Battery drainage.

ECU, Wiring, Sensors
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Battery drainage.

By DontHateonEG8
- Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:49 am #186240 Hi everyone!
Need some help and advice from the beloved civic community.

recently (within a year or so ago lol) I have update some of my interior and security features.

These features were a good alarm and nice set of gauges that will come to a great use later (total 6 of them :oops:). also i have fitted my radio with an internal antenna block, since my antenna hole is shaved.

Well you see my car has been inactive for sometime due to the fact that I have school and work and couple months ago. i tried unlocking my door and my battery appeared to be facked. going to walmart it appeared that a cell was no-bueno and they have replaced it. this happened about 2-3 times so far. I also installed all of the components and triple checked for a nice and clean install.

I know my updates charge power - alarm is constantly working to protect my car and the gauge set has a constant 12V connected to keep the color memory in shape. also my internal antenna draws power for some reason - as described by the manufacturer.

Well i strongly believe that these factors manage to drain my battery horribly.

No my question is:
how would i check the current draw on the battery using a multimeter? i know i must place the meter in parallel with the circuit to get a precise reading. maybe some advice?
If the the current draw is to big for a small stock civic battery, what would you recommend to use? Optima yellow seems like the ultimate tool at this moment.
Im going to recheck my work so what would you recommend to recheck?!

It be nice to have supendedHatch to chime in but any other useful advice would be taken in and enforced with a true appreciation!
Thanks! :thumb:
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By teal_dx
- Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:50 am #186256 you should wire the antenna to the +12v for the radio. Not the constant +12v, but the one from the radio fuse in the fuse box.
That way it's only on when your car radio is on.
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By DontHateonEG8
- Thu Apr 08, 2010 5:49 am #186287
teal_dx wrote:you should wire the antenna to the +12v for the radio. Not the constant +12v, but the one from the radio fuse in the fuse box.
That way it's only on when your car radio is on.


okay yeah that sounds like a good idea lol - i mean you cant blame me for following instructions :hehe: jk

oh and i found how to test for parasite drains on a toyota forum. i was right about connecting a dvm in parallel with the battery. ill try to attempt it as soon as possible and create a possible DIY for future troubleshooting.
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By suspendedHatch
- Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:17 am #186326 Teal means accessory or ignition power.

Letting any battery (except deep cycle) sit is going to drain it.

Alarm and radio current draw should be insignificant. A larger battery isn't the solution. If you let the car sit for a long period of time, you need a battery tender. If you have too much current draw, you need to locate and fix the problem.

You don't put it in parallel with the battery. You disconnect the battery power and put it inline with the power wire. BUT you have to make sure your DVM can handle the amperage w/out blowing the internal fuse, and you have to have the dial on the right setting and the probe in the correct hole. You also need to know how to interpret the results.
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By DontHateonEG8
- Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:49 pm #186384
suspendedHatch wrote:Teal means accessory or ignition power.

Letting any battery (except deep cycle) sit is going to drain it.

Alarm and radio current draw should be insignificant. A larger battery isn't the solution. If you let the car sit for a long period of time, you need a battery tender. If you have too much current draw, you need to locate and fix the problem.

You don't put it in parallel with the battery. You disconnect the battery power and put it inline with the power wire. BUT you have to make sure your DVM can handle the amperage w/out blowing the internal fuse, and you have to have the dial on the right setting and the probe in the correct hole. You also need to know how to interpret the results.


yeah i apologize you are right i meant in series, sorry.
what should be the max and the min current draws from a working battery when the car is in the off state?
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By LX_Sedan
- Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:58 pm #186385 Here is a pretty good way to do it, http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Parasitic-Battery-Drain Same way we do it at school except we don't disconnect the battery completely. We keep one probe at the Negative battery terminal and one at the post. then lift the terminal away from the post while holding a probe to the terminal, and keeping the other probe on the post and wait 3 minutes. This keeps the battery connected and doesn't loose radio presets and etc. It should be under 50mA in general, Toyota says under 25mA. you set the multimeter to mA.
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By suspendedHatch
- Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:37 am #186559 Great input LX_sedan!

It can't be "all the accessories". You find which component is causing the drain, verify it, then fix, replace, or disconnect it.
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