Battery dies, when sits longer that 3 days

[brickwhite]

Anyone that can help,

I have a 92 325ic, I had a 5 month old battery that dies after sitting in the car for over 4 days. When I go out to the car the green indicator dash lights are lit, without the ignition being turned on.

Anyone every seen this??

Thanks,
Brick

[DCColegrove]

Anyone that can help,

I have a 92 325ic, I had a 5 month old battery that dies after sitting in the car for over 4 days. When I go out to the car the green indicator dash lights are lit, without the ignition being turned on.

Anyone every seen this??

Thanks,
Brick

Bad SI board.

[jlevie]

I had a 5 month old battery that dies after sitting in the car for over 4 days.

I presume that means that the car won't start at that point. Unswitched power is supplied to the cluster to keep the SI board happy. If the system voltages is low enough, it could cause the service led's to light.

A good battery should not run down in four days unless there is excessive parasitic draw (the current drawn when the car is off). While there could be a failure somewhere in the car that is drawing excessive current, the most common causes of excessive parasitic draw are improperly installed aftermarket audio systems and alarms.

To check for excessive parasitic draw you need to connect an ammeter (use an auto ranging DMM) between the negative battery terminal and the negative cable. Normal parasitic draw is 30-60ma. More than that means pulling one fuse at a time until you find the offending circuit. Then trouble shooting the circuit to find the cause.

[brantleyr]

unplug your glove box light ;)

[Madhatter]

id start by unplugging the battery when its parked and see if it holds charge. Just because its a new battery, doesnt mean it cant drop a cell.

[brickwhite]

battery woes

battery holds a charge, pulled glove box light. I can't find a any draw across the battery.

[jlevie]

What is the current drawn from the battery with the car off?

[e304me]

i just looked at mine and it leveled out at about .01 amps, but ive done a shit load of electrical work so i dunno if thats right

[StereoInstaller1]

i just looked at mine and it leveled out at about .01 amps, but ive done a shit load of electrical work so i dunno if thats right

.01A, or .01mA?

[e304me]

well thats when the multimeter is on the 10amp setting, so i guess .01a :(

edit: i just went and put it on the 20m setting, and agian it selled down to about .01 and with the door open says like .9. I couldnt get anything on the 2000micro a setting

[Farbin Kaiber]

Sometimes trunk lights, or stereo equipment can cause a slow loss of power. I would have said the glovebox light, but that's already been stated.

[StereoInstaller1]

My recommendation is to use a testlight to test for draw.

Connect it the same way, by interrupting the ground.

When the bulb is on, you have a draw. A dim glow is when you bust out the multimeter.

Make sure doors are closed, or at least the doorpins disconnected. As others have mentioned, make sure the trunk pin is closed, same for glovebox.

Soon as everything is closed, if you still have a draw, start pulling fuses one by one.

An easier method on the testlight is to run wires out of the trunk so it can be closed while testing.

GL!
Luke

[Money$hit]

mine was a glovebox light.