My car battery drained itself after a week of not being used. I was researching how to identify the cause, and saw a comment under this article saying: Show
This sounds like my situation - there's not much drain, but I've had heaps of problems with the fuses (a previous owner "fixed" blown fuses by wrapping copper wire around them, which in one case fell apart inside the fuse box... ugh!) But I don't understand how a fuse could cause drain like this, or, if I can't measure such drain the normal way, how I could identify that this is the problem and how I could fix it. Can someone elaborate? What you do if you had a car (97 Toyota RAV4) with no draining electrics, a relatively new battery (six months), high temperature all year, seemed to have a normal level of amp draw when off, but a historically dodgy fusebox and a self-draining battery?
dlu 14.3k7 gold badges48 silver badges80 bronze badges asked Jul 17, 2016 at 10:47
1 It wouldn't be the fuse which is causing the power drain, but the circuit the fuse is there to protect. (This is the reason why the copied area you have posted has 5 "Not Helpful" votes against it.) The fuse is only a conduit. It transmits electricity. When the circuit transmits too much electricity, the fuse heats up, then "pops", not allowing anymore electricity to flow. The fuse in and of itself cannot be the cause of the power drain. It is, however, an indication of where the power drain is coming from. If by pulling the fuse you get a noticeable drop in battery drain, whatever is causing the drain is on that circuit. It will help you narrow down what exactly is going on. While batteries do lose power over the long term by just sitting, it should only lose about 5% of its reserve per month ... which in the grand scheme of things isn't a lot. Find the circuit which has the power drain on it, then find what's on that circuit to kill the aggressor. This post may be of further assistance to you.
answered Jul 17, 2016 at 11:07
Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2♦Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 145k27 gold badges242 silver badges470 bronze badges 1 You mention, "no draining electrics," can you say more about how you determined this? It's important because "a self-draining battery" requires something that is causing a load on the battery – especially since you have a relatively new battery. On newer cars, there is a risk that disconnecting the battery may cause problems with your radio or other on-board electronics. Your car is old enough that I wouldn't be too worried about that. So the first thing that I would do is to measure the drain of the whole car by disconnecting the ground terminal from the battery and then measuring the total drain with an ammeter between the ground (negative) terminal on the battery and the cable you disconnected. The drain should be a few tens of milliamps at most. Much more than 50 mA and you should start looking for drains in the electrical system. You can do this by pulling each fuse in turn – the one that causes the load to drop is the culprit, keep going until you are down under 50 mA. Some things to check that could cause a battery to drain, even when you don't see obvious loads after checking with the fuses:
answered Jul 17, 2016 at 13:00
5 What can drain your battery is Alarm system, Radio (memory), Remote control key (radio signal receiver), ECU, Clock... Can't imagine anything else. Even if you have all of this, they shouldn't drain a battery in one week. Only thing you can do is to get a Ampere Meter and stick it in that faulty fuse to see what it drains. The fuse can not drain anything, it must be the wires or the device that the fuse is for. Find out what the fuse is for and let us know please.. answered Jul 17, 2016 at 11:12
I had a daily battery drain. Had to recharge battery nightly just to get to work the next day .. After a week of this..I bought a new battery as the other would no longer charge to full capacity. Then I checked the fuses under bonnet & under dashboard. I found 1 open fuse for the internal light which I replaced ..and 3 fuses in places where it was meant to be empty .. not in the spaces where the spare fuses go, but in places the diagram showed were meant to be empty. I removed these 3 fuses .. and lo and behold .. no more battery drain..it's been 4 days now and it's all good. I haven't even driven the car for 18 hours .. but I just went out to check by starting her up and she goes...God bless her little engine... she goes... answered May 31, 2017 at 7:40
Gloria Gloria 211 bronze badge
answered Jul 17, 2016 at 19:23
tlhIngantlhIngan 12.1k8 gold badges34 silver badges70 bronze badges You must log in to answer this question.Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .What is draining my car battery when its off?What may drain a car battery when it's off are things such as interior lights, door lights, or even bad relays. While your engine runs, the alternator recharges the battery — which is why you typically don't have to worry about the battery dying while you're blasting the radio on your drive to work!
How can I tell which fuse is draining my battery?Start by connecting a digital multimeter to the negative battery terminal of your vehicle. Then, remove the fuses one at a time while watching for changes in the multimeter's reading. Once the reading drops, you've found the culprit and can take steps to repair it.
Will removing fuse stop battery drain?If you have narrowed down a circuit that is causing excessive parasitic draw on the battery, pulling that fuse will stop that draw. Nothing will keep your battery from dying, however.
How can u tell if a car fuse is blown?The blown fuse will be apparent because the wire element within will have melted or burned from the higher electrical current. You can also use a test light or a multimeter to identify the dead fuse without having to pull it out. Both tools are affordable and easy to use.
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