help with battery drain - suggestions needed

[irish44j]

I'm getting a slow battery drain (goes dead after a few days of sitting)

1. The battery is good, I'm positive of that.

The drain appears to be coming through fuses 21 and 27. There was also a non-switched pull on fuse 28 (cig lighter and power antenna) but after unhooking the power antenna there is no current through that fuse any longer.

So I'm left with 21 and 27. These fuses, according to Bentley, jointly control:
1. radio
2. interior lighting
3. computer

I thought it was the radio constant power doing it, so I unhooked the radio, but there is still an electrical pull on both of these circuits.

I verified that, with doors closed, trunk closed, ect there are no interior lights on (there isn't one under the hood, is there?), so the lights themselves are not causing the drain as far as I can tell.

So that leaves me with basically two options:
1. a short someplace. This seems odd, since I would think that a short would eventually blow the fuses, especially if it is a constant short as it seems to be. Plus it's two circuits, so it would have to be two shorts.

2. the car computer/ECU/etc. Next step will be to unplug the gauge cluster and/or ECU to check that. But my question here is whether the ECU/gauge cluster SHOULD be pulling any current with the car off (and key out of ignition). If it should, of course I'm going to get current.

Any tips, suggestions, places to look would be welcome.

Josh

[vpilarrt]

There was also a non-switched pull on fuse 28 (cig lighter and power antenna) but after unhooking the power antenna there is no current through that fuse any longer

Am I missing something - isn't this your problem? Your antenna shouldn't be pulling any power when not raising/lowering.

[dwvw]

What is your actual amperage draw?

[irish44j]

Am I missing something - isn't this your problem? Your antenna shouldn't be pulling any power when not raising/lowering.

lol, obviously that was one of the problems. The motor must have had a short in it and was drawing power. When unplugged there is no longer a draw on that circuit. So that's one issue down.

#27 is now solved as well. I took out the power lock actuators as well as the interior light timer module. One of them was clearly drawing, and since this is a future rallycross car I don't need either of those things, so not going to bother trying to solve it further. With them both removed, #27 circuit is now dormant.

So now all I have left is #21.....which is going to take some wire tracing.

What is your actual amperage draw?

draw from both the positive terminal and the #21 fust is about 10-11 amps, so it's a pretty beefy draw.