Hi all,

Has anyone else measured the typical battery drain current when the engine is off? I recently have developed what appears to be a dead/dying battery but I'm not sure. This is a < 2 year old batter and was functioning OK up to the weekend. Tried to start this AM after 2 days and just a solenoid click. A few hours on the charger and it starts OK. Left it alone for a few hours and no start.

I'm measuring about 60-70 millamps drain with nothing running. Is this typical?
Of course, I forgot that I had the meter in line and clicked the door unlock on the remote and popped the fuse in the meter.

 

here's the best way to test since the amps you have can seriously very on the amount of things in the car and options you had got. replace that fuse in the meter first off , pull the fuse out thats for the dome light , or have the door open and turn it off. Then look at what you meter reads, now go from the engine in and start pulling fuses... look for a huge drop ... not like 1 or 2 but more than that. Once you've figured that out your going to have to diagnois it. If you think your battery isn't charging fully go to like advanced and get your battery load tested...

 

typical car battery is rated ~80 amp-hr so you had not run the car for 2 days and a .065 amp drain will not effect your battery. 0.065amp is 65milla amp

its hard to tell if 65 milla amps is a good number but it is very low and depends on:
-type of radio in your car
-type of alarm system, in what mode setting

get a clip on dc amp meter from sears, goto autozone, whatever measure your charging current, just a guess, expect <10a maybe.

just get a new battery from sams club, inexpensive in compared to a tank of gas.