Civic Experts,

I would like to ask your help with a problem with my Civic, that something is draining the battery overnight.

I did the test, of pulling fuses and checking for current draw and found that it’s the “Back up and Reinitalisation” fuse. I’m getting about a 80 mA draw when that fuse is plugged in, and it goes down to 2, when I unplug it.

My question is, What checking/troubleshooting should I do next? What is that fuse powering that I could check? The radio doesn’t work when that fuse is out, but if I unplug the fuse for the radio, it still has the draw, so I don’t think it’s the radio.

I’ve had problems with the alarm, so I wonder if it could be that. About 2 months ago, the alarm was behaving badly. When I got out of the car, the red light on the steering column would start blinking rapidly. If I took something into the house, did not set the alarm, then when I came back, when I opened the door, the alarm would go off. But I hadn’t set the alarm.

Now, the alarm doesn’t work at all. The red light doesn’t go on at all.

I wonder if there is a problem with the alarm that could be putting a slow drain on the battery overnight? I would be fine with disconnecting/turning off the alarm, but I don’t see how to do that. Maybe it’s not possible.

As far as I can tell, everything else works normal.

Can you think of anything I can check, or have ideas as to what could be wrong for a battery drain, thru the backup fuse?

It’s a 2005 Civic Hybrid, 1.3 L, manual, 300K.

Thank you,
Larry

 

you need to get a Bishko shop manual from rockauto and find everything on that circuit and unplug them til you find it

 

Weird point, but after installing inner glow in my car, I noticed the dome light would glow ever so softly all the time, regardless of car operations. I narrowed it down to the relay I used to turn the lights on with the dome trigger, which is also the same wire your alarm would be using to recognize if your doors are open. Not much, but it's a starting point- see if your dome light is glowing. Turning the dome OFF (even when it seems to be off) might decrease your draw. Make sure your door trigger switches have good contact with the frame (When contact is lost, light turns on. If contact with the door is weak, it could be sofly glowing your dome light and messing with your alarm triggers.)

Edit: Aftermarket audio systems may also drain the battery when hey fail, like amps and DSPs/radios