Electrical Drain on Battery

[Paul]

I am currently trying to troubleshoot an electrical drain on my battery. With the car off (no key in the ignition, all doors closed, lights off) do you know what the acceptable draw is (in Amps or mA)?

I purchased a volt meter and plan to start testing different things tonight.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Briank]

Normal draw is 40 to 65 mA.

 

[Paul]

Thanks Brian! I will let you know what I find out.

 

[DrDave]

Mine measures 37 ma. I keep a battery tender on it at all times when not being driven. A parasitic draw in the 30-60 ma range will bring a battery to the 80% state of charge within days. The battery plates sulfate at that point. The battery will lose capacity and ability to store a charge. You really want the battery on a battery tender or other smart charger device.

Dave

 

[Paul]

Dave,

Thanks for the reply. I temporarily replaced the radio with one that works and measured the draw. It's now measuring 38 mA. I beleive it was my radio causing the problems. The problem now seems to be resolved with the bad head unit removed.


I tend to keep a battery charger hooked to the car (but not plugged in the wall). Once a week I will plug it in to the wall. The battery charger typically takes a matter of minutes to recharge the battery when charged once a week. I started to notice it would take hours to fully recharge even after one day of sitting. Coincidently when this started happening, the Bose head unit was acting up.

 

[NSX GT]

Yea, my battery was dead too from not driving the car. I have a Schumacher trickle car batt charger. Question, is it okay to leave the charger plugged in and connected to battery in car?? Even after its fully charged? Also the battery terminals needs to be disconnected from battery anytime charging correct?

Just double checking. Its been a while.

 

[BTL3.0]

HI dont think you need to leave the neg. Terminal off the battery while its being trickle charge. I nevr took my off. Plus with the schumaker battery tender, it have a build in maintainence where itll fully charge and then msintain the full level while its pkug into the wall. Ive done this for the past 2 winter with no problem. I use the permanent option instead of the clamps cable.