[Spock]

Rats. I have a parasitic current going on. With everything shut off, no lights on, no lights on in the glove compartment ands trunk I used my multi meter in series between the negative terminal and ground to determine I have an almost a 5 amp drain. I found it is going through fuse 33, which powers the hazard lights, cluster, ICP, and temp control panel. When I pull fuse 33, the drain goes back to 0.015 A, and when I change to scale to mA the drain turns to be 3 mA. There have been a few posts on the forum about a drain through fuse 33 (15 amp fuse), but no one reported a fix.

Has anyone been able to fix the problem? Here’s a description of what fuse 13 does and the readings off my multi meter. Thanks. Spock.

 

[ice445]

Stuck cassette tape is the most common cause. Or a bad head unit

 

[Spock]

Stuck cassette tape is the most common cause. Or a bad head unit

Thanks. In this case I was able to load and eject a tape, so not the “ loaded tape” scenario. I’ll pull the radio and measure again. Thanks. Spock.

 

[Spock]

Of anyone else has some experience with this, please keep the ideas coming. Spock.

 

[chartmaker]

Of anyone else has some experience with this, please keep the ideas coming. Spock.

I would pull the ICP and unplug power and see it it is the loss. Report back.
-chart-

 

[Spock]

Thanks Chart. Good to hear from you. Firstly I figured out the drain is actually 2.48 A, but became 4.5 A when I left the drivers side door open and the interior light came on.(unnoticed to me because I was at the front of the hood.) So using 2.48 as the problem drain, I pulled the ICP and removed all the connectors. ( the lines on the passenger side are pneumatic air lines, correct? I didn't pull those.) The drain did not change. One thing not clear on the wiring diagrams is the fuse 33 also controls the interior lights. I verified that opening the glove compartment, and the trunk just add to the drain. That opens more possibilities. Also the owner manual indicates fuse 30 controls the glove compartment light but pulling fuse 33 killed the glove compartment light.

Here are the drain currents summarized as a function of which interior lights were on:
No lights on 2.49 A
plus door open and interior light on 4.48 A
plus glove compartment door open and light on 5.39 A
plus trunk open and trunk light on 7.8 6 A.

I appreciate any other ideas to try kill the 2.49 A drain. Thanks. Spock

 

[Spock]

I also pulied the Hazard flasher and no change. The flasher works fine.

 

[Jeff K]

Are you measuring drain the right way? After the ammeter is installed in series with the battery, you MUST wait at least half an hour to 40 minutes after the meter is installed with all doors shut, key off. etc to give all the modules to go to sleep. If you open a door, step on the brake, turn the key to RUN, etc, you must wait out the 30 to 40 minute time again.

 

[Spock]

Thanks Jeff. I found some clamps and rigged a full time set up with the multimeter in the 10 A mode. Fuse #33 is in place and I am reading 2.2 Amps. All Doors are closed. Key off. All lights are out. I’ll leave this on and have a look later tonight. The ICP is still disconnected, but nothing changed when I disconnected it.

 

[Spock]

Here is a shot of my jury rigged system. I hooked up small clamps on the probes and a large clamp from a battery charger ( not plugged in) to grab the negative terminal. The multimeter is registering 2.2 Amps.

 

[Spock]

Ok, here are the initial results. At 5:51 the multimeter read 2.2 Amps. At 6:15 it was reading 1.0 Amp. At 6:29 it was reading 0.077 Amps ( 75 mA). At 6:32 it was 76 mA and coasting between the two. Inside the car I could see the factory alarm light blinking as it normally does. Thanks Jeff for the clarification. Thanks Chart for your attention. Sorry I did not clarify I did not set up properly. Looks like there is no issue. I will probably respond to a few older post where people were scratching their heads. Yes, hook up the multimeter ahead and let the car’s modules go into sleep mode and check the current draw. I put one lead on the negative battery cable and one lead on the negative terminal. The positive terminal was hooked up as usual. Thanks again. Now to get my dash put together.

 

[Spock]

One more thing, when I switched the multimeter to mA it read 28 mA but for some reason said -28. Not sure why but if it is indeed 28 mA it’s pretty much perfect.

 

[Automender12345]

Why did you think you had an issue in the first place? Dead battery?

 

[Spock]

Why did you think you had an issue in the first place? Dead battery?

I had a four year old battery that was naturally going week but wasn't sure. I thought I'd check it for a drain.

 

[chartmaker]

I had a four year old battery that was naturally going week but wasn't sure. I thought I'd check it for a drain.

Pic of battery "reserve capacity" that is how long it can keep up with an Alt fail, or lights left on. My own test WM battery in Bull, and 3.5 years of life. That older battery data will still start the car fine unless possible below zero might not make it but that is not my issue. And just me but, when I buy a new battery I want to drive local for a few days before a long trip. Our son put a new battery in Towne and country and drove 700 miles to visit. Battery died after he got here. Would not take a charge. Bought from his local farm supply so no warranty here of course. I had an old "deep discharge" battery in the basement, charged it and it got him home. If it had been WM battery, we could have just gone 5 miles and exchanged. Had he driven local a few days and it would have died at home.
Just replaced OE in my Buick Lucerne, 9 years old. It was a weak cranker for 3 years I had it but it was not a "have to go" car so I was not sure it was OE. There was no date code on the battery which would only happen for OE to the car. For my "have to go" bulls, I replace the battery every 3 years in the Fall. Two '03's that "have to go" in my herd.
And this: enemy of battery life, heat, vibration, high/low charging, deep discharge. Buick puts the battery under the rear seat so It does not see heat or vibration. Also uses a "hall effect" sensor and keeps track of battery use and condition and adjust charging to just what is needed. More expensive as it has sealed and vented outside the car so fumes are not near the battery cables.
-chart-

 

[Jeff K]

Just because a battery is only a few months or years old doesnt mean it is good. 20 years ago, I had a Sears Diehard that failed completely a couple days after installing it. Around 10 years ago had another name brand battery (forget the brand at the moment) that lasted a month in the wifes 04 SES Tec. And battery quality has gone down down the toilet since then.

Been using Wally World Everstart MAXX batteries for years now. I generally get 5+ years out of them. The Everstart MAXX 1000 CA / 850 CCA battery in my 88 Turbo Coupe is going on 7 years old and still starts the car like it did when it was new, even if the car has been sitting in the garage for weeks.