Battery drain issue

ZakMay09 · Nov 23, 2014

Hey guys, I know that these posts are quite often but seeing as how it has happened to me, I'd like to make my own thread with the symptoms I am running into.

It all started a few months ago. I had come back from a 3 week trips to Seattle and Canada. The car sat the entire time and I had forgotten to unplug the battery. Car was dead obviously so I jumped it with the truck, drove the car around for the weekend and stored it during the week that Sunday night. Friday night rolls around and its time to tear up the city....or so I thought. Car wouldn't crank over. Didn't have enough juice. So I jumped it, drove around the entire weekend and put it back in storage Sunday night.

Fast forward to present day. The car battery drains and won't crank over at all after sitting for 5 minutes. I have to keep the car running if I need to go to the store for something. If I park, turn the car off, go inside and buy a pack of cigs or drink, the car will be dead by the time I get back out of the store. I have since done my research and forum searching. I immediate did the amperage draw test. Without fuse #8 in, 20mA draw. With fuse #8, 75mA draw. I have a feeling there is definitely A problem there but not THE main problem.

If you guys can help me in any way, shape, or form, I'd greatly appreciate it. I have a better DMM on the way thanks to Dad being a A/C guy. I'm also open to PM and I linked my Facebook to my profile as well. Whatever way is easier for you guys to contact me on, I'm cool with. I'd realistically try to figure this out before the 12th of December.

ttocs · Nov 23, 2014

if you have the mach amps in the car over the past 3-4 years it has become almost a regular problem that they stay on and create a drain. Even if you don't think you have a mach amp there is a chance there is one hidden under the radio that you may have never used, still hooked up to power and staying on. If you have neither of those then we will need to find where the draw is with a current meter. Get your multi-meter and switch it to current/I/mA and be sure to move the positive lead to the other hole if it shows the current lead goes in a different hole. Now disconnect you battery and put your meter in between the power wire to the battery(doesn't matter which one) and the battery terminal and see what the current reads. Take a reading and now go to your fuse box and start pulling fuses one at a time. When you pull the fuse with the related drain the current reading will drop nearly to 0. Let me know which fuse it is and now we can narrow down what the problem is.

ZakMay09 · Nov 23, 2014

Will do. Thank you brother. Once I get the meter in from the mail, I'll do exactly that and update you asap.

ZakMay09 · Dec 29, 2014

Hey so just a heads up. I got the car running again and not draining power. I feel like a major idiot. I trusted the guy that checked the battery before and he said it was good. For S's and G's, I decided to get the battery tested again at a different spot and turns out the first guy lied to me or didn't know what he was doing. I bought a new battery and it seems to be holding charge like a champ (only been in the car for about 24 hours now). I will continue to monitor it the rest of the week but otherwise it seems ok. Apparently, the old battery had a few cells in it that went bad and couldn't hold a charge worth a d**n. I appreciate the help though ttocs and congrats on the MOTY award.

Five O · Dec 30, 2014

Good deal, man. Did you get the alternator checked at the same time?

steam29 · Dec 30, 2014

ttocs said:
if you have the mach amps in the car over the past 3-4 years it has become almost a regular problem that they stay on and create a drain. Even if you don't think you have a mach amp there is a chance there is one hidden under the radio that you may have never used, still hooked up to power and staying on.

are there any fixes for this drain i am having the same problem? i literally just bought 2 more mach amps thinking i had a bad amp oops :grin:

mcglsr2 · Dec 30, 2014

How old is your battery? How do you know you have a drain? Car sits for how long? Then dead battery?

ZakMay09 · Dec 30, 2014

Steam29, I have exhausted the search engine on this matter. It could be a number of things. If it is fuse #8 that powers the issue, I've come to the conclusion that some companies that make radio head units have an issue with turning completely off and continuously draw power while the car is off. You might want to look into that for starters.

Five O, yeah I got the alternator checked as well. It read green. Practically brand new 200A alternator. It BETTER still be good haha.

mcglsr2 · Dec 30, 2014

Pretty much all head units now draw from the battery with the car off - it's for the memory (thus the red and yellow power wires when hooking it up to the car, one for BATT and the other for IGN). I haven't heard of any radios that drain batteries when installed properly, unless we are maybe talking about super cheap brands or something. I doubt your Kenwoods, JVC's, Pioneers, etc. of that caliber will drain the battery when installed properly.

The amount they draw is minuscule - if that's draining your battery you have a bad head unit or it is installed wrong. Drains are usually:

The battery is bad and will no longer hold a charge
The alternator is bad, and no longer charges the battery - which if ran too long like this will also cause #1 above
A short somewhere - something is shorted to ground that usually isn't, thus allowing current to flow from the battery to ground, draining your battery. This is obviously the hard one to find.

A note on #3 - electrical drains of this nature are somewhat rare - it could be a failed component or something has physically changed on the car. Most things in the car get power from IGN and not straight from the battery. You can troubleshoot this like ttocs mentioned above, or if something was recently installed on the car of electrical nature, start there first.

If you really aren't sure at all where to start, then pulling fuses is the way to go.

dave377 · Jan 26, 2015

I also have a draw coming from fuse number 8 If I leave the car set for 3 to 4 days it don't have enough power to start the car or cranks slow then starts. IF I pull fuse number 8 it can set for week or two and starts just fine. I have not had time to trace what on the number 8 fuse circuit that is causing it. Looks like from what I have read on here that there is a problem with the radio amp if there is one. [I don't know if my car has one or not but it does have the cd changer under the radio and a 5 dist changer in the trunk I unhooked the trunk unit]
IS the amp known to cause this.