Hi guys, so recently I went on a 5-day hiking trip, and when I got back, my car was dead. Completely dead. I got it jumped and drove around for 30 minutes without problem. When I turned it off, I started it again to see if it had enough power, and it did.

Sure enough 24 hours later, it's completely dead - not even enough power to turn an interior light on. So I believe that it is a parasitic battery drain. Assuming it is, are there any words of advice I should have before I hunt it down this weekend? Any known trouble spots?

 

Is the trunk or glove box light staying on? The batteris capacity to hold a charge may be deminished. The ECM and BCM are always drawing something like .02A each and it may be too much for the battery if its been drained 2 or three times in the past.

I'll post more on testing later Im at work on a break now.

 

Turn off everything and close the doors. Hook pos lead of Vmeter to negative batter clamp. touch neg lead of vmeter to neg post. lift off clamp while maintaining contact with vmeter leads you should not see more than .05A. If excessive, pull fuses 1 at a time until you see a drop. look in that circuit for the guilty party.

Make sure you dont break the circuit between battery/vmeter/batt cable, or will not get an accurate measure. If you break the cicuit, reconnect battery and start over as the clocks and ecm/bcm will need to re-enegize.

 

If the draw is greater than a few amps you will probably blow the internal fuse in the multimeter...assuming it has one. Open the door and disconnect the driver's door pin switch so you can access the fuse box without turning on the interior lights. (which will definitely blow the dmm fuse)

Good luck...I always hated searching for parasitic drain because it can be a pain in the ***. At least the 4th gens don't have the more complicated body control computers of newer cars.

 

Read this:

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...rain-help.html

 

yeah it is a good thread to read,
make sure security in your car is going to sleep mode, check trunk sensor. then you can measure accurately, and don't forget to tape hood sensor!
but this case looks like something is drawing big current!
having similar problem, my audio was drawing 700mA!!! ( key-off) gotta check it tomorrow.
i got all electrical diagram if you need.

 

Have you ruled out the possibility of a bad battery? Short of taking it to a parts store where they can do a load test on it, measure the battery voltage after the car has been sitting for 15 minutes or so. The battery voltage should be 12.1 volts. Then measure the voltage as you are cranking the engine. The voltage should not go below 11.

 

I doubt that he will find the glove box light staying on. It's part of the dash lights.

 

Most DMMs have a 10A internal fuse. Mine even does, and its a pile.

 

Your battery is toast. Conventional batteries (non deep cycle) doesn't tolerate discharge cycles in that severity (complete drain).

Best way is to load test the battery first, then do an in-vehicle test to load-test the alternator. I use a Midtronics load tester.

 

I still have managed to blow the 10A fuse in my Fluke 88V a few times. It just depends on how high the drain is and if it surges.