Battery Being Drained In 6days - Alarm Possibly?

[75coupe]

So I took the car to a sparky, he seemed nice enough and had knowledge of skylines.

I expected him to find an obvious electrical issue as I'm not an electrically minded person (but learning).

He has been scratching his head a little and we've been trouble shooting it together a little.

Brand new century battery, alternator output is solid. and its an intermittent low amperage drain

He has tracked it down to the "interior light dwell module" which I guess could be it, he's saying it seems stable when its been unplugged for the last couple of days (hes had it a week), I've never noticed the interior light being on and I see the car every night in pitch black so I definitely know the interior light is not on all the time at least.

I had the though it could be related to the alarm's internal battery being kaput & attempting to charge now and again, also the once the battery is very low on charge the alarm goes off but the siren is so quiet and barely croaking you can't hear it, I thought the alarms internal battery was so if the main car battery is cut off it uses its own internal battery to sound the alarm, so shouldn't the alarm be able to power itself after the power is drained from the main battery?

Anyone have any ideas?

Edited August 21, 2008 by 75coupe

[Boss-zilla]

Could be the light in the boot, have heard of a few people finding a fault with it.

I think with the alarm it sounds when the battery is going flat and if you remove power it will sound at full volume but i could be wrong.

[SLEEPR85]

If your alarm is a couple of years old, my money's on that. Had this happen to me in the old VR commowhore, took it to an auto electrician and he said straight up that its the alarm siren and he took it out straight away. Also said that they remove about 20 of them a week so not an uncommon problem...

[75coupe]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I thought the alarm battery sounded on the money when I thought about it, But I will check the boot light as well, thats one I would not of thought of...

Any other suggestions guys, otherwise this electrician is gonna pull my dwell module so the light comes on with doors open, which is ok, but if its unnecessary I'd prefer not...

I have been pointing him in a few directions, (actually the first electrician that I found I had to give ideas too... especially since I'm crap with electronics)

[O.I.C Napster]

I had the same problem in my 33. If yours comes with one, check the cd stacker in the boot. Mine had no cd case in it but was still making noises. Pulled the plug and now i have full battery power. Try that

[poobah]

i had the same problem in my 32, when the alarm would sound it would be very weak and faint. my car wouldn't even crank over or i couldn't use the remote central locking.

i thought it was just my alarm draining the battery slowly, so i just turned off the siren. and never had the problem again. the immobilizer still works and everything.

[Chris Rogers]

has he done a curretn draw on the car?

[Bonsai]

like SLEEPR85 said i bet its the alarm siren needs replacing if you put that voltameter gauge to your battery you should get 0 reading if you get something higher there is a draw of current some place. replace the siren is a good place to start. it all sounds like your alarm. btw what alarm do you have?

[75coupe]

He did do a reading of current being drawn, said he tracked it down to the dwell module, I suggested the alarm as thats what I thought it would of been, but he's the 'Professional'

Its a satellite tracker alarm of some sort...

I'll see how it goes, but if its still alive after a week alls good, but I don't think I will go back to him if its dead again, especially after $200 and no joy.

ho long should a battery be able to keep charge for anyway, I've left other cars for weeks and all has been fine, but not the skyline, well at least not lately...

[Craved]

your lucky - mine wont last 3 days with my tracker.

i spent 2 days at an auto electrician like you - one thing i found was a 1.3A draw from the turbo timer with everything off - pulled it out and never put one back in.

without the current draw numbers its hard to tell if its bad or not - from memory a normal standard car should only drain about 1 to 1.5 A when sitting

[Chris Rogers]

like SLEEPR85 said i bet its the alarm siren needs replacing if you put that voltameter gauge to your battery you should get 0 reading if you get something higher there is a draw of current some place. replace the siren is a good place to start. it all sounds like your alarm. btw what alarm do you have?

you mean ammeter. and with idle current (IE clock,radio,alarm) it should be below 70mA (or 0.007A.) if its up around 100-120 then you have a draw somewhere. given that it would drop a battery within 3-4 days.

when was the last time you put a new battery in it?

do you know what your idle current is on that car?

[75coupe]

Its a brand new century battery, the sparky said he put a truck battery in it to 'Test' battery and it was being drained as well...

Maybe I should take it to a proper Auto Electrician?

Me being crap with electrics, can a multimeter tell me the current draw?

[Chris Rogers]

if you use it correctly - yes. it needs a current function

google ammeter and use that idea to work out what is wrong with yours.

may as well learn how to use a meter.

I would have a meter handy and get a baseline draw on the car then start pulling fuses. it will drop off as you pull fuses. when it gets close to zero that will be the idle current.

give me a baseline draw to work with and I'll help you.

[75coupe]

Thanks for the pointers I reckon as you say I should learn how to use a multimeter to its full capacity and I love being able to diagnose problems, this is as good a time as any to start learning electric stuff...

I'll give it a go over the weekend and report back, thanks for your posts most helpful, I like to learn...

[Chris Rogers]

if anything you will have learned how to diagnose problems with your car. electrics is easy once yo get a basic idea of it.