battery drain
 

Hi All, On my 88 there is something draining the battery. I disconnected the neg. battery cable and placed a test light in line. I pulled all the fuses and breakers from the fuse block, disconnected the alt. and unplugged the headlight motors and the test light is still showing a draw. Is there always a draw on the Vette? Perhaps is my battery just getting bad? I replaced it less than 3 years ago. So it could be going but unlikely. Anyone else ever have this problem? I know there is at least one fuse behind the info center, and I believe there are relays as well. I just thought I'd ask for input before I pull the dash apart.

Thanks,

joe

RE: battery drain
 

I had the same problem on my Jeep. I was getting ready to pull the dash out of it and thought, before I did to try replacing the battery and I'm glad I did, because it solved the problem and has been holding a charge now for about 2 years now. I think it might have had a bad cell or something causing it to short through itself somehow. Good luck. ;)

RE: battery drain
 

I have an 84 and found the same trouble. Try the same test with the lite or a current meter in series and try disconnecting the two no. 10 wires that come from the positive terminal and see what happens. I found that the wire that feeds power to the ECM is where mine is drawing the current. Let me know what you find we may have the same problem.

Thanks Tom

RE: battery drain
 

Thanks all,
mdsbch, if I remember right , I think I may have replaced the battery the first time because of a similair problem but I can't remember for sure. The battery has a 3 year replacement warrenty and I have until June of 06 to do it. So it wouldn't cost me anything to try a new battery. I will take the car to work and run a load test on it. We have a nice SnapOn battery load tester at work.

Tom, I know that in some cars the ECM does draw from the battery on a steady basis and can in time kill the battery. I'm just wondering if the Vette falls into this catagory.

However the problem I'm having will draw the battery down in less than 2 weeks.I'll do some more checking and will post the results.

Thanks for the replys!!

RE: battery drain
 

hi crv i had same problem and one day i noticed my driver side front marker light was on and car was just sitting there no key in it. i believe it was the switch in the steering colum for directionals was bad. just thought i would share this with you good luck.

RE: battery drain
 

ECM has very minimal drain, somewhere around 2 to 3 hundres milliamps. Have you tried disconnecting alternator? Rectifier shorting out will produce a drain on your battery. Test light is a good indicator, but radio memory will light a test light. Put a volt meter on DC volts between battery negative and disconnected battery, 12.5v on that means a draw, but make sure nothing is on. Best way is using an amp probe around the positive cable, 1 amp draw will drain you battery pretty quick. Should be less than 200 milliamps. Load check your battery @ 200 ohms and it should not drop below 9v. (This is on a fully charged battery) Good luck, I hope you find your parasitic draw. [8D]