normal power drain, bad battery, both? room lamp circuit

[1Gina2G]

okay to start off I've already checked out all the older 'room lamp fuse' threads and they did provide some tips but what's unclear is how much is a normal power draw (for the ECU / radio) supposed to be? What's the most accurate measurement setting on the multi-meter? volts or mA?

So the battery itself is an autocraft, fairly big battery the 'gold' model or w/e but it took me a while to find out that company makes cheap tools and such, but if the battery sat (properly stored) for more then 4-6 days chances are you would have to charge the battery even though voltage is at 11.80+/-
after going for some drives the battery would be charged and knowing there was a drain, I checked to see normal voltage, unhooked the battery completley and set it aside to be monitored. battery voltage droped to and stayed at 12.26V for the next few days, but still needed a jump start for some reason. after attempting to start battery would read 11.8V+/- after reading normal voltage right after the wires are connected correctly - postive first, grounds second, removal is reverse.

The alternator appears to be doing just fine, upon intial startup, battery reads 14.5V, with full electrical load ON (everything basically) battery goes to 14.2-14.3, ocasionally dropping as low as 14.1V, but after a good drive, with everything on, it will be steady 14.3, and back to 14.4-14.5 with everything off.
Factory alternator wires and an added ground wire.

So I just bought a new test light, tested it on a small 9V battery first, lit fairly bright, then on the main posts of the battery for a sec, pretty bright! Okay so all the postive wires were kept tight on the post, and with the negative wires removed, I hooked the clip to the negtive post and probed each individual ground wire and there was a fairly bright drain - looked almost exactly like the 9V battery test compared to direct battery posts

went through all the fuses in the engine bay, and with just the room lamp fuse at the bottom, the bright light went out but there is STILL a really dim light on the test light that appears with any/all ground wires seperately. So far I have only went through the fuses in the engine bay, not in cabin - but I've noticed that with the alternator wires removed from the positive post, with the main postive feed connected, that the light goes away.

I didn't think such a dim light would drain as much as 3-6 volts overnight, after a fresh long drive at night, with NOTHING on after turning off, along with removing the ROOM LAMP fuse right after turning off.

Apparently alot of people have power drains from the ETAC, not sure where this is located, or how to unplug this, or if it is supposed to have normal drain at all. Someone also mentioned checking the light sockets? does anybody know how many there is in a 2G?

thanks in advance...just looking to figure this thing out so I don't fry my ECU with a bunch of jump starts..

 

[1Gina2G]

Okay so now the battery is really starting to die out, and not able to hold a full charge after a drive with the car. So I'm going to replace this in the next cupple of days.

How do I measure if the drain from the room lamp fuse is too much, or normal?

-OKAY - soafter testing it turns out to be the afterarket radio i have that came with the car, tried different grounds, but keeps draining through the room lamp so i have it disconnected (the radio).

just hoping the micro drain Im seeing is normal, the very very dim light on the test light, if someone could clarify this.

 

[1Gina2G]

it ended up being a combination of a bad battery, along with a small power draw with an aftermarket radio hooked up (correctly) have not tested if the drain is in the wiring or the radio itself but problem solved.