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Anybody have tips for chasing battery drains?

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  • Anybody have tips for chasing battery drains?

    Doing the regular stuff, disconnect negative cable, run meter between negative post and negative cable, pull fuses, ends up being a dome, license plate light, potpourri of circuits, sadly including the instrument panel lights. So leaving the fuse out means no view of the speedometer at night. So I go and unplug wiring from the rear door, disconnect the leads going into the headliner for the dome lights, lose some of the drain, but not all. I will just say with my meter it is reading 9.0 doors closed, 9.8 wihth a door open(autosensing meter). So that would mean the drain is some chaffed wire going to the connector, right? Its not enough to blow the fuse, but enough to drain the battery dead if you do not start the car for 2 days. I have had plenty of drains start at the alternator, I disconnected the positive at the alternator and still got the drain.

    I replaced the ignition switch thinking that stupid passkey junk was a problem since I showed a 79% battery charge and the car would not start, but this gremlin is a good one. For a second I unplug something, it goes away, then close up the panel and check again and its back.

    This is our 03 chevy tracker we like to have for the winter. Just trying to get around bringing the battery inside on really cold nights or reconnecting the ground clamp every morning when its just cold. I have seen kits to swap LED's for domes, saying there are 2 courtesy lamps for the doors and one for the trunk, but I have never seen those. For a time, the rear dome light stayed lit so for a while it was just leaving that bulb out, but the car was mostly driven every day in better weather so it could have always been there..

  • #2
    Barry Donovan knows all about swapping bulbs for LEDs so you can PM him on that. As far as the drain, I wonder if it's ECM related. They can fail and ground something that shouldn't be grounded. Assuming it has power locks make sure they're OK - ME's HHR had a bad rear automatic lock assembly and it would slowly drain the battery. Two lock units later (turned out that both rears had crapped the bed) and all is fine. Evidently the 'puter was telling the lock to lock which it couldn't do so it kept sending the "lock" signal which slowly ran the battery down. My buddies at Rackley's (the shop at the end of out street) sorted that one out.

    Dan

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    • #3
      It's a Suzuki by design, isn't it? Not GM?

      Can you just run some wires from the fuse panel, to a toggle switch inside the car, with a fuse in series with it, and turn on the switch when you need dash lights to work?

      My fabulous web page

      "If it don't go, chrome it!" --Stroker McGurk

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      • #4
        GM spec is 50mA draw and I've seen up to 8 minutes after battery power restored to drop below that threshold. Most OEM cars I've ever checked that have no problems are between 17mA - 23mA. Now the aftermarket hotrod world is a whole different story, AccuAir suspension is the worst.

        I would try and source a wiring diagram to see everything that fuse supplies power to. There has to be a load involved to drain a battery, a wire chaffed to ground would not drain the battery. Make sure all doors are closed while checking for the draw. If your not worried about actually fixing the problem I would just go with Jim's suggestion.
        Last edited by prostreet34; October 14, 2020, 05:50 PM.
        2011 Drag Week (unlimited) 5th place 10.89 avg.
        2012 Drag Week (unlimited) 5th place 10.55 avg.
        all time best 10.27 @ 127

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        • #5
          Yes, Suzuki by design. Thought the automatic headlight deal was causing the problem, set the parking brake at night and it was fine, never checked the drain though, when it was driven daily. This is an 03, but only 80K miles, so it should be the car that we can have in an emergency. Have just about everything disconnected from the rear door, I guess the lock would be the next to try. I had to rip the back panel off from the inside to open the door this time, so maybe it was stuck in a middle state, thanks for that suggestion. Also thanks for the news about chafed wires to ground not causing a drain so I can stop thinking about chasing those. Common sense tells me that would pop a fuse, but so far the common sense approach of unplugging what is on the fuse is not working.

          I have stayed away from the cutoff switch since I have been getting screwed and needing emissions three years in a row now, so that drive it 50 miles til the computer resets has been why I have stayed away from that one.

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          • #6
            just a thought-- my mom has a 96 impala ss that was giving us fits
            with killing the battery every 2-3 days overnight, it ended up being
            the CD player motor--even with radio and key off it was spinning all
            the time. just got lucky, i found it by accident when i was poking
            around and heard a faint non stop whirring noise, got out the stethascope
            and started probing.....

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            • #7
              Unplugged rear door lock actuator, dropped.0.1. Now its 8.8/9 with doors closed. left meter hooked up, pulled all 4 plugs from the computer, nothing changed. Now I pull that same TAIL fuse and the draw does not stop.

              Back years ago, the rear dome light stayed on, so we just pulled the bulb and it seemed OK, again, driving daily. You are supposed to close the door and the light stays on for 30 seconds. IF you hit the remote button, the interior lights are supposed to go on, think its 5 seconds if you do not open the door, and until you turn the key to start the car if you open the door. Is that run by the computer as well? Is there some relay that does that somewhere. Maybe this draw is just a relay stuck.

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              • #8
                I have all the dome light fixtures out and disconnected. I then pulled the trim along the passenger windshield and disconnected the entire harness going to the headliner. I found a file online http://www.mediafire.com/file/7f72ve...UAL-1.pdf/file that has a few models and a few languages. I was looking for that timer, cannot find it. I get a list of G34, but no picture of where it is for the auto light controller on page 234 thinking that was the deal that delays the dome lights from going off for 30 seconds after the door is closed. There is a yellow and black wire that branches to the DRL controller, I might be down to cutting every yellow with black tracer wire lol. That makes the most sense since the rear dome light would stay on all the time. It was either a door switch or the timer, because it stayed on even if the middle switch for the dome lights was in the off position. I did find my drag race style battery disconnect, so I am guessing to aggravate myself another few days before running some cable and killing the battery.

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                • #9
                  You said the meter is showing 8.9 in the auto setting mode. I think we need to establish what the range setting is. If its 8.9 amps, that's way more than any bulbs would draw besides headlights. I would think you would here something actually running. Just to start with basics, do we know the battery is good, passes a load test and holds a charge?
                  2011 Drag Week (unlimited) 5th place 10.89 avg.
                  2012 Drag Week (unlimited) 5th place 10.55 avg.
                  all time best 10.27 @ 127

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                  • #10
                    New battery, have the old style black box load testing device for the battery that shows good. Found my sons UTI meter,draw, starts at 1 amp. Unplugged the little box that is blinking green and red, maybe for the door remote, drops to .65. Pull the main fuse it goes to 0. Put it back in , it goes to 1.3 amps for 30-40 seconds, then drops back to .63-.65.

                    Left the rear lock disconnected, license plate light, two wires that go up to the key in the rear door? plugged the roof harness back in, hooked up the front dome light with a new LED bulb, taped up the rear dome fixture plug. Open the door, it goes to 1.3 amps, close the door, put the battery back on and dome light stays on 40 seconds or so and I hear a definite click in a black box zip tied up behind the dash, so that must be the timer for the dome lights. No bulb, I do not hear the click, so maybe it feeds thru the bulb somehow for the timer to count down? its the only part that makes sense, you have a relay pulled in taking power for a while.

                    Guess I just park it a few days to see if it starts again.

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                    • #11
                      Fingers crossed for you. These can REALLY be a stinker.

                      Dan

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