How do i go about finding a drain with a multi meter?
Also, this is a battery that i know to be good, holds charge for well over a month and still cranks on my 5.7L Ford Torino! but after a coouple of days on the 2 is flat as a pancake!!
[Mk2] [NA] How do you test a battery drain?
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[Mk2] [NA] How do you test a battery drain?
Right, i'm fairly dense when it comes to electrics, but i seem to have the battery go flat within a day or so, dont' have a stereo fitted and afaik have no alarm fitted.
How do i go about finding a drain with a multi meter?
Also, this is a battery that i know to be good, holds charge for well over a month and still cranks on my 5.7L Ford Torino! but after a coouple of days on the 2 is flat as a pancake!!
How do i go about finding a drain with a multi meter?
Also, this is a battery that i know to be good, holds charge for well over a month and still cranks on my 5.7L Ford Torino! but after a coouple of days on the 2 is flat as a pancake!!
Re: [Mk2] [NA] How do you test a battery drain?
The way to test for battery drain is to set your multimeter to amps, disconnect the positive battery terminal and put one terminal of the multimeter to the battery post and the other multumeter probe onto the battery terminal you have disconnected. this will complete the circuit again. then lock your car and watch for current draw after approx 30sec all electrical consumers should have shut down.A certain amount of current draw is acceptable , as long as it is very small amount, depending on the results it is possible to determine what kind of electrical consumer is likely to be causing the drain as different components will draw different amount of amps i.e upto 0.5 amps could be an interior light etc
hope this helps
this will complete the circuit again. then lock your car and watch for current draw after approx 30sec all electrical consumers should have shut down.A certain amount of current draw is acceptable , as long as it is very small amount, depending on the results it is possible to determine what kind of electrical consumer is likely to be causing the drain as different components will draw different amount of amps i.e upto 0.5 amps could be an interior light etchope this helps
Re: [Mk2] [NA] How do you test a battery drain?
prob best to do it on the negative terminal instead, just a little safer if you accidentally short it.
A normal car when off should drain no more than about 0.05amps. When you switch off the car, open the door do the electric windows still work? as that was a big drain on my system.
A normal car when off should drain no more than about 0.05amps.
When you switch off the car, open the door do the electric windows still work? as that was a big drain on my system.drain
Right, had a play about over the weekend, i found it was the first fuse i removed which was causing the drain.........dome!
So obviously i've checked the interior lights are going off(inc boot light)
A drain of 0.57, any ideas what it could be?
........dome!So obviously i've checked the interior lights are going off
(inc boot light)A drain of 0.57, any ideas what it could be?
Re: [Mk2] [NA] How do you test a battery drain?
Does the green light around the ignition barrel go out when car is locked?mine doesn't and that causes a drain. Apart from that if you check the manual for the wiring diagram for the dome circuit and then just go through a process of elimination from the start of the circuit to the end by substituting the bulbs etc one at a time until you eliminate the component that is causing the draw. at 0.57 amps i would expect to see it being more than one lamp or a big interior lamp. It could also be a wiring fault like a short to earth but you will need to find which part of the circuit is causing the drain befor you check if it is the component or the wiring.If you don't have the workshop manual there is an online manual available.
Apart from that if you check the manual for the wiring diagram for the dome circuit and then just go through a process of elimination from the start of the circuit to the end by substituting the bulbs etc one at a time until you eliminate the component that is causing the draw. at 0.57 amps i would expect to see it being more than one lamp or a big interior lamp. It could also be a wiring fault like a short to earth but you will need to find which part of the circuit is causing the drain befor you check if it is the component or the wiring.If you don't have the workshop manual there is an online manual available.-
milesy_boy
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:43 am
- Location: Falkirk, Scotland
Battery drain
Hi all, I'll tell you exactly what you have, I had the exact same problem, believe it or not the dome fuse still controls some of the audio equipment, the drain is coming from the old amp(s?) that lie behind the plastic covering in the rear wing, where the rear speaker sits, there are 2 multi plugs in to it, think it is the larger one, but for some reason the faulty amp caused the drain through the dome fuse, I disconnected the amp and the drain went away!!! check the drain via the meter when you start unplugging the amp.
HTH
HTH
