burn_your_money
01-04-2005, 08:50 PM
Juice keep draining out of your battery? Try this procedure, compliments of Charles R (thanks Charles ):
OK, before going out and spending money on random guesses, let's see if we can teach you how to locate the source of a problem.
From what it sounds like, the drain is less than 10amps. More than this tends to blow fuses. The battery would also discharge much quicker. You need to find out how much amperage the drain is, and what circuit it's on.
Electrical troubleshooting starts with a volt/multimeter. Don't have one? Get one. A fairly cheap one should work for this case. But a good meter is very handy. Get one that also does "duty cycle" and you can adjust your air/fuel ratio too.
The battery should be charged, but leave the cars' ignition off.
Set the meter up so it'll read up to 10 amps. Many meters have two places to put the red lead, one for up to 10 amps and one for up to .1 amp. Don't mix them up. disconnect the positive lead from the battery. Now, connect the red lead to the battery post (just needs constant contact, a friend can hold this) and the meters' black lead to the positive cable. All current(amps) the car is drawing can now be read by the meter.
The current should be almost zero. With the car off, the normal drains would be an alarm, a fancy radio or a clock. Even with all these, normal draw would be less than .1 amps
Your car is probably drawing more. To find out what circuit the draw is on, pull the fuses. Do it one at a time, and pay attention to the draw reading. When you pull the "right" fuse the draw will drop to minimal. (again, a helper to watch the meter and hold the leads is very nice) A couple circuits in the car don't have fuses, the starter is one of them.
Once you've determined the circuit, put the fuse back in place and locate the components on that circuit (bentley wiring diagrams help). Just like you did with the fuse, go component to component and unplug them. Again, the amp draw will diminish when the component is removed(by disconnecting) from the circuit. (very few circuits are wired like cheap X-mas lights, where removing one bulb kills the whole circuit. But it is something to keep in mind).
By now, something should have made itself noticed. You can now purchase parts with a confidence that it will solve the problem, rather than just a "hope" that it will.
OK, before going out and spending money on random guesses, let's see if we can teach you how to locate the source of a problem.
From what it sounds like, the drain is less than 10amps. More than this tends to blow fuses. The battery would also discharge much quicker. You need to find out how much amperage the drain is, and what circuit it's on.
Electrical troubleshooting starts with a volt/multimeter. Don't have one? Get one. A fairly cheap one should work for this case. But a good meter is very handy. Get one that also does "duty cycle" and you can adjust your air/fuel ratio too.
The battery should be charged, but leave the cars' ignition off.
Set the meter up so it'll read up to 10 amps. Many meters have two places to put the red lead, one for up to 10 amps and one for up to .1 amp. Don't mix them up. disconnect the positive lead from the battery. Now, connect the red lead to the battery post (just needs constant contact, a friend can hold this) and the meters' black lead to the positive cable. All current(amps) the car is drawing can now be read by the meter.
The current should be almost zero. With the car off, the normal drains would be an alarm, a fancy radio or a clock. Even with all these, normal draw would be less than .1 amps
Your car is probably drawing more. To find out what circuit the draw is on, pull the fuses. Do it one at a time, and pay attention to the draw reading. When you pull the "right" fuse the draw will drop to minimal. (again, a helper to watch the meter and hold the leads is very nice) A couple circuits in the car don't have fuses, the starter is one of them.
Once you've determined the circuit, put the fuse back in place and locate the components on that circuit (bentley wiring diagrams help). Just like you did with the fuse, go component to component and unplug them. Again, the amp draw will diminish when the component is removed(by disconnecting) from the circuit. (very few circuits are wired like cheap X-mas lights, where removing one bulb kills the whole circuit. But it is something to keep in mind).
By now, something should have made itself noticed. You can now purchase parts with a confidence that it will solve the problem, rather than just a "hope" that it will.