2G Parasitic Draw.. Please Help

[Sublime83]

Ok.. So my battery keeps dieing overnight..

I followed the guide located at http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art.../54846-diagnosing-electrical-power-drain.html ..

I hooked up a test light between the negative cable and the terminal, which caused the test light to illuminate. The doors were closed and I dont have hood light. When opening the drivers side door the light got brighter, which it should.

So I started pulling fuses with the doors closed in both the cab and under the hood. I pulled everysingle fuse from both boxes and the light stayed on the entire time.

I am not sure what to do now, after pulling every single fuse.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Chris.

 

[Avionixx]

I would "graduate" to using the multimeter, so you have a good idea of how big the draw actually is. I'm sure people have had luck with the test light, but if you have a draw in more than one circuit, pulling fuses may not reveal as much as it should.

 

[Sublime83]

Very true.. I'm going to go pick one up this weekend.

Pulling a fuse will never cause the meter to read a change unless that circuit is effected by draw? Is this correct?

Thanks,
Chris.

 

[Avionixx]

Bingo. Of course you'll still have some current draw from devices with keep alive memory (radio, ECU, etc), but with the DMM you'll know exactly how much you're drawing and if it's enough to drain your battery to death in a matter of days.

 

[luv2rallye]

Be careful - if the current draw exceeds that of the meter (typically 10 or 20 amps, it should say on it) you will damage the meter. My article has some more tips on what to do in your case: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...-partial-short-battery-drain.html#post1496998

 

[Defiant]

Best I can do on short notice.

 

[Atuca]

Best I can do on short notice.

Grats, exactly what i was thinking when I opened this thread. time for bed !

 

[DougR]

Does the car have any form of Alarm system? Or high powerd car audio equipment?
Have you done any electrical repair or mods?
How old is the battery?

 

[Jetrosr]

Normal draw will be between 15-25 mA (milliamps). If you disable the door switch, you can get inside and pull fuses in there too. DougR brings up and excellent point, try unhooking anything not original equipment first, sometimes they are wired in a way that makes it difficult to trace, especially alarms. Don't forget the little lego fuses/circuit breakers.

 

[Sublime83]

I dont have any high powered audio equipment or any form of security system. The car does have a turbo timer and a few aftermarket gauges..

Just a question before I start pulling fuses again with the meter.. Is it possible that I will never see a change in draw on the meter after pulling fuses?..

 

[sniver]

I had this problem a while ago and it turned out to be the ecu had a short that kept power to it. It was the weirdest thing the car would have all sorts of solenoids and relays clicking when it was dead. I also had poor luck with fuses...the mpi main fuse was the only way to completely stop the drain.

Good luck with it.

 

[Sublime83]

Well I am at a loss.. I just got finished pulling every fuse in both the cabin and in the engine compartment.. Still sucking juice.. What a pain in the ass.

Any suggestions at this point?

 

[Avionixx]

Well I am at a loss.. I just got finished pulling every fuse in both the cabin and in the engine compartment.. Still sucking juice.. What a pain in the ass.

Any suggestions at this point?

Was this with the multimeter or with the test light? You'll never get a 0 amp draw reading, just so you know.

 

[Sublime83]

Test light.

 

[luv2rallye]

Start out by disconnecting everything that is not stock (turbo timer, aftermarket gauges, etc.) to see if test light goes off. Then disconnect/undo any wiring changes that were done on the car.

When did you notice this drain? What was done to the car before you noticed the drain? Undo it if possible. Did you drill a hole anywhere that may have gone into a wiring harness?

Did you follow my article I mentioned? http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...-partial-short-battery-drain.html#post1496998.

Look under the engine fusebox (unbolt it with battery disconnected) to look for obvious wire shorts.

If all else fails you can start unplugging wire harnesses to isolate which harness the drain is in, especially around the fusebox and work your way out. You can also try disconnecting the fusebox to see if there is a drain in the wire going to it from the battery. Wire harnesses are shown in the "configuration diagrams" part of the manual. Get a wiring diagrams manual and w/o the test light in but battery connected, start measuring voltages on those wires and at the components they go to to check for irregularities (something between 0-12V, like 3V or 9V or 11V, etc) which indicate a problem there. Then without battery connected start measuring continuities (complete connections of near 0 ohms resistance) of those wires from one end to the other, and that there is no continuity (or very high resistance) from those wires to ground. If you find a suspected problem (short, etc) in the wire harness, you may have to unravel the harness to examine the wires. In that case start at each end since most shorts happen near the end connectors. But when examining the harness if you see a place where it has rubbed through against something, look there first.

 

[Sublime83]

Alright, some progress. I finally got a chance to use my multimeter and the first reading I got was 145.7 mA. So I did the process all over again as I previously did with the test light. I finally found the effected circuit. A 30A fuse in the engine bay labeled "Ignition Switch".. Pulling that fuse gives me a reading of 35mA.. Which is within the normal range if I remember correctly.

I am assuming that the 35mA was enough to keep the test light illuminated, which is why I couldn't get it to go off even after pulling ever single fuse.

So now that I have narrowed it down to that circuit where would be the best place to look for problems? I dont have any wiring diagrams and I am not fully aware of everything on that circuit.

Thanks,
Chris.

 

[Andy5]

I dont have any high powered audio equipment or any form of security system. The car does have a turbo timer and a few aftermarket gauges..

Just a question before I start pulling fuses again with the meter.. Is it possible that I will never see a change in draw on the meter after pulling fuses?..

My Turbo Timer used to drain my batt in my 2g.

 

[Avionixx]

Alright, some progress. I finally got a chance to use my multimeter and the first reading I got was 145.7 mA. So I did the process all over again as I previously did with the test light. I finally found the effected circuit. A 30A fuse in the engine bay labeled "Ignition Switch".. Pulling that fuse gives me a reading of 35mA.. Which is within the normal range if I remember correctly.

I am assuming that the 35mA was enough to keep the test light illuminated, which is why I couldn't get it to go off even after pulling ever single fuse.

So now that I have narrowed it down to that circuit where would be the best place to look for problems? I dont have any wiring diagrams and I am not fully aware of everything on that circuit.

Thanks,
Chris.

That fuse covers a lot of circuits! Did you try pulling any of the interior fuses? Here's a diagram from Alldata that shows all of the circuits branching off of that 30A fusible link.

 

[Sublime83]

Christ.. Well I had every fuse pulled inside the car and was still reading 145mA. I bought the car used so I really have no idea how the previous owner did all the wiring but taking a closer look at things like the turbo timer, its a serious hack job.

 

[Sublime83]

Does anyone have installation instructions for a Blitz turbo timer?

 

[Avionixx]

The Blitz website has some manuals, but I don't know if your model is covered. I think you've probably found your problem though; I mean I'd trust 13 year-old factory wiring and accessories over aftermarket accessories wired by someone with the electrical skills of a 13 year old.

 

[Sublime83]

Ok so I completely disabled the turbo timer and went to check the draw assuming that was the problem it was still pulling 140mA.

So I went back inside the car pulled every single fuse again and started putting them in one by one while my dad kept his eyes on the multimeter. Popped the sunroof fuse in and boom. Draw shot up to 140mA.

Im gonna check the switch in the headliner, but does anyone know where these wires come out under the dash?

 

[Sublime83]

So is it safe to say that I will find the problem somewhere between the sunroof switch and the fuse?

 

[Avionixx]

It's your best lead so far.

 

[Sublime83]

Electrical sucks