This may be an odd question but does anyone know the amount of milliamps a 5th gen uses after about an hour of being off. My battery drains after 2 days. Battery and alternator are good so I am to assume something is draining the battery. I have read elsewhere that most cars use 50 to 100 milliamps depending on the car (amount of electronics in the car really). I plan on working on the issue this weekend and wanted a baseline when I get my meter out. Thanks for any help.

 

hhhmmm not sure , but if you do have a drain a good way to tell is disconnect your neg. battery cable and put a test light in series with the cable & neg battery post.

depending on how bright it shines iit wil give you an idea if it has a drain.

really dim means normal, anything brighter means you have a drain, like something is on even after you turn the key off.

don't know the amount of power the computers use to maintain memory , i can only tell you if the drain is big or not

 

Never thought of doing it that way. But a meter would pretty much tell me the same thing anyway, well if I ever find it.

 

Aftermarket alarm systems are a great source of drains.

 

you can also find it by using your meter in the same way , and by pulling fuses one at a time, and seeing which one affects your readings

 

I'm retired and my car will sit for a week sometimes and it cranks strong and starts right up.

 

I have same problem too ...I have a capacitor on my stereo and thought it was that leaking power and recharging while car is off ...hummm watching this thread

 

You could do all this but if your battery is 4-5 years old, just replace it. It costs $50-$100 and it will take you at least that much in headache to figure out the drain.

I had very similar case on another vehicle and I spent weeks trying to analyze and calculate the drain etc and was worried sick that I had some internal short in the wiring.

As it turned out, I put the new battery and made sure connections were good and never had to worry about drain again.

If there is a weak cell in the battery, you would have self-drain problem.

- Vikas

 

A bad ground could also cause a battery drain issue. Was there anything recently installed or moved? Audio equipment or alarm or anything electrical? If so check there first. But I agree it is prob the battery. I have had a defective battery s*** the bed in about a months time. Bring it to Autozone for a free check.

 

I am going to try this if there is a significant drain noticed. It should narrow it down pretty well.

The battery is less than a year old and is a yellow top. I have checked volts in the battery and they are well over 12 with the car off.


An alarm was recently installed yes but I am unsure if it is the cause. I guess I can pull the fuse when I am testing. The only other thing recently installed that is electrical is an led board in the dome light.