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.

 

[luv2rallye]

The only thing on the sunroof fuse is the sunroof ECU. Disconnect it to see if still have draw (it's up in the liner near the sunroof switch, 10 pin connector). If you do then someone wired in something else to that fuse (like gauges or TT for example).

BTW a test light draws way more than 35mA unless you're using a LED which you should never use for this very reason (my article mentions this).

 

[Sublime83]

Alright I'll check that out. Thank you.

Ok well I finally got rid of the parasitic drain. Turns out it was some wires in the headliner. My sunroof drains were plugged last spring and I did end up getting water backing up in there.. Guess it messed things up. I also found another drain that was related to my EGT gauge. Not sure why it was drawing power though.

I took it out of the car and rewired it and for whatever reason it was still drawing power with the car off.. Something to do with the module I guess?

One quick question. I noticed that my alternator choke fuse is blown. This is a blue fuse in the engine compartment. Would this be the reason why I have no interior lights and my power windows/door locks are not working?

Cheers.

 

[spydaski]

k, Ive had this dreaded problem for about 9 months now, but my car has been in the garage for most of it and now its time to fix the problem. I am on my 3rd battery, just bought a new red top and im ready to tackle this problem, but so far no luck. Im using my multimeter and have gone through about 80% of the fuses so far and im still reading 12.33v. Im gonna get back out there and finish later but is that still a really high reading? Anyone know what it might be if the fuses have no success. The only things that have been installed prior to the problem was an aem ems and a viper alarm but the alarm is disconnected because I thought that was the problem originally. Gonna try and tackle the ems later also.

edit* ok, so i just realized i was reading the wrong thing on my mulitmeter, gonna head back out and try again on the right reading.

 

[asexton6969]

You should have one of the terminals disconnected and using the leads complete the circuit. The dmm should be on amps. Then start pulling fuses. All you were doing is reading the voltage of the battery.

 

[Ghostcrafter]

I've got a similar issue going on right now on a '92 Talon TSi AWD. Disturbingly enough there is something not far from the battery that makes a clicking/cyclic sound, even when the battery is disconnected.

Any ideas?

I've got a brand new high-end battery and alternator installed.

 

[red94gsx]

Ghost, the clicking noise is probably a relay, but it shouldn't be clicking when your battery is disconnected.

One quick question. I noticed that my alternator choke fuse is blown. This is a blue fuse in the engine compartment. Would this be the reason why I have no interior lights and my power windows/door locks are not working?

The interior lights on my car stopped coming on because the door switch was dead (1G).

Electrical is pretty much the worst.

 

[Ghostcrafter]

Going to go through a full parasitic hunt tonight, hopefully something will come up. I hate electrical (at least in the automotive sense). I'd rather have to rebuild my engine and trans, then mess with the electrical. However, it seems I'm stuck doing it since the bozo who had this before me did some major hack work on this thing. I've only had the car about a week. It needs a LOT of attention.

Now why I've got a relay active when there should be no power anywhere in the system ... is beyond me.

 

[luv2rallye]

Now why I've got a relay active when there should be no power anywhere in the system ... is beyond me.

Do you have both negative battery cables disconnected from the post?
Does the relay clicking sound continue after the battery is disconnected for just a second, or 30 seconds, or indefinately, or ???
Does it actually sound like a relay or ???
Put a long screwdriver on objects with the other end against your ear to find the source.

 

[Ghostcrafter]

I've got both cables bolted to a new terminal (the old ones were chewed up), and the sound persists after the terminal is removed. The sound seems to occur occasionally even when the terminal has been off for a few minutes. It sounds similar to a relay, but I'm not sold 100% sold on it. Going to try the screwdriver trick tonight.

So far the theory we have is that the capacitors in the computer are sucking up and holding a charge. Wouldn't surprise me, since it's the original (118,000 miles).

 

[luv2rallye]

ECU caps normally aren't large enough to drive a relay minutes later but anything possible with bad caps so try umplugging it. Do you have any large caps for a stereo amp?

 

[Ghostcrafter]

Well, it looks like the battery may have just not gotten enough of a charge after the new alternator went in. The alternator is now at a full 14volts since the brushes have seated. And ... hooked up a test light, and it didn't light up, at all. Proceeded to hook up a multimeter and detected no draw at all.

I'll know more when I go to start it tomorrow.