Here is another trick. You will need a DMM and a helper. One of you would hold the DMM leads across the battery posts as if you are checking the voltage. The other person will pull each fuse one at a time. Should the voltage reading go up at any time one is pulled, you have found a circuit with a drain. Don't forget, if your door is open there will be a drain. Since you have no trunk light you can eliminate a drain there. Threre will also be a minor drain from the computer. (I don't know what circuit that is on). The drain noticed will be very minor. This is another way to track it. The ammeter (amp draw) is better tho.
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Originally posted by deloreanant:
I don't actually have a bulb in the trunk light. Would it still cause draw without bulb in there to complete the circuit?
Is your multimeter digital or analog? If it is digital and showed 63 before blowing the fuse then the number may be meaningless....they often flash intermediate numbers on their way up to the full amount (unless you mean it sat at 63 for a while, then blew the fuse). Safe bet is always to start at 10A and work your way down. What do you mean by "it's giving you trouble"? If you are blowing fuses at 10A then you have a full short.
It is digital. I do believe it blew the 10A (or it was already blown as I don't remember ever needing to use the 10A side in the years I've owned this multimeter) as that is what I started with then when I didn't get a reading I switched to the mA setting and changed my lead to the mA port. I don't like hearing that I likely have a short. That will not be fun to find. But wouldn't the short prevent something from working or cause something to continuously work? If something is not working, I don't know what it is.
It is digital. I do believe it blew the 10A (or it was already blown as I don't remember ever needing to use the 10A side in the years I've owned this multimeter) as that is what I started with then when I didn't get a reading I switched to the mA setting and changed my lead to the mA port. I don't like hearing that I likely have a short. That will not be fun to find. But wouldn't the short prevent something from working or cause something to continuously work? If something is not working, I don't know what it is.
This is a good trick, but since the fuse trick was done at at least one of the three shops, would the problem likely be a relay? Could I test relays by the same means?
good day what it sound like is the head light motors not disengaging the power source and causing a drain that leaves the the battery dead, If the switch does not engage in the up and down the system continues to draw power causing a power drain till the switch has made contact. I had the same issue and upon checking the door on one head lamp was only up 1/8th of a inch. If you have some turn on and off the lamp you should be able to hear the switch engage both way with the hood up. Don't touch the motors when they are going up and down and keep you hand away because nothing will stop these head lamps with break fingers and arms if in the wrong place. Disconnect power before working on the and make sure power is all out of the system. If you want to try a test turn on head lamp disengage relay both on driver fender by unplugging them, this will stop the head lamps from going up and down but the light will still turn on and off. you will see if your battery still drains in a couple of days. Just make sure they are all the way up you can make sure by turn the manual up on the head lamp motor.
Very good! That makes sense for me, too because one thing I thought it might have to do with closing the hood and it all started with a headlight bulb going out and replacing it. Maybe we should just rebuild the motors with new gears. You're right about being careful with those motors and mechanisms which can basically run anytime.
good day what it sound like is the head light motors not disengaging the power source and causing a drain that leaves the the battery dead, If the switch does not engage in the up and down the system continues to draw power causing a power drain till the switch has made contact. I had the same issue and upon checking the door on one head lamp was only up 1/8th of a inch. If you have some turn on and off the lamp you should be able to hear the switch engage both way with the hood up. Don't touch the motors when they are going up and down and keep you hand away because nothing will stop these head lamps with break fingers and arms if in the wrong place. Disconnect power before working on the and make sure power is all out of the system. If you want to try a test turn on head lamp disengage relay both on driver fender by unplugging them, this will stop the head lamps from going up and down but the light will still turn on and off. you will see if your battery still drains in a couple of days. Just make sure they are all the way up you can make sure by turn the manual up on the head lamp motor.
I have flush mount headlights, so there are no motors, but could the switch still be causing the problem even if the lights are off?
If you are having issues blowing fuses you can avoid the risk by disconnecting the battery and using a battery charger with a 12v 2A setting. If you find a short it will just max out near two amps instead of whatever the battery decides to push out. Set up your charger with the multi meter wired in series, with the 10 amp setting already set prior to adding power. Connect to your battery leads and go hunting. Change/disconnect one electrical component at a time. ie fuses, cable connections, sensor connectors... When you find the right one your meter should drop from 2+ amp drain to .05 ish amp drain(depending upon car alterations)
Normal draw with everything shut down should be about 15mA.
I've been checking for a possible parasitic draw on my '94 Elantra. When I set the multimeter at 10 amps and put the leads between the disconnected negative battery cable and the negative battery terminal, it reads .15
Is that 15mA...or is it a higher reading? I admit I don't understand using this mode on my multimeter.
I've been checking for a possible parasitic draw on my '94 Elantra. When I set the multimeter at 10 amps and put the leads between the disconnected negative battery cable and the negative battery terminal, it reads .15
Is that 15mA...or is it a higher reading? I admit I don't understand using this mode on my multimeter.
That's 150mA, 15mA would be .015
1mA = .001 on the meter readout, it goes up from there through .999 which would be 999mA until you reach 1 amp which moves the decimal point over and would show 1.000 (or 1000mA) on the meter readout.
1000 milliamps is the same as 1 amp
[This message has been edited by seajai (edited 04-14-2016).]
Looks like I do have a battery drain then after all. No wonder the battery keeps going dead if I don't drive this car at least once a week. Hmmm... now to track down where the drain is. (I'm going to guess it's a diode failure in the regulator/alternator, but I'm totally unfamiliar with Hyundai electronics.)
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Originally posted by Neils88:
Normal draw with everything shut down should be about 15mA.
