1G Freakin parasitic draw.

[gusu]

So going to pick my GF up from work yesterday I had something short out. I could tell from the smoke and electrical burning smell when I stopped at a light. But unfortunately it stopped smoking before I could figure out what wire it was.

Anyway, the smoke was coming from the left side of the engine bay. It leads me to believe it may be one of the wires to my boost gauge. The damn thing never worked properly to begin with. The amber light is the only one that comes on, other than the boost gauge not having the white light come on (Prosport gauge) I have not noticed anything not working properly.

But whats odd is yesterday, I was driving to get something to eat and all the sudden when slowing down (coasting) to turn in my car died. When I went to start it it would sound like a drained battery, but the lights and everything else weren't dim or anything even with my fogs or high beams on they looked normal.

After fiddling with it for a few minutes and knowing it was probably dead from the short which I couldn't find I just got it jumped. I drove it around for about half an hour to charge the battery back up and trying to see if the short would start smoking again or at least smell like burned shit so I could at least sniff it out, but no luck.

I go to start it today and it's dead again.

I cleaned the terminals just to ensure a good connection, tightened everything up, followed all the wires from my battery to wherever they go but couldn't find any signs of electrical burning. My ONLY guess is since my boost gauge is over there it must be the problem. But yet it works, however the white light isn't coming on. The only other wires that run along there that aren't OEM are my wideband which IS working and has never given me problems.

Any ideas of what wires are on that side of the car? I also have to go get the battery charged and get a multi-meter today.

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Got a multi-meter. Anyone know how to use it to test for parasitic draw?








*Yet another edit* I went out and disconnected my battery. I then put my multi-meter on 10 amps with the positive plugged into the 10amp fused (I think that's what it says either way it was the one on the left) and the negative into the com just like you are supposed to. I put the positve on the battery terminal (that was disconnected at that point) and the negative on the post. At that point I read .1 to .2 amps with nothing on, just to make sure I was getting correct readings since that does not indicate draw, I turned on the dome light which made the reading jump up to 1.26 amps which is a bit high (should draw around .89-.92 typically from what I read) but still with in a reasonable range.

Any idea wtf is going on? I'm going to let it sit for a day and then see if it is still fully charged.

 

[SpeedMetal]

one of those red terminal on that meter is for measure current. Attach your red lead to it and leave the black on the ground terminal. disconnect the ground terminal from the battery and fix it to one of the test leads, doesnt matter which one. fix the other to ground. this will effectivly measure the current draw at any given moment ie: ignition off, on , doesnt matter.

So start taking readings from the meter in DC current mode, you really shouldnt have any current draw at all. But if you do, start pulling fuses out one at a time, under the hood or under the dash. When you see the current draw go away, your in the neighborhood of where the problem might be. Stereo amps or any other added/fused devices should be factored into the fuse pulling equation

Good luck!

think i explained that wrong,.

put either lead on the ground terminal of the battery, and the other lead to ground.

just read your edit,.. sounds like you got your readings. now try pulling fuses till you stop the .1/.2 current draw

 

[gusu]

one of those red terminal on that meter is for measure current. Attach your red lead to it and leave the black on the ground terminal. disconnect the ground terminal from the battery and fix it to one of the test leads, doesnt matter which one. fix the other to ground. this will effectivly measure the current draw at any given moment ie: ignition off, on , doesnt matter.

So start taking readings from the meter in DC current mode, you really shouldnt have any current draw at all. But if you do, start pulling fuses out one at a time, under the hood or under the dash. When you see the current draw go away, your in the neighborhood of where the problem might be. Stereo amps or any other added/fused devices should be factored into the fuse pulling equation

Good luck!

think i explained that wrong,.

put either lead on the ground terminal of the battery, and the other lead to ground.

just read your edit,.. sounds like you got your readings. now try pulling fuses till you stop the .1/.2 current draw

I thought the .3-.4 was normal as your radio and alarm systems draw about that much to store settings. Was I wrong on that?

 

[SpeedMetal]

i've never really "amped" my car out, but in my opinion,... 3/10ths of an amp could ~maybe drain your battery over time. but not really over night. Got a load tester for the battery?

 

[gusu]

i've never really "amped" my car out, but in my opinion,... 3/10ths of an amp could ~maybe drain your battery over time. but not really over night. Got a load tester for the battery?

No I don't, but I think I might try to see if I can use my friend's. He is a technician for Ford and his multi-meter is pretty bad ass. It also works as a battery tester but the damn thing costs like 430 dollars or I would have spent extra to get one of those.