About Parasitic Amp Draw (Battery Drain) in a passenger car.

bassbindevil

Joined Jan 23, 2014
924
Double-check the wiring for any aftermarket gizmos; that was the culprit in a neighbour's car. Some kind of alarm gadget that had been connected to "always on" power instead of "accessory" or "ignition". Apart from that... there's just so many things in these newfangled (post-carburetor) cars that can develop faults. If you have access to an infrared camera, maybe that would reveal something that's warmer than it should be.
 
I realize this is an old post but I wanted to make a comment for anyone who may reference this thread.
Pulling fuses isn't an appropriate way to diagnose a parasitic current draw. When you pull a fuse, you may wake up one or more modules that were asleep.
Automotive fuses are open on the top (ATO) You can check the voltage across the fuse and compare to a chart to convert that voltage to current. This way you don't wake any modules.
Also, you have to latch the hood and any doors that are open or the vehicle will not go to sleep completely. Leave the doors and hood opened and latched, so you can access the fuse boxes without opening a door and waking it up.
Also, modern vehicles have interior monitoring, which will wake the vehicle if there is motion detected in the cabin. Turn that off.
The standard for modern vehicles is less than 30mA. Around 15-20 is typical IME. Hope this helps someone.
 
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