Battery drain

[J-2]

Can any one tell me what the parasitic drain normally is. I have checked the drain on my car and it is 0.15 amps.
It starts at 0.45amps then the interior light relay trips out and it is 0.27amps and then after about 10 mins it drops to 0.15 amps.
It is the same locked or unlocked.

[Penelope Stopit]

Try disconnecting the radio and retesting, often an incorrectly wired radio will give a reading similar to your findings

Battery drains after the vehicle has been locked and parked up for half an hour do vary from car to car

0.025 Amps which is 25 Milliamps is what you should be aiming at getting it down to but depending upon what kit's fitted.....................

[Chimp871]

Best way is to measure amps as you pull each fuse and relay. 30 minutes and you'll know what area is draining the battery

[Penelope Stopit]

Chimp871 said:

Best way is to measure amps as you pull each fuse and relay. 30 minutes and you'll know what area is draining the battery

Not if the drain is being caused by a unit with its own in-line fuse that's connected to a permanent battery positive supply, if only life was that easy

[Sardonicus]

Yep thats too much more like 30 ma more acceptable or less , pulling fuses a good starting point

[Loubaruch]

Pulling fuses a good first step.

Two possible candidates for the excessive drain:

Alarm/immobiliser, the old Meta unit as fitted to many TVR's had I recall quite a hefty drain.

The internal light relay ( called a relay but in fact much more than that) its the yellow one on the Fuse/relay panel is a known culprit, just pull it out to check.

[wuckfitracing]

As above mine was the interior light relay.

[J-2]

Thanks for your help, it was the radio. Self inflicted I am afraid. I changed it in March when I did a dash refurb and wired it up the same as the old Kenwood radio that was fitted from new.
I will now have to find a live feed for the switch supply that is ignition switched, before I was switching it on and off on the on/off button and it worked the same way the Kenwood one did with 2 permanent live feeds. The drain is now 0.03 amps. So that is an improvement.

[Penelope Stopit]

Sardonicus said:

Yep thats too much more like 30 ma more acceptable or less , pulling fuses a good starting point

No way

How did the man know?