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  #16  
Old 01-11-2008, 04:16 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 29
I unplugged the clock, radio, hazzard relay, vanity lights and measured the draw and it is still to large for me to measure. The only thing I haven't unplugged is listed as "elect illumin" on the fuse box card. I don't know what this is.

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  #17  
Old 01-11-2008, 05:32 PM
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Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
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What "amps" do you mean? Is it an aftermarket radio with amplifiers?

Try these suggestions, one step at a time to identify the drain:
-Pull the "main" fuse in the amp wire. It should be located close to the battery. Should be an inline fuse if it's an aftermarket amp.
-Check the amps for a blade-style fuse and pull each one separately (if more than one amp) to see which amp is causing the problem
-Pull the radio and remove the two fuses (one for constant power, one for ignition power) and see what happens.

You have something killing your battery, and it sounds related to the radio. Disconnect all of the radio stuff until the drain goes away, then start adding back one thing at a time until you find the problem. No need to use your meter as you've narrowed it down quite a bit.

Easiest way is to just stop the drain, and then slowly (wait a few days each time) add one thing back till you find the offender!
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  #18  
Old 01-11-2008, 06:06 PM
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Location: Kingsport, TN
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Hi again,

I can feel your frustration. Shorts are sometimes hard to find.
Electric illumination is the lighting behind the instrument panel, the dimmer to regulate the instrument lights etc.

I looked at my Hayes electrical manual and it stated that a drain of .5 amps is probably excessive and will drain a battery.
Now you know already the fuse, that is suspect.
I would want to have an instrument that can read that drain in that general magnitude. So setting my multimeter to mA should give me something like 500 or more on the scale, i.e. 500mA = .5A. I don't think uA is the right setting.
I connect my multimeter between the negative battery cable and the negative battery pole and see what I read. You need to read something at that spot that makes sense to you like more than 500 mA.
Now I remove the fuse and that number should be close to Zero.
Then you proceed as Gilly has suggested, i.e disconnect all at the powerside of the fuse box and put them back on one at a time and measure their power draw. Again, it should be in the mAs and one of them should stand out and being close to the total draw measured at the beginning.
As Gilly said, that one you leave off, start the car and see what is not working. Then you follow that circuit.

If the drain stops when you disconnect that fuse, it has to be on that circuit.
Good luck
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  #19  
Old 01-11-2008, 09:03 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 29
Battery Drain

I have a Greenlee DM-20 Meter. The settings for amps are 2000u, 20m, 200m. I have not checked the draw at the battery terminals but will do it tomorrow. There are 2 spades on the powerside of the fusebox with 4 wires each so it is not possible to pull them off one at a time. I checked each spade and they both were pulling too many apms. As for the radio it was the original one, but had 2 small amplifiers, one on each side of the rear seat. I replaced it with a radio/CD with a built in amplifier. I removed the old amplifiers and bypassed the fader switch. Accoriding to the wiring diagram for the instrument cluster/console lignting fuse #2 is hot all the time and connects to N4D Instrument Illumination Control Unit. All the lights in my cluster work but 1. I don't know what the N4D Control unit is for. Whatever it controls should not work with the fuse removed. Thanks for all the help.

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