Current consumption when locked

[dnb]

I have been battling an odd current consumption issue on my Griff for a few weeks. I believe I have now found most of it - a variety of diodes were used in the hazard light circuit in a bit of an odd way. These, over the years, had stopped being quite so diode like. I have rewired said circuit in a more conventional way and reduced the current consumption from approx 150mA down to 66mA, broken down as follows:

Alarm consumption - 22mA
Door lock consumption (idle) - 13mA
Window auto closer (idle) - 4mA
Clock - 3mA
Dash electronics (idle) - 17mA
Parasitic loss from diodes in relay coils - 5mA

Total consumption (idle) - 66mA

I can probably do a bit better with the dash electronics (all made to my own design) by using a more expensive switch mode power supply - this should reduce consumption by at least 10mA. This combined with finding and reducing the parasitic loss in the relay diodes where possible should let me achieve my target of less than 50mA when locked. If I achieve this, the car will have a "standby" time of about a month with the current battery not on charge. (Realistically I need a fortnight plus safety margin, so a month is ideal.)

Could I do better by looking more carefully at the alarm?

What sort of figures are other cars seeing? It doesn't have to be a breakdown (although this would of course be interesting) an overall draw figure would be sufficient.

Thanks

[Barreti]

Excuse my ignorance dnb, and I'm only asking for my own education, but why would you see power consumption on those parts at idle like the door locks?

[dnb]

I'm not 100% sure - I've not taken a door lock "relay" apart yet! Since the door lock relay apparently operates when it receives a pulse signal from the alarm/immobiliser unit I am expecting to find an active component in it, such as an opamp circuit. The door lock solenoids themselves should not use power when inactive.

It seems like a bit too much current to me, but electronics have got better over the last few years. Hence my question about what other Griffs are doing.

[Loubaruch]

The light delay relay (actually looks like a relay but has active components inside the case) is also a candidate for current loss, maybe worth unplugging it and see if anything changes, it is linked to the door switches. Mine seems to have failed, must sort it out when the fuel leak is sorted.

[Hoover.]

changing the immobiliser (gemma to toad) on mine seems to have prolonged the battery life when the car is sitting doing nothing by about 3 weeks

[dnb]

I too have a Toad alarm and have removed the light delay thingy since the alarm performs this function. The alarm powered on its own consumes precicely what the instructions say.

[neutral 3]

The new battery on my one if left connected is flat after 3 days with the doors closed but the car unlocked. I havnt had time to investigate the cause, but I'm now having to leave the footwell panel out for easier access to jump it.