??Normal Battery Drain with EVERYTHING off??

What's a typical value for battery current drain when a vehicle is totally shut down, no lights on, etc. ??

My 92 GMC Yukon 350V8, 4WD, had a almost-dead battery after 2 weeks of idleness. Recharged (Battery took about 25 AH) and floated at 1 amp overnight. Started fine. Hmm.. So I started checking further. I know there is SOME normal current drain, from onboard computers, radio clock, etc. But how much?

Here's what I see. What's your experience with this??

Run 1/2 hour, shut down. Battery V 13.25 Battery current .19 Amps (190 Milliamperes) Disconnect charged battery for 4 days: Battery V 12.95 Reconnect battery, Start Fine, Vehicle charging. Dash says 14V Meter says Battery V = 14.55 Shut down. Battery V= 13.35 hour later Battery V=12.57 Leave it overnight. Starts fine.

BUT I'm concerned about leaving it parked somewhere for a few days, now. .19 Amps seems high.. The math says .19 * 24 = 4.56 Amp-hours a day. 10 days 45 Amp-Hours on a maybe 50 Amp-hour battery. Not too good!

What are your experiences? Suggestions. If .19A is obviously high, where might I start looking?

Thanks! Regards, Terry King ..In the Woods in Vermont snipped-for-privacy@terryking.us

Reply to
terry
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I've just checked my Peugeot 306 and with only the clock running, the current is 6 mA. 190 mA sounds very high.

Mind you, I once left my car door ajar over night so the courtesy light was on for about 10 hours, and the car still started perfectly in the morning after a drain of maybe 5 Ah (6W, 12V so 0.5A, for 10 hours).

You might have a combination of higher than normal current drain and battery that isn't holding its charge as well as it should.

Checking for current "leaks" may require you to pull out fuses one by one and see which one reduces the current flow. I'm not sure what the best precautions are for preventing damage to sensitive electronics - maybe disconnect the battery, remove another fuse, reconnect battery, measure current, repeat ad nauseam.

Reply to
Mortimer

190 mA is pretty high. Start pulling fuses and see which one makes the needle on the meter drop.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

That's high for any vehicle. Your's should be under 10ma. Glove box bulb. Trailer brake controller. Pull fuses to narrow it down to a circuit. An electronic short finder works great from that point.

Reply to
Steve Austin

Pulling fuses one by one is a good method. However, no good would be done by disconnenting the battery each time. That would not increase protection for any electronics, and it actually would switch standby electronics many times instead of just once.

If you have one, use a non-conductive fuse puller tool rather than a metal tool, to avoid an accidental short on the terminals.

--Dave

Reply to
Dave Allured

Embarrassed Answer: It turned out to be a stuck switch on the vanity mirror light on the passengers side.

I was sure that no lighting could be 'only' 190 mA. Sure Wrong! I'll check with the meter and report the 'real nothing on current'..

Thanks for the information, ideas and encouragement.

Regards, Terry King ...In The Woods In Vermont snipped-for-privacy@terryking.us

Reply to
terry

Nice bit of detective work there! How did you spot it - did you notice a faint glow at night from the sun visor?

Yes, I'm surprised that the bulb is only about 2W (12 * 0.19 = 2.4W).

Reply to
Mortimer

Uh.. Umm. Well, actually I was camping out with my family, got up at

2AM to take a leak, got outside the tent on a totally dark night, and saw this faint glow from the Yukon. The mirror is behind the visor when it's in it's usual position.

Eyes, dark adjusted for several hours, are more sensitive than my DVM..

:-)

Reply to
terry

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