Catastrophic battery drain (1 Viewer)

[Vossie]

Hi all, long story short, installed a used wiper motor and had to do all the wiring for it (my entire rig is completely rewired by myself, so far so good).

Wiper motor worked fine, lo and hi and parked like it should. Thought everything was a OK.

Left it over 2 nights and came back and had 2v at the battery. So not just flat, dead flat. And I have an autobox behind a 1uz

I'm obviously suspecting the motor, any way to check it?

Edit: have since jump started the rig and driven it around to charge the battery. Also have disconnected the wiper motor for now and everything seems to be fine again.

 

[iliketrucks]

I bought a clamp meter which is great for stuff like this, will show you how many amps is being drawn. Then you can easily confirm if it's that circuit. But you'd have to make sure the one you get can handle DC current too, some are AC only.

 

[DougAustinTx]

That is a lot of drain for there to be no other cause. Use a multi-meter (Harbor Freight cheap red one will work). Set it to the amps setting and plug the red probe into the amps socket on the meter. Disconnect the hot wire to the wipers. Put the red probe on the source of the 12v you just disconnected and connect the black (common probe) on the wiper connection that you had the hot wire going to before. Your meter will now be inline with the wiper circuit and will show the drain. Anything over 25 milliamps is excessive.

 

[Vossie]

I bought a clamp meter which is great for stuff like this, will show you how many amps is being drawn. Then you can easily confirm if it's that circuit. But you'd have to make sure the one you get can handle DC current too, some are AC only.

Great thanks. My multi meter clamp is AC only, will have to look for a DC one

That is a lot of drain for there to be no other cause. Use a multi-meter (Harbor Freight cheap red one will work). Set it to the amps setting and plug the red probe into the amps socket on the meter. Disconnect the hot wire to the wipers. Put the red probe on the source of the 12v you just disconnected and connect the black (common probe) on the wiper connection that you had the hot wire going to before. Your meter will now be inline with the wiper circuit and will show the drain. Anything over 25 milliamps is excessive.

Thanks. Will try this and see what happens.