I've had a strange, intermittent electrical issue that has been going on for about 7-8 months now. Occasionally, after my 97 Maxima sits for 8+ hours, the battery will be completely drained when I go to start it. I emphasize the word occasionally because it will happen out of the blue and then the problem may go away for weeks or even months before returning again.

I have been battling this recently for the past couple of weeks and finally got around to beginning some troubleshooting. Using an ammeter, I monitored the current draw on the battery after the car had gone into "sleep mode." My jaw dropped when I saw that 141mA of current was being drawn. After just a bit, that number dropped to 75mA; still too much obviously. I went to go start pulling fuses and when I opened the door I realized that I needed to grab my flashlight. In going to get it, I noticed that the ammeter was displaying 0mA. I switched settings and saw that the car was now only drawing in the uA's.

This obviously is in line with the intermittent nature of the problem and it leads me to believe there is some sort of issue with a relay opening and closing in some weird fashion. Are there specific relays that are known to be problematic on 4th Gens? Any help or insight is appreciated!

 

The factory alarm sucks some power, but also do a quick test on the battery itself, you can do a quick load test by using a voltmeter on the battery and having someone turn on headlights, some radio, windows. etc... and the voltage will drop a fair bit, but should then stay very steady. if the Voltage keeps going down then your battery might just need replacing.

 

I actually had the battery tested today with a real tester and it was in very good shape. Thanks for the response though.

 

check all your grounds, install any electronics or anything?

 

No, the car is bone stock. Absolutely zero modifications.

I'd had trouble making sense of the idea that the problem was a short circuit because it was so intermittent. A circuit is pretty much shorted to ground or it isn't (in most cases). It generally doesn't float back and forth randomly between being grounded and lifted unless the phenomenon is tied to an erratic relay or other variable switch of some sort. That's what leads me to believe this problem is related to a relay. I'm primarily interested to see if there are any relays which are known to commonly be problematic in this way before I pursue this blindly.

 

Not sure your current reading really indicate any problems, I can not find how much sleep mode current is normal but you may be within range. I've read that sometimes the trunk switch malfuntions and the trunk light stays on, that is a possibility. You can try removing the trunk light bulb and driving without it for a while and see if that helps. You may be able to disconnect some other circuits and drive without them for a while to maybe isolate your problem. I don't think a faulty relay is a likely cause. I know it's a simple thing but make sure your battery terminal connections are clean and tight.

 

+1000, everybocy forgets to clean their terminals. but also get a wire brush or the thing that looks like a lil cover with the wire bristles inside and make ur battery posts nice and shiny.

 

I had read that anything over 30mA indicated there could be an issue. Not sure if that is definitive or not, but it sounds about right. I couldn't imagine basic things like ECU memory, radio memory, the clock, etc. needing 141mA of current.

Appreciate the input!