect them? If you can get to them, maybe try pulling all the relays you added out from the sockets to see if it drops the drain.
Though it may be harder than just pulling the fuse, if you pull out the whole relay, it opens all possible drain paths through the relay coils and also the contacts, so you can be sure it's not the cause.
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