battery drain?

[miracleboi123]

do the 93 240sx coupe, base model come w/ an alarm system?

i dont know what could be using my battery up at night, i swear i cant even get a fully charged battery to last 4 days, whats going on?

could it be my cd player? [ i did not use harnesses, i just wired the right wires together]

could it be my headlights?[the last guy upgraded them to something that gets brighter as it seems, the darker it gets, they are blue but not hid.]

i know my auto repair said there is a draw so something must be using the battery still at night, when it just sits.

the charging system works fine, im so stuck, they cannot find the where it starts.

please give me some of your input!

[CSUPUEBLOTIM]

Hook your meter up to the battery and start pulling fuses till the draw goes away. Are you battery connections tight and in good condition? No corrosion and stuff. And is the battery itself clean and not self discharging between the two terminals?

[94_240sx]

This is one of the toughest fixes. I had this problem and struggled a lot. I took a guess and replaced door switch that turns on and off the interior lights on driver's side and finally fixed it. One of the vert members took her car to dealership and she spent $500 to fix it. She said there was a short inside of door panel. I got a test light from Autozone($10) and that's what I used. You gotta be really patient to fix this. If you think it's a CD player, remove it and see what happens.

[miracleboi123]

do you know how long it took for her at the dealer to find out where it was?

my car is at an auto electrics shop, and i will turn the car into the nissan dealer if i have to, i already called them and they said they'll do a 95dollar diagnostic, and then go on. how long does that process go for her?

[slyedog240sx]

buy a master disconnect switch and problem is eleminated.

[IanS]

This is called parasitic drain.

Initial testing will often lead to a quick fix, more times then not it is something simple. Alternators are one of the biggest causes of parasitic drain.

If you have a multimeter, set it to read amperage. Unhook your positive battery cable, and place the positive lead on the terminal, and the negative on the cable.

A normal car should have between 1 and 100 mA with the key out, and everything off. This is normal draw for the clock, and ECU memory systems.

If it is more than this you have a draw.

Start removing fuses one by one until the amperage drops to normal. Put the fuse back in. Then using a wiring diagram, unhook accessories on that circuit until the draw goes away.

Once you have a local circuit nailed down, perform a voltage drop test on the wiring, and check the resistance of the accessory. One or the other should fail, and this will tell you what to replace.

Its really not that hard to do yourself though a FSM is a must. Or you could pay someone like me a grip of money to do it.
Modified by FlatBlackIan at 4:54 PM 1/24/2009

[miracleboi123]

what amperage would be normal?

do i remove the fuses while the car is off? am i suppose to take out the fuses a special way, in a timely manner? or can i just keep taking out fuses until it drops?

[S13Joe]

i really dont feel like reading all of this but did you check the alternator fuse? its a big mofo, 75A fuse, mine went out and my battery was draining like a beach.

[IanS]

what amperage would be normal?

do i remove the fuses while the car is off? am i suppose to take out the fuses a special way, in a timely manner? or can i just keep taking out fuses until it drops?

Yes the car should be off, and the key should be out of the ignition.

By pulling the fuses you are effectively shutting off certain parts of the electrical system. The order doesn't much matter, just pull one out, watch the voltage, if it doesn't drop, put it back in and move on to the next one.

[SirSilvia]

This is called parasitic drain.

Initial testing will often lead to a quick fix, more times then not it is something simple. Alternators are one of the biggest causes of parasitic drain.

If you have a multimeter, set it to read amperage. Unhook your positive battery cable, and place the positive lead on the terminal, and the negative on the cable.

A normal car should have between 1 and 100 mv with the key out, and everything off. This is normal draw for the clock, and ECU memory systems.

If it is more than this you have a draw.

Start removing fuses one by one until the amperage drops to normal. Put the fuse back in. Then using a wiring diagram, unhook accessories on that circuit until the draw goes away.

Once you have a local circuit nailed down, perform a voltage drop test on the wiring, and check the resistance of the accessory. One or the other should fail, and this will tell you what to replace.

