New battery drain. Blinker? (1 Viewer)

[cruiserboy14]

Hello. I have a new battery drain after I thought I solved this problem I had to have the alternator rebuilt, solved it). It occurred after I installed the new headlights kit from Toyota. I took my first drive after the install. Stoped at a fly casting workshop for a few hours and when I went to leave it was dead as a stone. Got a jump and went home to ponder.
Forward to today. I have my 40 hooked up to a battery tender. and was able to poke around with a multimeter at the fuse box. The top 3 (tail, stop, and lighter) all show a draw of 13.16 volts with nothing on. There’s no voltage to the cigarette lighter, the horn works fine, but checking the turn signal relay it says it’s pulling 13.36 volts. Testing the system I had no right turn signal then spotty turn signals. I’m betting the relay has gon bad. But why is it drawing power when everything is off and why would the red and green wire be drawing power when nothing is on or connected to it? Is it a constant power wire?
I’m a little perplexed, any advice is appreciated.

 

[charliemeyer007]

Voltage is pressure, amps is current flow and what does the work or the drain. Some circuits are hot (voltage present) even when the key is off

 

[45Dougal]

Nothing in your description sounds wrong.
Some circuits are permanently ON (at battery voltage), as shown in your wiring diagram, and only activated when you press the switch. These include - Stop lights, horn, headlights, tail lights, hazards, and maybe a cooling fan if you have one.
Check all of those things are actually turned off when they're supposed to be.
Pulling the fuses out can isolate the problem. If you pull the Stop fuse for example, and the battery still drains, then you know it's not caused by the horn or stop light.

 

[peesalot]

The hazard is always on and the power for the blinkers comes thru the hazard switch so yes it should be constant as well as the other 3 circuits you mentioned should all be constant as per your readings. I dont know if you can amp probe DC voltage but that would be easy to isolate wires and see what passing thru them. IIRc you can put a meter between neg batt cable & post and it should show whatever pass thru you say is drawing down the batt, then pull fuses 1 at a time & see if the draw goes away, then you will know which circuit to chase.

 

[pb4ugo]

I've always been taught to use volts instead of amps and look for a voltage drop from the batt's baseline. This can be confirmed by turning on the lights or something and watch the effects.

 

[cruiserboy14]

I’ve always used VDC to check for loss and draw. So should I be using amps?

 

[peesalot]

Nope, that is why I stated " I don't know if you can amp probe dc voltage " I have not tried it with my amp probe. Amp probe is a clip that encircles the positive lead and tells how much current is passing thru, NOT a touch connection, and I have never tried it on DC, although there is a DC indicator position on the dial of the probe. The test by interupting the neg to batt is a volt test not amps.

 

[45Dougal]

If you measure only Volts, then you're only getting part of the picture.
Volts measures the pressure. Amps measures the flow.
Remember ohms law: V/I=R

If you only measure Voltage, then it's a bit like only measuring Pressure in your water system. Without measuring the rate of flow, it can be hard to work out where the blockage, or the leak actually is.

 

[45Dougal]

If you measure DC Amps, then that's exactly what you have. Flow.

If you measure voltage, then the "flow" (the battery drain) is dependent on the source resistance (battery) and the load resistance (e.g. the brake light).
The reality is then much more difficult to interpret if you're not really an expert.

 

[peesalot]

Right, what I don't know is if an amp probe ( Not a multi meter ) will read dc on the hot leg ?

 

[cruiserboy14]

Sadly I’m not a pro. So much of this is a little confusing. I haven’t had to do this in 10 years or so. Ha. But I am getting some good ideas from everyone on things to check. I’m grateful!

 

[45Dougal]

Right, what I don't know is if an amp probe ( Not a multi meter ) will read dc on the hot leg ?

Yes you can measure dc amps if you have the right clamp. Often they plug into your multimeter anyway.
Alternatively you can fit a very small inline fixed resistance (such as the ammeter shunt) and then measure the voltage across it to calculate amps.
In fact, connecting your DVM (volts!) across the ammeter terminals will allow you to use the existing shunt with a much more accurate digital output to read Current.

 

[cruiserboy14]

A can’t see how to get the amps to read around the battery, but I unplugged the negative off the battery and read volts between the post and the cable. It read .596 vdc. From everything I’ve looked up that confirms a draw. Now I just have to read that and pop out fuses 1 at a time to narrow it down.

 

[peesalot]

45, thanks, always appreciate good info. 14, sounds like you can isolate the circuit now. Post up what you find as most of the circuits have common or known trouble points so once you know which one it might help to see what others have exp so you arent chasing tail.

 

[45Dougal]

When you measure voltage like this, you're confirming that there is the potential for a draw, but the draw is not actually able to flow because of the high resistance of the meter in the circuit, so the reading you get is hard to interpret directly.
If you connect it exactly the same as you have it, but switch your meter to Amps (and usually relocate the red cable to the other hole in the meter), then you can read Amps while the draw is actually taking place.

Remember that the meter itself is effectively "open circuit" while measuring volts, but "short circuit" when measuring current - so never put your ammeter directly across the battery because a very big current week for through your meter and blow its fuse

 

[cruiserboy14]

@peesalot well. The drain is constant threw them all. I took out every fuse individually then replaced it before replacing in and removing the next. Very perplexed. Then I pulled all the fuses, same draw. What pulls power but is not part of the fuze system??

 

[pb4ugo]

Possibly the alternator. You might try disconnecting the ING switch at the column. Do you have any other wires/componets hooked to the batt?

Charge the batt and then have it load tested.

 

[cruiserboy14]

The alternator is freshly rebuilt by a denso dealer. No other wires to the battery (except the new oem light harness) I’ll check the ignition switch! And I can have the battery load tested! We

 

[charliemeyer007]

Have you taken the fuse box off and cleaned all the connections front and back. Corrosion could easily cause a small short to ground and be your current drain. Could also be a thin spot in the insulation of the always hot circuits. +1 for testing the battery and disconnecting the alternator - sometimes new/rebuilt stuff isn't correct.

 

[pb4ugo]

I'd disconnect the alt just in case. You mentioned the issue was the alt b4, then you replaced it.