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battery drain, pulled fuses, now what?

Hi I am trying to troubleshoot my daughter's 99 Solara SE V6 5-spd. On Sunday morning her battery was dead, and since it was the original and

20 degrees out, I bought a new one. On Tuesday, the new battery was dead. I had the new battery tested at NAPA and it is 100%.

I put an ammeter between the negative terminal and cable, and there is a 4-5 amp draw with the key off (and out). I pulled every fuse I could find, and it won't go away. I found 4 fuse blocks, one under the dash and three under the hood. The current starts out at 5.5 amps and starts dropping, and within 30 seconds is close to 4 amps or slightly less.

  1. what kind of circuit drops like that?
  2. any ideas where or how to find the offending circuit?
  3. The glove box light died on Sunday, too, but the switch isn't hot, so I don't think that's the problem. How do you remove the switch and bulb assembly from the glove box to replace the bulb and so I can positively eliminate it as the problem?

Thanks for the help Joe

Reply to
joe s
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Hi Joe, I just looked in my 1995 2.2 litre CAMRY electrical manual.

Although I am retired, electronics was my job.

I see on my circuits that there is the battery with normal ground to chassis.

There is then a permanent live to the starter motor solenoid. there is no fuse in that lead. But the starter motor solenoid is energised via a Relay that has a 40 amp fuse in its line marked MAIN. So that switches low current to bring in the Big Load of the Starter relay That is usually bolted on to the starter itself.

There is a real big fuse 100Amps which seems to power all the other things in the car. That will be very near the battery I would guess.

If you can find that one it will just about insulate all the electrics other than the started solenoid of things.

At 4 amp that about 48watts being drawn. I would have thought some thing would feel warm. Feel the starter motor solinoid bolted to the starter motor. Is it warm or just ambient temp.

As I say that from the 1994 onward CAMRY book. Its worth buying from TOYOTA I think it cost me £20 so that's about $35.

Best of luck.

Johnny UK.

Reply to
JM

Sounds likea bad alternator. When they go bad they will totally drain a battery. Put a meter on battery and see if is charging when running.

Reply to
tj

Reply to
Johnnyboy

The alternator was my first thought - but I pulled both wires and it didn't make a difference. I also disconected the main lead from the starter at the battery, and the 40A starter circuit breaker, but nothing. Thanks for the suggestions.

I brought the car to the shop today, I'll let you know what they find. He thought it may be something with a fusable link.

Joe

Reply to
joe s

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! Would the dome light pull 4A when the light was off? All he did was turn the switch to OFF and the current drain stopped. He said the light was on while he drove it. I know the light went out after 15 seconds or so the night before and the night before that when I first started troubleshooting. I'm not loosing it am I? Joe PS Fortunately he didn't charge me for this.

Reply to
joe s

likely it was left on, easy to do in a lit area

Reply to
m Ransley

4 amps is a hell of a big interior light.

Johnny UK.

Reply to
JM
12 volts x 4 amps equals 48 watts. I would change the globe for the correct one anyway. 48 watts is far too much. Not your problem, but not right too. John
Reply to
Johnnyboy

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