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| Parasitic battery drain- 88 Formula (Page 2/3) |
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theogre
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OCT 04, 01:08 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by V8 Formula:
DC amp clamp has been ordered, will arrive Sunday. |
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Note: Watch what else is near the meter... Hall Effect often need "reset" so display is 0 as you move around. meter "book" should tell you same.
Good Battery dead overnight, car is used more then a few mA... Leaving a smallish bulb on might say any bulb etc sucking ~ ½a/500mA. Likely something sucking more.
| quote | Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua:
Put a milliamp meter in series with the battery. See what the parasitic draw is and adjust for maximum needle deflection. Now go to the fuse box and pull each fuse out one by one while watching the meter.. If the current draw goes away (needle zeros) after pulling a certain fuse out that is the circuit where your draw/short is. |
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The Amp Clamp is way better, safer and faster then using any normal meter. Worse, many "normal" meters are Way Cheap or even given away by HF and others that often can't handle any current w/o problems. If those have a "10a shut" don't trust the meter, probes, or both to handle 10a.
Assume you have a "real" meter say Fluke 77... have only 300mA or 10a shuts. Many others have 250mA max and no 10a range.
Often has issues w/ 10a range trying to read < 1a.
MANY normal meters have no fuses or near impossible to find blown fuses or soldered fuses to replace when you draw too much power thru the shut(s). No fuses often meter is fried at minimum.
Many DC clamps even handles 100+ amps like a engine starter uses. Mine reads 400+ amp so can read inrush current to start the starter.[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 10-04-2020).]
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donridenour3134
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OCT 04, 01:34 AM
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I know you checked your starter but not directly. I fought this same problem for a long time. Finally the starter failed. I replaced it and no more drain.
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V8 Formula
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OCT 04, 01:27 PM
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Thanks Don, I'll be swapping the engine in the spring which includes a new fuel pump, alternator, and starter. I'd like to know though if there's a short somewhere in the chassis. Hopefully my new testing tools will arrive today so I can get a better picture of what's going on. I'll keep the starter in mind for sure- glad you figured it out.
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V8 Formula
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OCT 05, 12:16 PM
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Patrick
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OCT 05, 02:54 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by V8 Formula:
Here are the results...
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A few months ago, Cliff Pennock made it so easy to embed images into our posts. Hint, hint. 
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V8 Formula
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OCT 05, 02:57 PM
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This I did not know... I can take a hint
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Patrick
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OCT 05, 04:03 PM
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Much better! 
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V8 Formula
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OCT 05, 04:22 PM
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I'll presume my test results show that the battery is OK?
But in disconnecting the wires from the power distribution block, it broke. So now I have a new one on order from e-bay. Here's the old broken one:
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Patrick
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OCT 05, 05:19 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by V8 Formula:
I'll presume my test results show that the battery is OK?
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I've never used a battery load tester... but I thought all your previously posted readings were kind of low. 
| quote | Originally posted by V8 Formula:
Edited to add: Voltage is down to 12.48 after sitting for an hour and 15 minutes...
Edited to add: Voltage is down to 12.46 after sitting for five hours...
Edited to add: Voltage is down to 12.34 after sitting for 27 hours...
Edited to add: Voltage is at 12.33 after 50 hours...
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V8 Formula
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OCT 05, 06:31 PM
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Patrick- I haven't either but I did watch a couple videos where they show what a dead battery *might* do under load- I saw one pull all the way down to 3-4 volts. Mine only goes down to around to 10.5 under load but that seems low enough to possibly be one bad cell. Hoping Ogre will chime in when he gets a chance.
I wired things up and did some amp testing. I'm basically just trying to get a feel for how this amp meter works. I put the clamp around each power distribution wire near the battery and got a really low reading from each, close to zero but the same as with no wire in it. With everything turned off (but the ecm still plugged in) I clamped around the main red wire from the battery that feeds the power distribution block and got a reading that showed 00.01 A. Basically the same as with no wire in it.
Then I opened the driver's door and it showed 2.01 A
I turned on the headlights with the door open and it read 10.68 (I have LED headlights)
I turned off the headlights but left on the parking lights and had the drivers door open and got 08.71 A
Then with the door shut and the parking lights on I got 06.46 A
I turned everything off again and the reading went back to around 00.01 A
Lots of data and I have no idea what to do with it.
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