Something draining my battery

J-Dub · Post by **J-Dub** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:32 pm

Lately I have been driving my Golf cause of the crappy cold weather. I have noticed that if I let the cabriolet sit for more than 2 days without starting it the battery will die. Its becoming a pain because sometimes I HAVE to drive it. Anyone know what the prob could be? Its parked in the garage every night and the battery is only about a year old.

Post by **Calimus** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:33 pm

the best way to figure this out it to hook a multimeter to the battery. Keep it where you can see it, or get a firend to watch it and then start pulling fuses onae at a time. When you pull the one that is causing the load, the mulltimater's reading should go up in voltage and from there, you can figure out what you have tied into that circuit and find the drain.

J-Dub · Post by **J-Dub** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:52 pm

Thank you very much, I believe my brother has a multimeter, he has just been recruited to help me find this problem

CalAltaDubber · Post by **CalAltaDubber** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:30 pm

J-Dub, Before going too deep into fault finding here. Have you made any modifications that affect the electrical system? I have found from a couple of other dubbers, that have had the same problem after installing a new sound system (the usual suspect). Try the fuses for those circuits first.

I do recall that you were dealing with the wiring for you headlights recently, so that might be a place to start looking.

Good luck.

Post by **Calimus** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:14 am

Very good point CalAlt.

Also, if you haven't yet. Once you sort everything out, replace the crappy skinny ground cable to the battery with a super fatty 02 guage cable. If you have anything like a AutoZone or Advanced Autoparts near ya, they should carry them. It's basicly a clear insulated super fat cable. Ground it to one of the bolts that holds the tranny to the engine.

Replace/upgrade any and all other grounds as you see fit.

CalAltaDubber · Post by **CalAltaDubber** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:44 pm

Come to think of it, I'd be willing to bet it is with his headlight cct. An engaged relay would be enough to do that over a couple of days.

J-Dub · Post by **J-Dub** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:17 am

I think thats what it is too I'm going to check it out tomorrow. Also i keep blowing the left side running light/turn signal fuse so it probably is the problem.

J-Dub · Post by **J-Dub** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:58 pm

So it turns out its my deck. I parked the car and too of the faceplate came back 4 days later and it started up fine. So I will have to re-wire the stereo sometime...

CalAltaDubber · Post by **CalAltaDubber** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:18 pm

J-Dub wrote:So it turns out its my deck. I parked the car and too of the faceplate came back 4 days later and it started up fine. So I will have to re-wire the stereo sometime...

OK that makes sense. It's not an uncommon fault.

Post by **Briano1234** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:04 pm

CalAltaDubber wrote:
J-Dub wrote:So it turns out its my deck. I parked the car and too of the faceplate came back 4 days later and it started up fine. So I will have to re-wire the stereo sometime...
OK that makes sense. It's not an uncommon fault.

That happened to my daughter on her rice burner.... I had her reset the Stereo little hidden button, and her problem went away also.

J-Dub · Post by **J-Dub** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:40 pm

I tried the reset button, I'll let you know next time I have to start the car if it worked or not. If thats not the prob I'll be re-wiring the stereo when it gets alittle warmer out for now I will just take the faceplate off.

vw_nick · Post by **vw_nick** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:38 pm

another way to check battery draws is with the ammeter function on your voltmeter. Select amps, start with the higher amperage rating first, and plug the test leads into the meter according to the markings on it. Disconnect the negative battery cable and hook the + lead of the meter to the cable, and the - lead of the meter to the battery.. you're now in series with the battery, and are able to measure all of the current being drawn. With the vehicle off / locked there shouldn't be more than a 30 milli-amp draw (.030 amps) If its higher than that, you can use the fuse pulling method previously mentioned.

If you don't have a dvom that does amps.. you can use a simple test light hooked up in series like the meter. The element should barely glow at all.