Parasitic battery drain

handleypage

handleypage

New Member
Over 500mA. I initially thought it was the alternator but further testing reveals that it's fine. The only thing that stops it is when I disconnect the thing in the photo below and the power to water/methanol injection controller. If either one is connected to the battery I get the drain. Anyone experience a problem like this with the unit in the picture? I unplugged the jumper wires on it one at a time and this did not help. 20240423_205655.jpg
 
Those are your Fusible Links, like big, slow burn fuses. Strange that just one of those jumpers (fusible link) doesn't isolate the problem even though disconnecting the whole thing does. I'd retest that... (could a short inside that housing be the issue? Maybe give it a good cleaning...)

I had a drain that ended up being a short at the connection for the alternator. The red rubber cap had split. Found it by accident when spraying Liquid Wrench on a bolt above the alternator and it started smoking. Parasitic drains are THE WORST to track down. I was ready to install a battery disconnect to just shut it all off when not driving.
 
deskinthewoods said:
Those are your Fusible Links, like big, slow burn fuses. Strange that just one of those jumpers (fusible link) doesn't isolate the problem even though disconnecting the whole thing does. I'd retest that... (could a short inside that housing be the issue? Maybe give it a good cleaning...)

I had a drain that ended up being a short at the connection for the alternator. The red rubber cap had split. Found it by accident when spraying Liquid Wrench on a bolt above the alternator and it started smoking. Parasitic drains are THE WORST to track down. I was ready to install a battery disconnect to just shut it all off when not driving.
Click to expand...
Thanks for input, I will check it again. It's when you run out of things to check that you start to loose enthusiasm.
 
Turns out I can have one of the wires connected and not have a problem. The one for the defrost. There must be something common to the other three. Headlights, ignition and central locks.
 
Ign and Light have the radio and clock in common (ign- switched power, light-memory). I can't think of anything else consumer wise... and it doesn't make sense the methanol shares the same symptoms.

What wiring was most recently added/modified?
 
Water methanol was the last to be added, it's tied to the switched power near the injection pump, but I've removed that and still have a problem.
 
So correct me if I'm wrong but generally the problem is with some sort of component, switch or diode that is leaking partial current back to ground?
 
handleypage said:
Water methanol was the last to be added, it's tied to the switched power near the injection pump, but I've removed that and still have a problem.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by "removed?" Did you completely disconnect every wire? At one point I had a boost gauge that had different colored lighting for day/night... but for whatever reason the connection to the switched lighting (night time color) caused a permanent drain. I don't understand it and I'm pretty certain I had it connected correctly, but I couldn't find the cause until I completely uninstalled the gauge.
 
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