Wiring, Stereo & Electronics Audio Components | Radars | Alarms - and things that spark when they shouldn't

battery drain question

Old Jul 29, 2010 | 07:33 PM
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I have a dead drain on my battery that i have spent the last 2 weeks trying to chase down that i cant find. Im wondering if being that im moving the battery to the trunk and putting a kill switch back there that if i put a fresh battery in and every time i get out of the car i just push the kill switch and leave everything unhooked if the battery will still drain.

I know its a bandaid fix but im chasing down more than one gremlin and for the life of me cant find out where it is. I took my HVAC out and since then things have been screwy with my car but i took alot more than the hvac out too. I lost my interior lights power locks but my power windows still work. I dont have a key fob so i cant tell if my remote works too. So i think something might be up with the BCM and also i put a tach in and used the radio power and ground for a source for the tach and for some reason i think it might be that too. I also put in an MSD 2 step but that doesnt hook into anything for power, just the coil packs and a splice to the clutch switch off of the PCM. And i took out the ABS module so i got alot of **** to chase down

im jsut at a loss with this car and my rear end is coming in soon and i want the car road going by the time its here
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Old Jul 31, 2010 | 07:34 AM
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My battery drain turned out to be the USA-Spec I-Pod unit.

Even though they advertise it'll shut down to prevent battery drain, it does not. Took me over 2 years to pin point.

If you have one of these USA-Spec boxes, IM me, I have info on how to fix that problem.
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Old Jul 31, 2010 | 03:15 PM
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i dont even have a radio in the car currently. In the process of building track only oriented car

the only thing i could possibly be thinking are the HIDS that i put on about a week before the rear end blew up in which case the battery wouldnt die fast enough for me to notice they are draining OR the autometer tach i hooked up and spliced into the radio harness for power and ground

Last edited by SS4Luck; Aug 1, 2010 at 06:38 AM.
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Old Sep 8, 2010 | 11:40 AM
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Strange... which part of "I don't even have a radio" led you to believe an iPod adapter fix would solve his current drain?

Have you tried the old "connect an ammeter and disconnect electrical loads until the drain stops" method to diagnose the problem? It could be that just pulling fuses until the drain stops would narrow down the search to a circuit or two.
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Old Sep 8, 2010 | 11:59 AM
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^^ +1 I was going to say the same thing when I saw the title of the post. I was also gonna say connect a test light to your neg terminal and neg post and if lights up bright as **** u have a draw, but we obviously know that you have a crazy draw in your electrical system, so meter and fuses would be the place, good luck!
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Old Sep 8, 2010 | 02:11 PM
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I've had 4 other board members email me about this. So I figured why not make it public and available to everyone on the noard - without having to private me.

But Geez...tough crowd - Sorry for trying to help everyone else out.

I'll delete my error ASAP.
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Old Sep 8, 2010 | 09:10 PM
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check ur alternator i had the same problem on my bird i couldnt find the drain until i heard a faint buzzing from my alt when i lifted my car......
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Old Sep 8, 2010 | 09:24 PM
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disconnected the positive of the battery and connected it to a test light in between the of battery. then see if the test light comes on if its bright then you have a drain. Then start pullin fuse and see if it dims down a bit and that may be your problem. There will be some voltage for the pcm and alarm. Gave that a try and see if it helps. Also check your grounds.
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