[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 04-14-2016).]
Could always start the way you would for any other car... pull each fuse and use your meter as the fuse*, with the ignition off of course, and measure the current draw on each circuit. You should see a little on the circuit that powers the ECM and some on the circuit for the radio... everything else should be nearly dead or zero.
Starting with the hot lead on the alternator would be easy enough though...
* With the meter in the 10 AMP ammeter setting and the test leads connected to the correct contacts for measuring high current. You will blow the fuse every time if you try to measure current with the leads configured for measuring voltage, so don't do that.
[This message has been edited by carbon (edited 04-14-2016).]
Looks like I do have a battery drain then after all. No wonder the battery keeps going dead if I don't drive this car at least once a week. Hmmm... now to track down where the drain is.
I'm a little bit excited as I make this post...
In the Elantra there's a fuse box in the engine compartment as well as inside the car. I figured I'd start pulling fuses under the hood first as that's where the multimeter was connected to the battery. I pulled one fuse after another and nothing was making any difference with the .15 (150mA) reading... until I pulled the 30A power window fuse. The reading immediately went down to .01 The strange thing is... I don't have power windows in this car!
As if that wasn't good enough news... after I started the car I discovered that the blower selector, which was always stuck in the defogger position, now worked properly for the first time EVER. And I've had this car for eleven years!
There have always been a few electrical oddities with this car that I could never figure out. There's more to mention (plus I want to do some further tests), but I'll probably post about this in the "Other Cars" section of the forum.
I'm stoked. Thanks for your help guys!
[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 04-14-2016).]
In the Elantra there's a fuse box in the engine compartment as well as inside the car. I figured I'd start pulling fuses under the hood first as that's where the multimeter was connected to the battery. I pulled one fuse after another and nothing was making any difference with the .15 (150mA) reading... until I pulled the 30A power window fuse. The reading immediately went down to .01 The strange thing is... I don't have power windows in this car!
As if that wasn't good enough news... after I started the car I discovered that the blower selector, which was always stuck in the defogger position, now worked properly for the first time EVER. And I've had this car for eleven years!
There have always been a few electrical oddities with this car that I could never figure out. There's more to mention (plus I want to do some further tests), but I'll probably post about this in the "Other Cars" section of the forum.
I'm stoked. Thanks for your help guys!
The big question is....did you lose anything by pulling that fuse? It would be interesting to follow the wiring on that circuit and see where the short was. (150mA is still pretty minor, so it might be hard to locate on that circuit)
[This message has been edited by Neils88 (edited 04-14-2016).]
The big question is....did you lose anything by pulling that fuse?
I was wondering the same thing, and that's part of what I want to check further. I started the engine and everything else appears to be functioning fine (or even better than before!)... but it's too early to say for sure. I do have the wiring diagrams here for this car, so I'll be looking over them. But at this point I'm pretty happy.
I just scanned some Elantra wiring diagrams. The circuit runs from the under hood fuse, through the ignition switch, then to the power window relay at the under dash fuse box. Does your car have the relay? if so, I'd pull the relay and plug the other fuse back in just to see if the problem is still gone. Not that it really matters, since there doesn't appear to be anything else on the circuit (of course I guessed the year... )
...that would mean I would actually have to read posts fully... For some reason today I have been answering lots of posts...but not actually reading them. I'm not sure why I'm missing all the details today!? I guessed mid 90's anyway lol
Does your car have the relay? if so, I'd pull the relay and plug the other fuse back in just to see if the problem is still gone.
It took me a long time to find the passenger compartment relay box (it's well hidden up in the dash)... but there was no power window relay plugged in.
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Originally posted by 85 SE VIN 9:
Could it be somebody installed a fuse just because they found one missing and that created a path that wasn't intended to exist?
Anything is possible I suppose. Maybe someone thought the addition of a power window fuse would make the hand cranking of the windows a little easier.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm resurrecting this seven year old thread because I still have trouble reading a multimeter.
I have potentially the same problem as I had years ago, but this time with a different car. It's now my JDM Subaru. Its year old battery goes dead within a week if I don't drive the car.
With the positive lead of my digital multimeter plugged into its 10A input, and the selector on the 10A setting, the meter will initially read .35 when I complete a circuit with the battery, and then within a couple of seconds the reading will go lower and stay at .20
Will someone please confirm what that reading actually is in milliAmps. I suspect it's initially 350mA and then settling at 200mA. Is that correct? If so, it appears I do indeed have a parasitic draw.
[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 02-10-2023).]
You should have less than 25mA for normal drain. Even modern cars with 20 to 30 modules draw less than 20mA when everything is off, that is because the modules only draw a few uAmps in sleep mode.
It's no wonder that my Subie's battery keeps going dead. I was blaming the colder weather and possibly a defective battery. Time to start pulling fuses to find the source of this parasitic draw. Thanks.
Time to start pulling fuses to find the source of this parasitic draw.
Had a chance to deal with this yesterday. When I pulled the fuse for the radio/clock/interior lights, the draw went from 200mA to 40mA. (I'm suspecting the aftermarket radio.) Still kind of high. I obviously need to do further poking around.
Yes, this is with my Subie... but its relevance here is that a parasitic battery draw can be a challenge to track down with any car... yes, including Fieros!
The strange thing is... I don't have power windows in this car! 
It would be interesting to follow the wiring on that circuit and see where the short was. (150mA is still pretty minor, so it might be hard to locate on that circuit)
)
For some reason today I have been answering lots of posts...but not actually reading them. I'm not sure why I'm missing all the details today!? 
