Seems legit. 15amp battery draw

[Kozworth]

1989 e34 525i

My moms car was driving fine then the timing belt snapped. As a result, I rebuilt the head, timing belt job, and I also put in a starter.

Now, she has been getting a dead battery after only a few hours of the car being shut off. I hooked the ammeter in series on the negative side, and it read 15amps. There are no interior/trunk lights on.

I pulled all the fuses in the fuse panel, the relays in both the fusepanel and the smaller fuse panel (assuming its the one with 3 relays, probably heated o2/fuel pump/main relays). I also pulled the (3) 7.5 amp fuses under the drivers rear seat, and no change in amperage.

I disconnected the small wire going to the alternator, and disconnected the b+ to the starter, and still the same.

Any ideas on what could be shorting? If someone has a ground setup for an m20 e34 that would help. Its just slightly different then the e30 m20s so maybe I am missing something.

[jlevie]

Does the car have any aftermarket electronics? There isn't that much that isn't fused and since pulling fuses didn't help the diagnosis you'll have to go about it another way. Get the factory diagrams from http://wedophones.com/BMWManualsLead.htm and locate and connect hot all the time circuits until you find the culprit.

[Kozworth]

Ok, you mean disconnect all live circuits until i see an amperage drop? Will have to check that out today thanks

[LJ851]

Retrace your steps. No problem before you worked on it and a problem after points to you changing something and causing the problem.

[Gregs///M]

Something does not sound right. Drawing 12v at 15A is a huge amount of current. Most multimeters, even my Flukes have a maximum current of 10A.

Are you sure it is drawing 15A's?

[Kozworth]

Retrace your steps. No problem before you worked on it and a problem after points to you changing something and causing the problem.

Exactly what I thought. Thats why i tried disconnecting the starter (since i replaced it the same time) and it still had the draw. I also checked for the typical grounds, the groundstrap on the pass side motor mount (the same thing as the e30 m20 which has the pan to chassis at the drivers side) seemed fine, and did not really see any loose ground straps or remember taking any others off. Even the tranny dipstick is connected back, I had an issue where a dipstick was not bolted at the top and caused an open.

Something does not sound right. Drawing 12v at 15A is a huge amount of current. Most multimeters, even my Flukes have a maximum current of 10A.

Are you sure it is drawing 15A's?

Thats what I am wondering now. I just got a dvom from walmart (silly, but I had one prior to this new one for a few years. I actually fried it by accident since I never use it on Amps.. Ive only used it for resistance and voltage tests). But shortly after using it (yes correctly this time ahha) the meter stopped reading voltage as whole. I am going to be getting a new meter.

I also tested the battery at the dealership with the gr8 machine, basically a whole battery diag and recharge. It checked out the battery as fine. I just charged the battery to ~11.3v last night before I had to leave, left it off the charger. I am gonna see if she drops drastically, its possible the machine could have not seen that the battery was bad.

[Kozworth]

Found the issue. The inductive pick up from the plug wire number 1 broke. It landed on the condenser and was shorting. Super farfetched but I moved the wire away from metal and left the battery connected... So far it has not died!