Drain hunting.. (whats a "average draw?)

[Stupink]

Hi,
My new hobby is the location of waste and surface water drains, if anyon......... erm...

My car never quite liked being not used daily.. even so if it was only short trips it would eventually reach a point it wouldnt start one morning and i'd have to remove the battery, fully charge it and off we go again for another couple of months.. Alternator is ok, battery is ok.. its a drain somewhere.. If i disconnect the battery, it lasts ages, its been 6months+ since i've used the car last and its still almost fully charged, because i removed the earth..

I'm thinking its the Alarm... Its a clifford.. has anyone else had similar problems??? What should the drain be on something like that?

Anyway, before i go whining at them about it, i need to isolate it and be 100% certain, because all my electrics are crap..

Am i right in thinking my 10Amp multimeter should be ok??? If its taking that long to discharge it cant be over 10amp surely???

What i was planning on doing was connecting the terminals connecting my multimeter on 10Amp mode to the battery and the terminal *then* disconnecting the terminal from the battery. I'm thinking that if i just remove the connection then connect my multimeter the surge might be easily over 10A, but by doing it this way it should be ok??

What sort of figure is an acceptable draw?
What i was goin to do is get a base figure, then remove and refit the fuses one by one making a note of the drain on each, then remove the alarm etc etc.. so i should be able to find what everything is drawing to find the culprit, if i go into the alarm centre with that information, they can hardly tell me its a fault with the car [img]/wink.gif[/img] unless of course it is [img]/biggrin.gif[/img] in which case i'll shutup and fix it [img]/biggrin.gif[/img]
I think my radio draws some due to a faulty electric ariel outlet, so that will be first job to remove that! which is a shame as its a good radio [img]/sad.gif[/img]

[Naz]

I think the best thing Stu is to see what sort of load is on your batt under normal parked condition. To do that jst disconnect the +ve term and connect your multimeter in 'current'mode in 'series' to the battery so you form a closed loop and you will see some sort of drain on your batt. If you have alarm and stuff installed then the current drawn will be diff.

Next check your alternator and see if it charged properly and what sort of voltage you get accross the batt when running. It should be >13.5v.

If its all ok then maybe your batt is knackered?

Cheers

[Stupink]

Na its a new batt and alternator... the battery has been disconnected for about 6+months now after i charged it fully, and its still fully charged, im using it every now and then to turn the car for a bit.. its definately a drain, i've just gotta find out where from.. [img]/sad.gif[/img]

have you ever done it??? I don't know what sort of drain to expect, what figures were you getting?, so im not sure if my multimeter will be rated high enough, its only 10A as i say, since thats unfused, i'd rather not risk blowing it up.. i guess im going to have to!! Won't be able to test it for a little whiel anyway.. half the cars sat here in my front room [img]/tongue.gif[/img]

[Naz]

Well if you chcking the drain in normal condition, then 10A is more than adequate.

If you want to test during the cranking, then again 10A is more than adequate. 10A is a very very huge amount. Unless there is a dead short between +ve and -ve in your system, then i think you are ok with testing all currents with the 10A setting, except putting it in line with your main starter motor feed!! [img]/ohmy.gif[/img]

[Stupink]

OK cheers... I won't know the restult for a while, but i've added it to my to do list.. which is now a mere 13 jobs long [img]/sad.gif[/img] Its going to be a busy few weeks getting all this gear ready for the august meet!!! most the jobs are a good 2-3hour+ type [img]/sad.gif[/img] *joy*

[Tattooman]

don't talk to me about drain!!! apparently average drain should be .35 milliamps(think that's right?).mine is .350 milliamps!!! mainly due to clifford concept 400 with interior/exterior sensors, don't suppose other things do it any good either, headunit led flashing etc etc.got to drive at least 15-20 miles a day to top battery up, or next morning it'll be down to around 11 volts mark [img]/sad.gif[/img] saying that there must be a fault somewhere, cos when i pull fuse 8, the drain is down to the average, so it's gotta be the stereo pulling the drain.