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battery drain

XHitman396

1/2 ton status
Joined
May 3, 2002
Posts
624
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Location
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Im trying to figure out why my battery is dead after sitting a while, but i need a reference point for what a normal, working truck pulls from the battery while its just sitting, turned off. so what do you guys get when you put the ammeter in series with the battery cable?? my numbers are also fluctuating an annoying amount, could this be due to a capacitor i have for my stereo? thanks
 
huh?

parasitic energy drains, like computer memory, clock, stuff like that, ought to drain a total of about 50 milliamps or less. if you've got more than that going out, try pulling the fuses one by one, and measuring the difference in draw each time (take notes, by the way). When you're done, you will be able to isolate the circuit(s) that's causing the excessive draw.

the capacitor on your radio should be attached to the antenna circuit, not the power. its purpose is to filter out emi/rfi noise. that shouldn't have any effect at all. in fact, since capacitors store up energy until the pressure is great enough to overcome the strength of the internal insulator (dielectric), a capacitor would tend to have the effect of suppressing the draw, not encouraging leakage.

Shut the engine off and leave it off while you go have a beer before you make the tests, so that you can eliminate the effect of devices that stay on for some period of time after the engine's turned off.
 
i have an easy cure for your problem. solar battery tender from harbor freight. i got mine several months ago and haven't had a dead battery since, even i the winter. and the k5 sits for weeks at time, since it's not my dd.
 
I just went through this same issue. First thing is to go get the battery tested. If it comes back as okay, than do like the one person said. get a multi meter. put it on AMPS. take the neg. terminal off battery. put pos. lead of MM on the NEg cable and the Neg lead of the MM on the neg. term of battery. IF everything is shut off and your reading more than .25 milliamps than youve got something drawing current. Then you simply start pullling fuses til you find the one that kills the current draw.
 
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