Battery Drain

[MH_Stevens]

Battery drains to dead after about a day. Can't trace short but seems to have happened after removing seats for re covering. I know I can test by removing fuse one at a time but is there any quicker way or a best guess to try first? LC80 with 250k miles

 

[ppc]

Once a battery is completely drained it most likely needs replacement, more so with an older battery will not hold a charge. When the seats were recovered were the doors left open with the interior lighting draining the battery down or was the ignition left on?

 

[enox]

How old is your battery?

 

[chuckd83]

Battery drains to dead after about a day. Can't trace short but seems to have happened after removing seats for re covering. I know I can test by removing fuse one at a time but is there any quicker way or a best guess to try first? LC80 with 250k miles

Do you have clamp meter? You can clamp the positive cable and see the current draw. Pull fuses until the current draw stops.

Alternatively, you can use a normal meter and probe the fuses for voltage drop. There will be some across the fuse that the issue is on.

 

[prkchp77]

Check to see if the green ring around the ignition switch is staying on. (Mine was intermittent) If so, the relay is behind the front passenger side kick panel... I dont have an FSM handy otherwise Id give you more info.

 

[jonheld]

Battery drains to dead after about a day. Can't trace short but seems to have happened after removing seats for re covering. I know I can test by removing fuse one at a time but is there any quicker way or a best guess to try first? LC80 with 250k miles

Use an ammeter and connect it to each of the 3 fusible links off the positive battery terminal. That will point you to the subsystem in question.
Total quiescent current should be around 20 to 30 mA, depending on what hardware you have installed.

 

[JoeW]

You can use the volt drop method to check draw,
And if it really did just start acting up after seat re-upholstery work, I'd start on that circuit, although something messed up there seems like it would be an issue with a short circuit, not so much a draw but YMMV.