Its really not that hard to do yourself though a FSM is a must. Or you could pay someone like me a grip of money to do it.

I did this way back a few month after owning the car, turns out the switch in the coupe's trunk broke. left the light on and slowly drained. I broke it when I crammed stuff back there to move to my new apartment.

[ACESXX]

sounds like what happened to my S13 you might wanna try to look @ the ALT fuse in the fuse box in the front of your car, see if its burned out. without that fuse your car's battery life get shorter and shorter... hope you get it right....

[94_240sx]

do you know how long it took for her at the dealer to find out where it was?

my car is at an auto electrics shop, and i will turn the car into the nissan dealer if i have to, i already called them and they said they'll do a 95dollar diagnostic, and then go on. how long does that process go for her?

I think she said it took for a while like 5-6 hours something like that.

By the way, I found it was a bad switch by taking out the fuses one by one. I hooked this one between negative cable and negative terminal on the battery and pulled fuse one by one until the light went out.

[zenkistic]

If you have a multimeter, set it to read amperage. Unhook your positive battery cable, and place the positive lead on the terminal, and the negative on the cable.

A normal car should have between 1 and 100 mv with the key out, and everything off. This is normal draw for the clock, and ECU memory systems.

with your setup you are measuring current, not voltage -which should be more or less the same, i.e. the values should be in mA (milliAmperes), so I guess you mean 1-100mA.

[Shift__BODOM]

Wait a sec, I don't mean to threadjack, but I've been having a parasitic drain for a few years now, and the "ALT" fuse was always the focus. Pull the fuse, out went the light. That means I need to replace this fuse? You're saying I went through 4 batteries and an alternator for nothing? lol say it ain't so!

[driftneil]

Wait a sec, I don't mean to threadjack, but I've been having a parasitic drain for a few years now, and the "ALT" fuse was always the focus. Pull the fuse, out went the light. That means I need to replace this fuse? You're saying I went through 4 batteries and an alternator for nothing? lol say it ain't so!

No, it means the problem is before the fuse.

[miracleboi123]

no it has nothing to do with the alternator, it is new, i changed the 75a fuse before too, i know its not the charging system, engine harness, nothing like that. but we do know its a parasitic drain, something is using too much power, and i was wondering what places do you think i should look into the car to find it, would pulling fuses really find that circuit that is screwed up?

ill tell you what we know:

-battery relocation done by the last owner, [very ****ty but manages]-[im about to get rid of the ghetto rig relocation crap and put the battery in its original place.-charging system works.-i bought the car and drove it around for like a week and it always charged,then came a week and it just stopped cranking.-i had my brother install a stereo, but he did it w/o harnesses,-i dont know if i have bad grounding.-its not the fuses,

-its a parasitic drain, im thinking its the either dome light, glove box light, cd player, or trunk light, i mean what else could it be?

[driftneil]

no it has nothing to do with the alternator, it is new, i changed the 75a fuse before too, i know its not the charging system, engine harness, nothing like that. but we do know its a parasitic drain, something is using too much power, and i was wondering what places do you think i should look into the car to find it, would pulling fuses really find that circuit that is screwed up?

ill tell you what we know:

-battery relocation done by the last owner, [very ****ty but manages]-[im about to get rid of the ghetto rig relocation crap and put the battery in its original place.-charging system works.-i bought the car and drove it around for like a week and it always charged,then came a week and it just stopped cranking.-i had my brother install a stereo, but he did it w/o harnesses,-i dont know if i have bad grounding.-its not the fuses,

-its a parasitic drain, im thinking its the either dome light, glove box light, cd player, or trunk light, i mean what else could it be?

I had a trunk light that wouldn't go off, prob bad switch. I unplugged the bulb, and still didnt fix it.?.?

