average f-body LS1 battery draw or drain when car off
06-14-2011, 08:55 PM
#1
average f-body LS1 battery draw or drain when car off measured via ammeter is 8.45 milliamps on my 2002 camaro with around 50k miles.
had battery on charger for last couple days, and battery sat all day today in the car connected and not on the charger so there should be no surface charge left. measured voltage across battery posts tonight with it connected in car and had 12.65 volts, air temp was around 70F in garage. Then connected multimeter from battery positive post with one lead and other lead to remote positive post on driver's side, then disconnected main positive battery cable. Got 8.45 milliamps which varied between 8.40 and would briefly jump to 8.80 mA, but over a minute stayed pretty much at 8.4x mA. This is only with hood open, everything else off, alarm not on.
so for everyone with electrical problems, I would say you should have less than a 10 milliamp draw on the battery when the car sits. And if you have over 20 mA then you may have problems. Over 100mA you definitely have a problem somewhere.
FYI when you go to measure battery draw, you need to have the main battery cable or some other lead connecting the battery first before connecting your ammeter leads in series to avoid the initial high current draw when initially connecting the battery, this will usually blow the fuse in your multimeter when you have it set on milliamps and they're usually limited to 300mA max at that measurement scale.
had battery on charger for last couple days, and battery sat all day today in the car connected and not on the charger so there should be no surface charge left. measured voltage across battery posts tonight with it connected in car and had 12.65 volts, air temp was around 70F in garage. Then connected multimeter from battery positive post with one lead and other lead to remote positive post on driver's side, then disconnected main positive battery cable. Got 8.45 milliamps which varied between 8.40 and would briefly jump to 8.80 mA, but over a minute stayed pretty much at 8.4x mA. This is only with hood open, everything else off, alarm not on.
so for everyone with electrical problems, I would say you should have less than a 10 milliamp draw on the battery when the car sits. And if you have over 20 mA then you may have problems. Over 100mA you definitely have a problem somewhere.
FYI when you go to measure battery draw, you need to have the main battery cable or some other lead connecting the battery first before connecting your ammeter leads in series to avoid the initial high current draw when initially connecting the battery, this will usually blow the fuse in your multimeter when you have it set on milliamps and they're usually limited to 300mA max at that measurement scale.
