Removed power antenna, battery drained

[itique]

Last night I remove my original factory antenna, which didn't work. I had been experiencing a parasitic drain on that fuse, which powers the antenna & cigarette lighter. I don't drive this car often so the battery will drain in a few days if not driven or charged. I usually keep it on a BMW trickle charger which plugs into the cigarette lighter to keep the battery topped up while not in use since I haven't dealt with the drain yet.

I purchased and installed a Z3 antenna base to replace mine so that I could use a short antenna. When I finished up last night all was well, my radio reception was very good, everything seemed ok. I plugged up my trickle charger overnight.

When I got in the car to drive it this afternoon, the battery was dead. I also noticed that the trickle charger's green light was blinking while the red was steady. Normally only the red light is on steady while charging, and the green light is on steady when full. Now, whenever I plug in the charger, I get a steady red and a blinking green; sometimes after a few seconds, sometimes after a minute or so.

The new antenna is not connected to any power source, only to the actual antenna cable. The old connecter for the power and remote (red and white wires going into a plastic connector) are connected to nothing right now, just hanging. What have I done wrong?

Apologies for the long post, just trying to accurately describe the situation.

[Coach]

I too have a parasitic drain - funny thing is I just removed my original power antenna and I am waiting on my universal one.. I hope someone chimes in. Best of luck to both of us!

[itique]

Hey Coach, I think I figured out what happened with my battery draining after removing the antenna. I removed the negative battery cable while I removing the antenna and running some other wire. Even though I put the cable back, it must not have been seated right or something because i certainly had no power when I tried to start it the next day. That has happened to me a few times, so I automatically just assumed that the battery was drained. After removing the cable and putting it back again tight, it seems to be OK now.

In an effort to get my car running again, I plugged the old antenna back in and noticed that after a couple hours (with the car off) the antenna box was warm. That made me think that the antenna may have been the culprit for my parasitic drain the whole time. I haven't done another parasitic drain test since taking out the antenna.

Coach, have you done the test to find which circuit/fuse is causing your battery drain?