[miracleboi123]

theres so many harnesses and relays in this car i dont know where to start, i might just take it to the nissan dealer but i dont want it to be like east metro where they just told me it was my alternator and my ignition system, which cost me -410 and didnt do anything but made my car start faster, i would hate for a dealer to try to rip me off, i know what the problem is just harnesses and new wiring and stuff is going to be a major draw from my wallet.

i cant believe taking out a a bulb wont stop the short. weird.

[driftneil]

theres so many harnesses and relays in this car i dont know where to start, i might just take it to the nissan dealer but i dont want it to be like east metro where they just told me it was my alternator and my ignition system, which cost me -410 and didnt do anything but made my car start faster, i would hate for a dealer to try to rip me off, i know what the problem is just harnesses and new wiring and stuff is going to be a major draw from my wallet.

i cant believe taking out a a bulb wont stop the short. weird.

Yeah me too, kinda makes me think it's something else. Just too cold to tear my car apart now!

[miracleboi123]

how did u find out that it was your trunk light that was still on? did you just lifted down the back seats and saw the light on even when the car was off?

im trying to see how i could get in the glvoe box to see if theres a light in there even when its suppose to be offf.

[driftneil]

Take a vid with your cell phone

[IanS]

with your setup you are measuring current, not voltage -which should be more or less the same, i.e. the values should be in mA (milliAmperes), so I guess you mean 1-100mA.

You caught me, I replaced amps with volts a few times. It had been a long day at work, and apparently my hands were typing a little faster than my brain was working.

[miracleboi123]

your a genius. thank you!

[ACESXX]

did you checked the little rubber button underneath your brake pedal... mine broke of in my old altima and it made my brake light drain my battery ... duno if you checked that already??

[miracleboi123]

did you checked the little rubber button underneath your brake pedal... mine broke of in my old altima and it made my brake light drain my battery ... duno if you checked that already??

jeez i dont know, never thought that could drain your battery, idk but every few days after a full battery, i would just press down on the brakes barely tap it and my dash light[or the clock in the cluster] would dim.

next day i come out, it wont turn over.

can that realyl drain your batteyr?

[get_slideways]

i'm going thru this exact problem right now... ive got an optima battery, deep cycle, oughta crank up everytime. but im experiencing the parasitic drain as well. ive got a new alternator, new grounding kit... pulled out my radio, my foglights, even my power seat belts to see if anything was draining. now ive got a multimeter and im checkin thru the fuses... god i hope i get this fixed. im tired of jumping my car off everyday.

[driftneil]

Me tooooo! Any one have any answers?

[miracleboi123]

i say if its not a short in the engine harness even the lower charging harness, its somewhere in the car.

its a common problem for a lot of s13's out there i believe, but i think the best idea is to just get some money and brnig it to the nissan dealer, cos they specialize in nissan, other side local places[and even nissan dealers] will jip you off and try to take your money by saying its other stuff and next week u take it home and find urself in teh same position, well know what your doing, ill be taking mine to the dealer soon. it cost 95 bucks to find the problem, diagnose and it goes from there says the repairs rep.

all im coming up to think is, glove compartment light, brake light, trunk light, door switch, dome light.?

[jetroy240]

First step, make sure u got a good battery that will pass a load test, if ok, u need a digital voltmeter (DVOM) to test how much milliamperes (ma) is draining ur battery. Set it up to milliamperes, don't forget to plug the red test lead to DC ampere , depends on what brand dvom u have, read ur instruction manual how to set-up to read milliamperes. Will all loads off, ignition off, key out ,remove the battery ground terminal & hookup ur black test lead to battery negative pole & ur red test lead of dvom to the battery ground cable terminal end w/c is in series connection. Does not matter if u reverse the red to black, it will only give u a negative reading at display. You should have a reading below 100 ma , like what they say on the previous post, that's ur target range. If it's more than that , usually above 150 ma will drain ur battery overnight. I would try removing the fuse of the stereo & remove fuses of amplifier if u got one. Very common drain is the amps small fuse hook up to battery power instead of the ignition. Good luck.