Power Draining Options

[dustin15brown]

Hey everyone... How can I find out what is pulling power from my battery? I unhooked my subs because I thought it was them, but it's not... My car sits for a few days and then barely starts.... Sits for a week or two and it wont start... Confusing the hell out of me. Any ideas?

[dustinkemp]

buy a 12v test light, disconnect the negative battery terminal, put the test light between the negative cable and the negative side of the battery, if the light is on, start pulling fuses until the light goes out, the fuse that makes the light go out is the draw. lol

hope that helps

Dustin

[tim86]

hmm, by unhooking your subs do you mean the power to the amp as well? and all connections leading to the battery? Seeing as you have an optima yellow top, I dont think the battery would be bad... Maybe its your cap thats still drawing power from your battery? (This happened to me once, causing the battery to drain and car not start)... Just a few guesses!

[dustin15brown]

nope... EVERYTHING from my system is disconnected

[soven]

Maybe your battery is not holding charge anymore?

[mikew04]

Make sure if you added any relays (think stereo system, alarm) that they are not energized when the car is off.

[presure2]

buy a 12v test light, disconnect the negative battery terminal, put the test light between the negative cable and the negative side of the battery, if the light is on, start pulling fuses until the light goes out, the fuse that makes the light go out is the draw. lol

hope that helps

Dustin

X2

[dustin15brown]

thakns guys I will test things out this weekend!

[axelrduvirage]

Hey everyone... How can I find out what is pulling power from my battery? I unhooked my subs because I thought it was them, but it's not... My car sits for a few days and then barely starts.... Sits for a week or two and it wont start... Confusing the hell out of me. Any ideas?

i have the same problem with my '99 GT. no addons, so i will try the light/multimeter thing on the weekend.



BTW enjoy the weekend everyone. we made it through February

[frosty]

Same thing happened to my wife's 98 cavalier. She had a bazzoka tube in the trunk and that sucker drained! Lousy audio specialist hooked it up dumb but she sold the car and got a suzuki areo.

Yeah, just get a tester, shouldn't take long to find the culprit. Good luck

[madmods]

buy a 12v test light, disconnect the negative battery terminal, put the test light between the negative cable and the negative side of the battery, if the light is on, start pulling fuses until the light goes out, the fuse that makes the light go out is the draw. lol

hope that helps

Dustin

Great ideal Dustin. man you learn alot being on these boards. I know I have

[Jaws4God]

any luck? I am having a power drain problem..

[DSToyo]

same here, my car sits for a week and i can't start it, go put a charge on the battery again. i don't have any system either!

[Jaws4God]

now i'm getting frustrated... I get in the car this morning, the volt meter read about 12 volts.. but the car barely started.. it acted like the battery was low.. so now I am so confused :-(

[tim86]

hm, this seems to be a common and bad problem i wonder what is going on to be draining the battery even on cars without sound systems

[soven]

buy a 12v test light, disconnect the negative battery terminal, put the test light between the negative cable and the negative side of the battery, if the light is on, start pulling fuses until the light goes out, the fuse that makes the light go out is the draw. lol

hope that helps

Dustin

Try that as suggested. Could also be due to old battery or a battery that does not work well in the cold.

[Batman722]

guys, make sure your battery terminals are clean and making very good contact, no corrosion at all.

[mneal2_92788]

i just fixed teh same problem, in my stereo, the remote wire to my amp was loose on the wiring, so the amp never shut off. that drained mine batt pretty quick. make sure all add-on wires, even to amps, stereos, lights, etc, are secure and have teh remote turn off/on

[brianforster]

screw a test light, that wont tell you anything, you need to connect a multimeter in series and set it to amps, a car with no parasitic draw should read .01 amps or less, if yours is higher, pull fuses untill it drops, then look up the wiring diagram and see what peripherals could be messing up.

edit: i still havent really fixed my problem, but k-esd taught me well, a test light isnt the tool to use, its not that accurate, use a multimeter

This post has been edited by brianforster: Jan 20, 2007 - 12:52 AM

[DeW_H0e_GT]

guys, make sure your battery terminals are clean and making very good contact, no corrosion at all.

i took the battery out, bench-tested it n reinstall n voila everythings normal.....