0.5 A draw with ignition off

Kejtar · Feb 28, 2011

Ok, never really paid much of an attention to how much current all the stuff in the jeep draws BUT my battery died a while ago and now it's hard to keep it "charged" (after being parked overnight it's having a hard time starting). I'm not sure if it's not holding as much charge as it used to because it got abused OR it is holding it's proper charge and the .5 A draw is significant enough of a drain to cause issues so the questions are:
Is 0.5A signifficant draw?
What is the average draw with the ignition off?

Oh yeah: I checked and the draw is on the MAIN wiring harness and not on the wires for my additional gismos (I wish it was though: it'd be easier to track down the culprit).

the_weirdo · Feb 28, 2011

Yes, 0.5A is significant. As a guess, average draw should be 0.05 to 0.1A max.

Just start pulling fuses until the amp draw goes down. Then figure out what is attached to that circuit.

Kejtar · Feb 28, 2011

the_weirdo said:
Yes, 0.5A is significant. As a guess, average draw should be 0.05 to 0.1A max.

Just start pulling fuses until the amp draw goes down. Then figure out what is attached to that circuit.

Yeah... that's a PITA but... looks like that's what I"ll have to do.....

Kejtar · Feb 28, 2011

OK, how about this for a mystery draw: I went back to the garage and the meter is showing 0..... 0..... wtf? Where did my .5 draw go? Then it suddedly jumps .17 stays there for a moment and goes back to 0....

So I figure that maybe the door was open: I pop the door open, draw is more then .5 so that wasn't it... ugh.....

Runnin'OnEmpty · Feb 28, 2011

Check the glove box light and the underhood light if you have one.
Also the rear hatch, if it turns on an overhead light.

Might be a relay sticking. I think the latch relay stays energized
for a few seconds after engine shutdown, and then turns off.

Kejtar · Feb 28, 2011

Runnin'OnEmpty said:
Check the glove box light and the underhood light if you have one.

Didn't think about the glove box light (might just dump it alltogether whether it's an issue or not just so that I don't have toworry about it).

Also the rear hatch, if it turns on an overhead light.

Overhead light is not on.

Might be a relay sticking. I think the latch relay stays energized
for a few seconds after engine shutdown, and then turns off.

Since the overhead light is not on, it can't be it....

ROBZ95Xj · Feb 28, 2011

i had a similar issue with my 98, was the infinidy amp

Kejtar · Feb 28, 2011

ROBZ95Xj said:
i had a similar issue with my 98, was the infinidy amp

Hmmm except mine is tied to "stock" as in original equipment cause that's the wire that seems to have the draw.... so the million dollar question is what can have a variable draw when it's supposed to be off?

lawsoncl · Feb 28, 2011

Kejtar said:
OK, how about this for a mystery draw: I went back to the garage and the meter is showing 0..... 0..... wtf? Where did my .5 draw go? Then it suddedly jumps .17 stays there for a moment and goes back to 0....

I saw that when I was chasing my drain. It was the CD player. About 2 seconds after it got battery power back, it would try to eject the CD whether it was there or not. About 1/4-amp as I recall. A head scratcher but not an issue.

My problem turned out to be the glovebox light. Finally noticed it one night when I walked by the truck and noticed a little light peeking out around the glovebox door.

Rob Mayercik · Feb 28, 2011

Kejtar said:
OK, how about this for a mystery draw: I went back to the garage and the meter is showing 0..... 0..... wtf? Where did my .5 draw go? Then it suddedly jumps .17 stays there for a moment and goes back to 0....

So I figure that maybe the door was open: I pop the door open, draw is more then .5 so that wasn't it... ugh.....

Sounds like what I was seeing when I discovered my power radio antenna had died and it was attempting to power up the mast motor every 10 or 20 seconds for a moment. Mostly nominal draw of 20-30mA, but then periodic brief spurts of >100mA. I found it by standing by the RF fender on a very quiet day and hearing the faint "thunk" when the thing tried to activate (think the "end of travel" sensors were fouled/failed).

If you have a power antenna, pull the fuse for it from under the dash and watch the meter for a minute or two again.

Kejtar · Feb 28, 2011

Rob Mayercik said:
Sounds like what I was seeing when I discovered my power radio antenna had died and it was attempting to power up the mast motor every 10 or 20 seconds for a moment. Mostly nominal draw of 20-30mA, but then periodic brief spurts of >100mA. I found it by standing by the RF fender on a very quiet day and hearing the faint "thunk" when the thing tried to activate (think the "end of travel" sensors were fouled/failed).

If you have a power antenna, pull the fuse for it from under the dash and watch the meter for a minute or two again.

Hmmm no power antenna.. but we're slowly getting someplace.. maybe

What other equipment would attempt to power itself on? I have no alarm (just keyless entry) so that can't be it either....

87manche · Feb 28, 2011

Kejtar said:
Hmmm no power antenna.. but we're slowly getting someplace.. maybe What other equipment would attempt to power itself on? I have no alarm (just keyless entry) so that can't be it either....

what year is your junk? The OBD-II jeeps probably have some evap stuff that stays powered/cycles.

Kejtar · Feb 28, 2011

87manche said:
what year is your junk? The OBD-II jeeps probably have some evap stuff that stays powered/cycles.

It's 98 which means OBD II that means whole bunch of "stuff" but there is nothing that I can think of that needs to cycle like that.. At the very least.. not to the point of draining my battery....

kastein · Feb 28, 2011

.05A is the usual limit for ignition off draw. the_weirdo has it right, 1 fuse at a time till you find it. Do the PDC under the hood first, almost everything in the interior fuse panel is fed off a single maxifuse under the hood (believe it's the red 50A one) so you will get started on your draw faster if you start on the PDC.

The infiniti amp seems to draw around 2.1 amps when it's being a parasite, it's the middle 20A minifuse on the row closest to the passenger fender, at least on a 98.

87manche · Feb 28, 2011

Kejtar said:
It's 98 which means OBD II that means whole bunch of "stuff" but there is nothing that I can think of that needs to cycle like that.. At the very least.. not to the point of draining my battery....

gascan + roadflare= fixed

start with the PDC like ken said, at least you can figure out which of the major subsystems is drawing current and go from there.

half an amp is pretty substantial. AC relay/clutch?

0.5 A draw with ignition off

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