Club Cobra - Parasitic amp draw

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Parasitic amp draw

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08-17-2015 02:21 PM - permalink

BOBOCobra

Guys, I have a gremlin and it is about a 1.5-2 amp draw after shutdown. It will draw for 2-3 hours and then drops to essentially zero. Pulled fuses, cant find it. Eliminated VR and went with internal VR in the alt about a year ago. Disconnected alt and no change. I don't have any controllers that go to sleep after shut down so it is some sort of strange draw that drops over time. Fan relays are good. Only memory components are stereo face plate and clock, about 10mA draw. Fan#2 relay is wired to battery direct with a temp prob so that fan will cycle 2-3 times after shut down and then stops. If relay is in off position it should not dray any juice. After everything shuts down it has this small amp draw. Ideas?

08-18-2015 03:05 PM - permalink

Xack

Start pulling fuses until you find the circuit that is the culprit. Then take a look at each item in that circuit... In this case, it sounds like you've done that and/or the circuit is not fused! In this case, it sounds like an alternator diode may be bad, or there is a relay coil which is either latched or in circuit to hold the contact closed. If not, then I'd check by pulling the coil wire, or your ignition. How are you measuring the 2 amps? Do you have an ammeter in the dash?

08-19-2015 12:41 PM - permalink

BOBOCobra

I have an fluke meter inline at the negative battery terminal to check parasitic draws with everything shut down. I checked all of those things. I think I found it but need to double check. I have a fan temp controller that turns on at 195 and off at 185. That fan is direct wired to the battery so the controller will cycle the fan a few times after shut down if it over 195. I think since it does not "shut off" until the temp probe falls below 185 the controller is drawing current. 2 amps seems like a lot but this weekend I will run it and disconnect the controller and see if this goes away. Either way the draw stops after about 45 minutes and goes to zero so it needs to be some "controller" that goes to sleep after a while, and that is the only controller I have.

08-21-2015 05:14 AM - permalink

Xack

As I recall, the heater on the electric choke draws about 2 amps. So that's not really that much. Just enough to drain your battery if left on. It's interesting that the draw goes to 0 after a time-out period.

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