KiDDD...

Alright guys, I'm sure I have a parasitic drain. Something keeps draining my battery, thing is I cant figure out what it is.

I was planning on following the advice that FCM was kind enough to share with me, if I can get this damn multimeter showing me something lol.

Your 12V test light is fine for testing for parasitic draw, anything but the faintest glow from the bulb filament is a draw that is too high.

Start by removing the main fuse, if the draw goes away, replace the fuse and start pulling the rest of the fuses.

If draw is still there, disconnect the alt. lead from the engine bay fuse box, if draw is gone, replace the alt. the voltage regulator is N/G.

Back to the fuses, remove all the fuses, one by one and leave them out, it may be a componant that has more then one power lead, a 12V constant and a 12V switched with a blown diode will still show a draw if only one of the fuses is pulled.

Use the batt. neg.(-) batt post and clamp, all grounds a common but the hot side, [pos.(+)] side is a number off differant circuits.

When doing the draw test wait a min. before you disconnect the batt., clamp test light ground to the batt. post, jamb test light probe into cable clamp, touch cable clamp to the batt. post for a bit before disconnecting, that will assure any timer circuit has gone to "sleep" before you do the draw test.

Also if anything is connected directly to the batt, [amp power] disconnect them first. 94

Anyways, here's the problem. I did the "old school" trick of using the 12V test light on the negative terminal and sure enough the light came on, indicating I have a parasitic drain. I decided to test it with the multimeter to figure out HOW MUCH drain is being retracted exactly.

Well, when I tested with the multimeter, it's not showing anything, wtf? Am I not doing this right...

Here is how I tested with the multimeter... I put the black plug on the "Com" and the red plug on the "10A" on the bottom left. I then put the multimeter setting on 10A on the dial. I then loosened up the black wire connector on the battery. I put the black wire tip on the negative battery terminal and the red wire tip on the negative terminal connector wire, lifted up the wire (without touching the black wire) and it read nothing. I moved around the dial on the multimeter to different amps readings assuming the draw was too small and nothing... am I doing something wrong?
If you dont understand what I'm trying to say, here's the link.. https://honda-tech.com/forums/tech-misc-15/resource-measuring-parasitic-current-draw-2893985/

Like always any help is appreciated guys. Thanks.

andyz

The 10A plug only works for the 10A setting on the dial. Use the regular plug for smaller Amps measurements.

Use regular plug on right side, and set dial to say, 200m. Then maybe go down to 20m if reading is still zero.

Be careful. Using the wrong range on Amps measurements can easily fry your meter. Thats why 10A is fused and you can replace the fuse.

MRGRIM

iTrader: (1)

you have the leads from the multy around the wrong way
its just like putting batterys together in a tourch its + to - to + to _
then your connected in series and the meter will read amps
connected in parallel if for reading Volts and Resistance

KiDDD...

I switched the plugs around, therefore had the black on "Com" and the red plug to the right. I set the dial to 200m first and got nothing. Then gave 20m a try and got nothing either. Figured maybe the multimeter isnt working, so I used another one which is brand new. Got the same results. 0.00. I then thought ok maybe its not a parasitic drain then....SO, I decided to turn on the dome light and force it to have a drain....tested again, and it still reads 0.00 on both 200m and 20m, wtf!?!?

KiDDD...

Took some quick pics to show where I could possibly be drawing power from...Only things I have connected are my clock, S2000 push start button and my fogs.

red wire = fog light power.





Yellow wire = S2K push button start.
Both red = Foglight wring.

MRGRIM

iTrader: (1)

have you had the battery load tested it could be a dead cell in the battery this will have the same cuase effect flat battery

a dead cell will charge up then drain down ..say over night to lower than normal levels
but will not hold a chatge for long periods of time

KiDDD...

yeah bro, I actually even had the battery changed three times (luckily the guy that works at autozone seems to like me)

I even got a new alternator assuming that was the problem at first.

KiDDD...

so I've been following these steps and have come to a interesting conclusion.

Your 12V test light is fine for testing for parasitic draw, anything but the faintest glow from the bulb filament is a draw that is too high.

Start by removing the main fuse, if the draw goes away, replace the fuse and start pulling the rest of the fuses.

If draw is still there, disconnect the alt. lead from the engine bay fuse box, if draw is gone, replace the alt. the voltage regulator is N/G.

Back to the fuses, remove all the fuses, one by one and leave them out, it may be a componant that has more then one power lead, a 12V constant and a 12V switched with a blown diode will still show a draw if only one of the fuses is pulled.

Use the batt. neg.(-) batt post and clamp, all grounds a common but the hot side, [pos.(+)] side is a number off differant circuits.

When doing the draw test wait a min. before you disconnect the batt., clamp test light ground to the batt. post, jamb test light probe into cable clamp, touch cable clamp to the batt. post for a bit before disconnecting, that will assure any timer circuit has gone to "sleep" before you do the draw test.

