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1986 Nissan Truck Battery Drain Problem

Either here or from someone else it was suggested that to find out the cause of a battery drain you should do the following:

  1. Unhook the negative terminal cable from the negative terminal on the battery
  2. Put a test lamp between the negative terminal on the battery and the unhooked negative cable.
  3. If the light comes on there is a drain on the battery.
  4. Take out each fuse until the light goes off. This will point to the bad circuit.

Now the only difference from the above and what I did is step 2. I used a DC volt meter. It showed a 12v. reading between the negative terminal on the battery and the disconnected cable.

I took out each fuse but the 12v. reading never went away.

What should I look for now? I have a left tail light that is out and the left turn signal clicks really fast. Can a bulb being out cause a drain? Also none of the fuses were labeled rear tail lights. Are the fuses for the rear lights located other than the pull down compartment under the left side of the dash?

Any help will certainly be appreciated.

Thanks,

JW

Reply to
jw
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of course it will show 12 volts if you happen to have the meter set to read DC voltage, the only thing the meter is doing is bridging the open circuit you created by removing the cable.

you need set the meter to check for a current (amperage) draw.

anything over 350 ma. (m.a. = milliamps) is too much

Reply to
NissTech

Thanks,

After I thought about it for awhile I figured that out. So I did the test correctly this time and here are the results:

With out any fuses taken out the meter set at the 50dca scale showed an 8ma draw. When I took out the fuse for the interior lights the meter showed an

2ma raw.

Somehow an 8ma draw doesn't seem like enough to drain the battery down in a few days. But that is what is happening. Its a relatively new battery. I've had it checked at a battery store. It checks out OK. I trickle charge it for 12 hours -- leave it set for a few days and it is dead. I trickle charge it for 12 hours -- disconnect the negative cable and it has set for as much as 2 months and does not drain. So I'm stumped. Any thoughts?

JW

negative

Reply to
jw

Does this happen w/ other batteries? Also, I would test the ammeter. A few milliamps certainly should not drain a battery. A very simple test is, in the dark, remove a cable from the battery and gently scrape the battery terminal w/ the cable end, looking for sparks. Anything more the what you would see w/ the flint of a cigarette lighter would be suspicious. You can even hear the crackle of relatively small currents. The other question is, Is something happening *after* you close the hood, lock up the car? Toward that end, I would kluge up a splice of sorts, between one terminal of the battery and the cable connector, w/ two pieces of long wire that so that I could do these tests (spark, ammeter) outside the car, w/ the car closed, etc. If you make this splice out of simple lamp cord, the spark test can be pretty accurate by using just a single strand of the wire within the insulation, ie, touching one strand to the other bundled strands in the wire.

When you turn on the ignition, there are some relays that might be clicking on, and not disengaging, if the contacts are fused together. These may or may not be protected by the various fuses. The primary of coils can drain batteries. This should show up in a spark/ammeter test, tho. You might want to use your ammeter not in milliamp mode but in, say, 1 amp full scale. But if the spark test is negative, AND this is happening to other batteries, you have a real mystery on your hands. I had a similar problem w/ a '79 merc cougar. Forgot how I resolved it!! But I do remember the spark test being positive, but easily missed in the daylight.

Reply to
Proctologically Violated©®

my 94 pathfinder has the same current draw problem, new battery but when vehicle is left alone for a few days, the battery goes dead, recharge it and let it sit again and dead again after a few days.

spark/ammeter

Reply to
Shawn

I would check the interior dome light on your truck. If yours is the kind that flips down to illuminate the bed, the on/off switch mounting often goes bad. The switch is held in place by two plastic studs. These tend to break, allowing the terminals to short across the aluminum reflector dish for the bulb.

If you can push in that switch, then the plastic studs are probably broken.

- Dave

Reply to
Bitter Dave

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