That's it - F this turd-burban.

[Fless]

My bad @Fless, we used to say that 50 ma was the norm and then the newer vehicles drew more and the scale changed. I read his reading wrong and thought he meant 358 ma instead of 358 mv.

Got it. I don't doubt that 50mA is easily doable in the NNBS rigs, and in reality it ought to be at least half that when everything is asleep.

 

[OR VietVet]

Got it. I don't doubt that 50mA is easily doable in the NNBS rigs, and in reality it ought to be at least half that when everything is asleep.

Yea, I looked for draws on vehicles before Keep Alive Memory came about and then had to adapt as the years rolled by. I think I read somewhere that the "allowable" draw ranges from 75 ma to 100 ma and I guess on some rigs, maybe even more. To me, that is too much but that is dinosaur thinking.

 

[rmaker]

Ok - some corrections and minor updates.

I cleaned the ground wire connector to the firewall yesterday and the negative battery cable to the block today. When testing yesterday, I kept opening and closing the circuit which is why I kept getting the 3.58 amp initial drain. I bridged today with a jumper from post to the cable end and attached probes to each.

With the meter between the neg batt cable terminal and the neg batt post, bridged with a jumper cable - I opened a door, and get an initial 3.58-3.6 Amp draw (its amps, I had said MA in a previous post) within a minute or two this drops down to 1.6 - 1.8 amps, then .4 and .1, resulting in a final "drain" of 6 - 10 milliamps (ma).

This is well within range/tolerances and should not be enough to drain a battery.
The only thing I did was clean one end of the braided ground cable against the Firewall and the negative battery cable end where it is attached to the block. I cannot imagine this was enough, but maybe it was - my recent luck would disagree though.

I am gonna take voltage readings every hour to see if the battery drains, will clean the grounds under/attached to the frame. and maybe get a battery switch so I can test for amp drain without having to reset the circuit each time.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

@rmaker when I first got my Tahoe I had a problem where it wouldn’t start. Ended up being the negative battery cable, I had to jerk it around for it to make enough connection that I could start my Tahoe, keep an eye out on that one I’ve known dozens others who have had negative battery cable problems

 

[OR VietVet]

Yea, check all battery cable connections, corrosion under the insulation too. You can check voltage drop from one end to the other too.

 

[rmaker]

Minor update - after chasing what I think/thought was/is a parasitic drain yesterday and seeing no significant actual drain I started fresh this am.

I currently have multimeter hooked up inline between disconnected neg batt cable and neg batt post. Vehicle is fully asleep. There is a steady .01 amp draw that fluctuates to .02 amps. This indicates a 10 to 20 ma drain. Which I believe is normal? Can anyone confirm that there is in fact a certain amount of xxma drain that is "normal", should it ever be zero?

Also, I drove it last night short 5 min drive, it sat for @4 hours. Started no problem, cae home, parked it. Tested Battey this a and it was 12.3v. so seems that no drain occured overnight.

 

[OR VietVet]

Minor update - after chasing what I think/thought was/is a parasitic drain yesterday and seeing no significant actual drain I started fresh this am.

I currently have multimeter hooked up inline between disconnected neg batt cable and neg batt post. Vehicle is fully asleep. There is a steady .01 amp draw that fluctuates to .02 amps. This indicates a 10 to 20 ma drain. Which I believe is normal? Can anyone confirm that there is in fact a certain amount of xxma drain that is "normal", should it ever be zero?

Also, I drove it last night short 5 min drive, it sat for @4 hours. Started no problem, cae home, parked it. Tested Battey this a and it was 12.3v. so seems that no drain occured overnight.

Yes, .02 amps is 20 ma. That is completely acceptable. As I was saying earlier to @Fless, years ago when I ran and worked in shops, a 50 ma draw was acceptable and nowadays more ma draw is acceptable for the "Keep Alive Memory". If you did not have KAM, you would have to reset saved radio stations each time you started the vehicle and modules need power while sitting too.

 

[j91z28d1]

can you check to see if someone turned after blow option on?

 

[donjetman]

Minor update - after chasing what I think/thought was/is a parasitic drain yesterday and seeing no significant actual drain I started fresh this am.

I currently have multimeter hooked up inline between disconnected neg batt cable and neg batt post. Vehicle is fully asleep. There is a steady .01 amp draw that fluctuates to .02 amps. This indicates a 10 to 20 ma drain. Which I believe is normal? Can anyone confirm that there is in fact a certain amount of xxma drain that is "normal", should it ever be zero?

Also, I drove it last night short 5 min drive, it sat for @4 hours. Started no problem, cae home, parked it. Tested Battey this a and it was 12.3v. so seems that no drain occured overnight.

12.3v is about 60% charged

 

[Fless]

Yes, there is some keep-alive power always being used, but it's minimal. Anything under 50 mA is acceptable, and the draw you noted is perfect.

You'll want to get it out on the highway and run it for a while to get the battery charged up. Running short intervals like little errands don't allow them to fully charge.