question about a constant drain on an SUV battery

[Graham_A_M]

Hey guys, I'm posting this for a buddy who has an 03 Escalade. He works up north for two weeks on two weeks off, but frequently when he comes home the battery is close to dead, if not completely dead. It has an alarm, but there is no way it's drawing so much power as to kill the battery in that time frame. So he goes through batteries frequently. Is there anyway to check what's draining the battery? Or which shop can I take it to that can do that for me? Thanks...

Kind of a stupid question but I'm not too sure how to diagnose this sort of problem.

[quick_scar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-wxG6U5TuY

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Graham_A_M
It has an alarm, but there is no way it's drawing so much power as to kill the battery in that time frame.

It very much could be. My car-cam will kill my battery in 4 days, if I don't drive it.

[top_speed]

Do a parasitic draw, take key out of ignition, close all doors, push down alarm switch under the hood, close hood latch, remove neg battery post, connect multimeter in series with the battery negative post, only on amps, lock vehicle with alarm system and give it 30 mins so they vehicle goes to sleep mode, the draw should be No more then 50 milliamp with the alarm. If it's higher start taking out fuses and see which one drops significantly. But two weeks is enough for a battery to go dead with a alarm,if it hasn't been fully charged.

[killramos]

OEM alarm or is this like a compustar with a starter and stuff?

All of my cars have had oem alarms and i can leave them for 30+ days and they still start fine even in the cold...

[Graham_A_M]

^ aftermarket. Should that just be scrapped? I didn't think an alarm on standby would consume so much power.

[jwslam]

I've noticed my SUV is doing the same and I suspect it's the Viper. Anyways, I bought a trickle charger and should be coming in next week.

Seems to have some decent reviews.

http://www.amazon.ca/Black-Decker-BM...&keywords=bm3b

[killramos]

Well it certainly sounds like the cause.

[16hypen3sp]

Welcome to my world.

3 weeks of not driving my 350Z and the remaining voltage on the battery is enough to power the alarm, cluster and interior lights and thats it.

I always have to monitor it when its in winter storage.

I always assumed it was the alarm or something to do with the aftermarket sound system.

[ExtraSlow]

I had a mysetery parasitic draw once that was a big cause of headaches. Dealership blamed the factory alarm before I had even made the appointment, one alarm shop said everything was fine. Finally, the original alarm shop foudn some eror in the install (not sure what) and fixed it. probablem was gone after that. Big headache.

If at all possible, a battery tender could be a great idea while this guys truck is parked. Two weeks is a long time.

[Graham_A_M]

^ Frick. I don't know anything about alarms so I don't know what to look for. Where can it be inspected to see if the wiring was done correctly?


Thanks top_speed.... I'll do that draw test when he's back

[top_speed]

Thanks top_speed.... I'll do that draw test when he's back [/B][/QUOTE]
Np, and what else he could do is just remove the fuses from under the dash for the aftermarket alarm about 4 fuses side by side, And see if that changes anything.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Graham_A_M
[B]^ Frick. I don't know anything about alarms so I don't know what to look for. Where can it be inspected to see if the wiring was done correctly?

I doubt it has anything to do with incorrect wiring assuming it was good before, the only way the draw will be excessive is if the alarm "brain" shits the bed. The only way to find out that is with a parasitic draw.

[Neb]

I can relate too. I've got a similar problem on a 1992 Cadillac Fleetwood. In this case, there's no car alarm. In fact, it's a pretty simple arrangement.

I suspect the radio.

Has anyone else noticed quite a few GM vehicles with radio/amplifiers causing parasitic draw from the battery.

On a cold day -- the battery is drained in about five days.

[AndyL]

Marine battery disconnect switch.

Can't draw from what's disconnected and... Bonus - thieves don't pop hoods to jump start

[Crazyjoker77]

Originally posted by 16hypen3sp
Welcome to my world.

3 weeks of not driving my 350Z and the remaining voltage on the battery is enough to power the alarm, cluster and interior lights and thats it.

I always have to monitor it when its in winter storage.

I always assumed it was the alarm or something to do with the aftermarket sound system.

My viper alarm kills a brand new Optima redtop in 2-3weeks(of sitting) and has since it was installed and thats in a heated garage. It would only be worse sitting out in the cold.

Originally posted by Neb
I can relate too. I've got a similar problem on a 1992 Cadillac Fleetwood. In this case, there's no car alarm. In fact, it's a pretty simple arrangement.

I suspect the radio.

Has anyone else noticed quite a few GM vehicles with radio/amplifiers causing parasitic draw from the battery.

On a cold day -- the battery is drained in about five days.

Just went through something very similiar on my girlfriends trailblazer. Ended up being the Blower control module (not resistor pack) and would run at low speed even with the vehicle off and key out. The stereo was also pulling extra current at the same time but after replacing the module it dropped back in line.

Originally posted by AndyL
Marine battery disconnect switch.

Can't draw from what's disconnected and... Bonus - thieves don't pop hoods to jump start

This^^^^ I'm suprised you dont see this more often I bought a 5pack of 200A circuit breakers and installed them in all my cars that sit. Super easy to install.


Breakers

[Thaco]

happens to my wife's car, she has an aftermarket compustar start/alarm and a questionable battery, 1 week and it wont start, i am sure a new battery would help, does his starter have a programmable start? could set it to run every day or 2 for 15 mins to charge up the battery


also a circuit breaker as suggested previously is kind of defeating the purpose of an alarm, 90% of the time the job of an alarm is to prevent a prowling, not a theft, anybody stealing your car will know well enough to snip the ground wire on the siren in about 10 seconds.

[J-hop]

The idea of the marine battery switch is great. I have this problem but it's because I don't drive a couple of my cars for over a month. $40 trickle charger from ctire was my solution.

[Squishy]

My mom was having this problem with her 06 Acura TSX and all along we thought it was the alarm too. After 3 hours of diagnostic, it turned out to be the Bluetooth module. Disabled it and hasn't been an issue since.
Should put it on a maintainer regardless if it's sitting for weeks at a time

[Neb]

On the possibility that this helps people trouble-shoot things, here's a nifty video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-wxG6U5TuY

I tried the third technique (the voltage measurement on the ends of the fuses) and it helped me narrow things down quite a bit.

[cancer man]

2 weeks is pretty good in this weather get a battery tender.