Also if anything is connected directly to the batt, [amp power] disconnect them first.

These are the steps I've done so far.

1. The only thing connected to the battery was my foglights, which was the first thing I disconnected and the 12V light stayed the same.

2. I unplugged the main relay and the light STILL stayed on.

3. I then unplugged the alternator lead from the engine fuse box and the light is STILL ON.

4. I then began to pull out all the fuses under the dashboard. I pulled all of them out and the frikin light is STILL ON.

5. I then pulled all of the fuses in the engine fuse box and noticed 2 things.
The only thing that makes the 12V light turn off is to remove the "Back Up" fuse OR by unscrewing the positive connection from the lead to the fusebox.

The screw holding the wire on the right is the Alternator connection.
The red wire is the foglight connection.
The white wire is the one that connects to the battery terminal. When removed the light turns OFF. This same wire leads onto the starter BUT, I DO NOT HAVE IT CONNECTED because I have a S2000 push start button. The wire is just wrapped with some electrical tape and its just chillin there. Can this be the problem?

KiDDD...

anyone have a clue?

lazlong

According to your description there's a open in the "back up" circuit.

BTW: You're just asking for a fire if you don't fuse those extra circuits where you're getting power.

KiDDD...

yes sir, I pulled all the fuses and the light was still nice and strong. I ended up pulling the back up fuse and it shut off. The other thing that made it shut off as well was if I unscrew the wire going from the positive battery to the fusebox, thats it. Nothing else seems to make it go off. Which circuit are you talking about by the way? push start button or fogs?

lazlong

Both. Neither have fuses. Take a fuse holder, crimp the connector on one end and solder the other end to your power wire. Re-connect to power and put in a fuse and you're done. ALWAYS fuse as close as you can to the power source.

You need to find a wiring diagram of that backup circuit and test for continuity of the wires to determine where the open is. Might get lucky and find a manual on CL. Or eBay has some for download or on disc for pretty cheap. They're $50-ish here: http://www.helminc.com/helm/homepage...usg=AFQjCNFpmS

KiDDD...

gotcha. So get on of these suckers, one side of the red wire goes to lets say the constant 12V from the fuse box and the other side of the red wire goes to the push start button?







continuity on the circuit? dang, this just got a whole lot more complicated. So for sure, my issue should be within the back up fuse correct? and I should disregard all the other possibilities?

andyz

Try the parasitic drain testing after a nice rainstorm. Maybe your taillight wiring is getting wet.

KiDDD...

Interesting you brought this up, we might have something here. Let me explain why.

First of all, let me explain my back light wiring that I currently have on my hatch.
The back lights consist of 3 light bulb sockets which are OEM...they light up the two outer edges of the lights on each side. My car did not have any lights on the inner part of the tail lights. So what I did was I spliced the wires open and connected another set of sockets to the inner tail lights. This way, whenever I have the lights on, all my lights come on in the back not just the edges. When I hit the brake, all of them come on as well, not just the outer 2.

Everything was soldered and heat shrinked so I doubt this was causing anything.

BUT!

A couple days ago when I washed my car, I noticed that water was going inside my tailights and a good amount too! Can this have anything to do with it?

KiDDD...

it ended up being that the fuse was done on my other multimeter.
I opened up a brand new one, gave the parasitic draw test again and it read (edit) WITHOUT the back up fuse = 00.7 amps.
With the Back Up fuse plugged in, it reads 1.7

andyz

Backup IS Backup, so it may need to draw a slight amount when the car is off. I mean, how long does this take to drain your battery? Like if you measure the voltage on the battery (in parallel, opposite hookup of the Amps measurements....).....and then come back 24 hours later is it really lower (to 12.5 or 12.4 V) because of the 1.7 mA the backup for radio and ECU is drawing?

I'd start looking at those connectors. Maybe disconnect them upstream at a harness, connect the multimeter to the light side of the harness to measure Resistance and then spray the questionable junctions down with salty water? Yeah.....See if the resistance changes. If so, its time for some more heatshrink and maybe some dielectric grease and even, maybe some like wire loom? or conduit or something..anyway...or tape

KiDDD...

it usually takes about 3-4 days for my battery to completely die.
I check it every day, and every day it begins to go down slowly.
Lets say tuesday morning it reads 12.8, by nigh time if I check it again,it would probably read around 12.5.

you lost me here bro :/

andyz

I dunno. I be tempted to just start disconnecting anything that is connected to the battery and then testing the battery voltage every 12 hours or so. You may even have some kind of parasitic draw in the battery cradle which would be hard to find with the test light.

KiDDD...

I'm thinking of just disconnecting everythingggg to see if anything gets solved..
I going to give it a go later when I get home, we'll see what happens. I'll post later.