another-user

i drained my battery in roughly 2hrs this afternoon, so i went looking for the source of the drain. i found 2 circuits pulling 12.4v with everything off. those two circuits were brake/acc and taillight/hazard. those circuits dropped down to 11.7 when lights/brakes lights were turned on. all the other circuits at the fuse box pulled .6v or 0.0v.

so, where would i even start looking for a draw on those circuits? if my lights were stuck on, id have a decent idea as to where to go... but with the lights operating correctly?

sly vette

May be a bad brake light sw. Disconnect and check for voltage draw.

...Roger...

How did you get these readings ? Please explain how and where you attached your voltmeter.
I think you might be going about this wrong.

another-user

negative peg went in the steering column (was just the first ground i could find and wedge the plug into) and i laid the positive right on the metal end of the fuse.

...Roger...

Your measuring battery voltage not amps draw on the battery.

another-user

alright, ill check amperage tomorrow.

68sbcoupe

you have to put your meter on AMPS, and move the leads to the current measuring sockets.

Then, one by one, remove the fuses in your fuse box. Plase the + and - probes from your meter across the two contacts where the fuse was. (one on one side, the second probe on the other side.) Now, all the cyrrent in that circuit is passing through your meter. They should all read 0.

If you have a third hand, push the door light switch in the door jamb so that doesn't confuse things.

Presumably, a fused circuit is leaking or shorted somewhere. if none of the fused circuits reads any current flowing, then you're left with the ignition & starter circuits.

Good luck.

...Roger...

You need to remove the neg battery cable,put one meter probe on the neg cable and the other probe on the neg battery terminal. This will show draw through the meter,meter must be on 10 amps.
I did a thread using a test light to find draw,I'll see if I can find it.

edit- 68sbcoupes way will work also circuit by circuit.

Danish Shark

I don't know if you are already aware of this, but as a warning: When the meter is in the AMP position and the wires are connected to the AMP terminal the meter acts as a short circuit, so remember never connect it across battery voltage in this configuration or the fuse in the meter will blow.

HBZ_81_C3

You should be fine on measuring amp draw on most all circuits with the exception of starter motor amp draw. Then you will need a "shunt cable" for your meter to be able to measure the high amp draw.

another-user

i went through all the fuses, and heres what i found.

2A setting on all of these
.011 - wipers
.003-.004 - inst lps, instrument lamps, im assuming
the biggie, .2 - .9 - hazards
.028 - tail

another-user

well, now im just confused as hell...

i went out to play around with this today, and... well, i have no idea how this is even possible.

the hazard circuit is now drawing anywhere from .2 to 1.4. i pulled the hazard flasher box out of the fuse panel and nothing changed.

i had one end of the multimeter in the fuse panel, and bumped a pedal with the other end, and found that was registering as a draw also, same amperage.

unscrewed the quick disconnect, so all that was hooked up was my stereo. same amperage draw.

unhooked the stereo, so absolutely nothing was hooked up. same amperage draw.

i havnt pulled a cable yet, but that shouldnt make a difference with my quick disconnect being pulled.

7t9l82

my ignition switch wasn't working properly and drained my battery several times before i figgured it out

sly vette

I'm no expert on things electrical but I'm thinkin' you may be backfeeding voltage from somewhere.
Just guessin'.