Damn complicated cars! But that's good advice. He might want to ask the dealership about what he can expect to happen when the battery is disconnected on his particular car. The fancier it is and the more accessories, the more things are likely to happen.
In , George E. Cawthon wrote in part:
And 80% is about 12.6 V and 20% is around 12 V.
Once the voltage has settled to a "during-discharge" voltage as opposed to one for "during charge" or "recently charged and not discharged since", light loads (a couple amps or less) do not have significant effect on the voltage at the battery terminals. A car battery approx. 82-85% charged when being charged with just an amp or two has about 13.8 volts, and when discharging that much current has about 12.6 volts. But if you measure the voltage somewhere other than the battery terminals themselves, voltage drops due to current flowing through wiring or through coroded connections may be significant.
Another thing: Battery condition, temperature and other factors can have a major effect on what percentage of full charge you need to start the engine.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
Stephen:
How did you come up with that .6amp figure. That's what I got when I checked it. The meter read .67 and then gradually dropped to .4 range. At the present time I measured the CCA and it is about 360. I am leaving the battery disconnected for 24 hours to see if the CCA drops.
Norm
Thanks to all you guys. I am in the process of checking all out. I have disconnected the battery, checked the cold cranking amps and also the current draw. I have some good meters left over from my boating days.
The CCA is at now at 365 .. not a full charge but enough to start the car. The current draw starts at .67 amps and drops slowly to about
4.6. I will leave the battery disconnected until Monday. If the CCA remains unchanged that should rule out the battery. I will then start pulling fuses, etc. I shall also contact the dealer to make another appointment. I have printed out all your notes to take along. I have not decided if I will highlight all of your opinions concerning the service manager ;-)I did check the entire car in total darkness and see no lights on .. anywhere.
When the problem is resolved I will post the results.
Again .. thanks to all.
Norm
I submit that this is a reasonable test. Of course a high input resistance meter is not the best to use, my old 1000 ohm/volt Simpson does a good job though. I've tested batteries this way for 50 years with good results. When leakage is detected I clean them as I indicated. I never have a battery problem.
RB
Charlie Bress wrote:
Jeff Wisnia wrote in news:eISdnQtDMYGfuNfdRVn- snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
And he loses his radio when the anti-theft memory code is lost.I hope he keeps the code where it will not get lost.Also,the EFI may lose it's calibrations,and revert to open-loop operation for a few days.
chicagofan wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
I wonder if one of those 12V solar panels would work for your cars' problem? The ones that plug into your cig lighter socket.
NSN wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
It drops from 0.67 amps TO 4.6 amps? That's an increase,not a drop. Or do you mean 6.7A to 4.6A? That's a pretty hefty current draw,IMO. It should be less than 1 A,I believe.
I will leave the battery disconnected until Monday. If the CCA
.67 amp or even .4 amp reading on a car that is off, is far too high. It will drain the battery in a few days.
Start pulling fuses to see if you can find the cuircuit that is drawing the current. John
Sorry for the typo. It is .6x dropping to .4x.
Norm
RB wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@spamfree.com:
sure it's not a 20,000 ohms/volt meter? What model of Simpson is it?
BTW,1000 ohms/volt means that on the 50V range,your meter resistance would be 50K ohms,not much of a load for any battery,certainly not enough load for a load test. Now if your Simpson is 20K ohms/volt like my 270-3,then you have a meter resistance of 1 Megohm for that range.
A common problem in cases like this is a bad alternator. Blocking diodes can be leaky and cause just such drainage. Used to be a common problem in Nissan vehicles some years ago. The easy check is to simply disconnest the alternator lead wire at the unit or cable connector, whichever is handier. Let things sit for a period of time and test for starting abilility. Doesn't drop computer or radio codes either. HTH
Joe
For this I use a Model 379. Looking at it it is even lower than 10K/ohm.
RB
.67 or even .46 amperes is way too much draw. (5 to 7 watts!). I would guess you have a lamp on somewhere. Had one a while ago that had a lamp in the rear view mirror. But if you looked in the dark you should have seen it. How about under the hood or trunk?
Probably he would anyway, if the battery went down far enough through whatever his current (pun intended) problem is.
Jeff
replying to Charlie Bress, Jessie wrote: My Infiniti qx4 had a new radio installed just before the new year...had the car for 3 years no problems until the new radio was installed...went back rewired it n replace the battery...a month later the problem reoccurs n now the mechanics can't figure out what is draining the battery in little as 8hrs ...
Jessie posted for all of us...
No need to repost you have answers under your original gripe.
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