What's the normal drain on a battery when the car is just sitting there with nothing on. I'm showing 25-30ma and was wondering if that's within the normal range. I am having some pretty big battery issues and I'm trying to figure this thing out. Thanks.

 

Anyone???

 

25-30mA sounds about normal to me. You actually might have better luck with this in the stereo section. That's where I went when I had problems.

 

Well, actually, that might be a bit high, but not unreasonable. If I remember, mine draws about 12-15 mA when it finally settles down (it'll spike initially up to an amp when you first take the reading).

 

just left mine for a month, started first time no problems.

The manual says to disconnect the battery and put on a trickle charge... good one.

 

Ok, well I've disconected some random wiring and it's down to about 10-15ma. I guess that was what was keeping some of the draw. I wouldn't think that an extra 15ma would kill a battery in 24 hours.

There's still something kind of wierd going on, and it may be normal. Still trying to figure it out.

 

Ideally you want it around 25-30 mA.......there is some magical formula that you use based of the amp-hour rating of the battery to find the spec. Typcially, you would like to see the number below 20.....however, good luck finding that. Aftermarket stuff is the typical cause.

It can also take some time for stuff to shut down all the way. A 2003 Corvette I had today took 25 mintues to shut coimpletely down. It sat around 150-150 mA, then dropped to 17 mA.

 

When I have my garage here in a few months, mine will be on a Battery Tender while I'm not driving it. I've been down your path, and it sucks.

Two things to check would be the alternator and starter...make sure one of the small wires isn't broken and grounding out to the case.

 

I'll recheck those things if this did not fix the problem. I have replaced both within the past 2 months.

 

I feel your pain man...

 

Still died twice. I just too the radio and the radio fuses out to see if that's the problem. I first noticed the dead battery's about a week after I unhooked an amp and sold it, so we will see what happens here. The 20-30 wires going to the stock amp have all been cut for the amp so I put them back together with the connectors. There are a couple sets that are the same color, sooo, they may have been hooked up wrong, but it still works perfectly fine. Would that be able to cause the drain?

 

If they are connected together or creating a voltage drop do to a bad connection it's possible they could draw 5-10 mA. Put your meter inline with some of those wires and see.

 

I'm more wondering about if I reversed two wires that were the same color.

 

Could be an issue if you switched a constant power lead with a switched power lead.

 

Yeah, the things is I don't have any idea how to tell because they are the same color. That's dumb in my opinion. I guess I can hook the meter in-line with the ones in question. Right now I have the radio out and the three fuses that have stuff to do with it (radio, radio acces., and steering wheel controls) seems to be working fine right now. We will see over the weekend or something when I leave it sitting.

 

Found the problem, kind of. I know that it's draining through the radio. I took the radio and the three fuses that pertain to the radio out. The car sat for 1-1/2 days and cranks just fine. Usually it would be dead after about 3/4 of a day. Now the multi meter shows no draw with it still connected, so it must be turning on or something randomly or something like that. The only thing I can think of is where the radio connects to the amp. I had to put the wires back together because they were cut for the aftermarket amp. There were a few wires that were the same color so I may have mixed them up. How am I going to be able to fix the problem?

 

Sounds like the amp "turn on" lead is switched with some constant power. Find which wires have constant power, then try to find the wire that gets power once you turn the radio on. Then maybe switch those two.

 

Ok, thing is there is like 30 wires back there. I wish it were easier. And even when I find it, I may not be able to know if I got it right for about a day of not driving the car. Ya know what I mean? Since there isn't a constant draw.

 

How do you measure the Ma, mine is doing the same thing? and if you could explain it like your talking to an 8yr old, that would be great!! not real good with the volt meter!!

 

I wasn't either, and probably still aren't. Basically take your negative battery cable off. Hook one wire of the meter to the negative battery cable post on the battery and the other wire on the negative battery cable. Honestly, I'm not the one to ask, I still don't know crap about electrical stuff.