I've just made a test with multimeter. No key on. Disconeccted negative wire from batt. A multimeter probe on negative wire other probe on negative terminal

Here what i've get from nultimeter, shoul be considered ok? Not so practical with that scale

 

Is it 0,03 milliamper is right?

 

Anything more than 0.3 amps would be considered a drain on a fuel injected vehicle. Computers are still slightly alive when the car is off to retain their memory. That's why your average MPG resets when you disconnect the battery, and why your radio stations reset, etc.

 

So i'm ok or not?

 

Should be.

 

Yes, your multimeter does say 0,03 (in the U.S., we say 0.03) mA. The problem is that you have blown the internal fuse in your multimeter. When you first connect the amp meter in the circuit like you did, there is an initial high current of several amps to turn on all of the electronics and the interior lights! That's why you get a spark at the battery cable when you first hook it up!

Here is the way to test your parasitic drain:
1. Close car doors and disable or remove your under-hood lights.
2. Disconnect your negative battery cable.
3. Put a short jumper wire between the negative battery post and the negative cable.
4. Connect your multimeter IN PARALLEL with the jumper wire, connecting to the battery post and the battery cable.
5. Wait until the interior lights go off.
6. Remove the jumper wire without disturbing the connections of your multimeter.
7. Your residual current drain should be less that 50 mA (0.050 A)

(The residual current drain of my '84 is about 12 mA.)



EDIT: Just noticed, your red test lead is in the 10 A location. I don't know what your meter will do with this, but the 10 A plug would only be used if the
10 A switch position is selected. You should be using the standard center connection of your meter for the red test lead. Notice the mA label on the center plug. That's a nice multimeter.

 

That's the first thing I thought when I saw the range switch position and that reading.

Be aware that the fuses for multimeter amp readings are special low resistance fuses. They usually cost at least $5. Check the manual for the meter for more information, like part numbers, etc.

 

Thank you i didnt know, i will re do the check

 

Christian, that pic looks like your measuring amps on the 20ma scale of the meter. That means the range is 1ma to 20ma or 0.001amps to 0.020amps. That pic shows -0.03ma which = -0.0003amps. Pretty tiny and u have it connected the wrong polarity to.

As Roy noticed u must have blown the fuse. The amp meter reading is a direct short accross the batt and that has plenty enough current to weld with. If u keep measuring accross the batt terminals u will keep blowing the fuse.

If u what to test the batt u need a "load tester" like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/100-amp...ter-61747.html

 

Wel i've multimeter in hand let me check fuse

 

Most likely is blown...

My problem is that this season i'm not using every day car and she stays stopped two-three weeks after a long ride when I come back to the car battery voltage is 11,9V. Car start immediately any troubles, just i think 11,9 is not a good value

 

^For a car that sits for 2-3 weeks. I would consider 11.9 to be normal. Time to get a maintenance charger. I've used HF units for YEARS with ZERO issues on the same half dozen batteries.

FYI, most but not ALL meters have two fuses one for the low amps like you did to test and another for the 10A selection. That one is likely fine and the setting to be used for the testing you did.

If you ever happen to buy a Fluke meter, I have a 88 model, those fuses are like $15 each!!! You learn not to blow those really quick. Mine I got at an auction with both blown and I've only put in that one set. I don't want to pay for them again! I got the meter for $150 new they are $500 or so.

 

Also if you are going to let the car sit for very long periods just get a battery quick disconnect switch. I can leave mine sitting for a year or more and the battery is still full since I turn the **** on the disconnect switch when I'm not going to drive the car for awhile.

 

When testing for current drain, polarity of a digital meter doesn't matter. We're not trying to determine charge or discharge, just current flow. We can ignore the polarity symbol. If we started over with this test, with the meter leads reversed, the reading would be exactly the same, except for the "-" sign. We don't really care which direction the current is flowing.

cardo0, in the OP's first question he explained his test procedure. He's not measuring across the two battery terminals.
0.03 mA would be 0.00003 A. We appreciate your attempts to help, but please be more careful about your responses.

I'm defending my ideas with facts, not personal attacks! (cardo0, do you recognize that motto?)

 

Yes i made a math error. Guarantee it wont be last either. Im sure u have made more than one yourself.

And yes wrong polarity is a great indication your not connected correctly or your reading is incorrect/meter on wrong quantity or malfunctioning.

 

This does not matter. The reading will be correct. It will just display a "-" sign. So what?

...And for those folks that insist that the red lead be connected to positive, I say that the electrons don't care what color the wire insulation is.

 

:p :-D

 

Note that the banana jack in the middle states above it "200mA max fused". You use that jack for the 200mA scale or smaller; you were set on 20mA so the middle jack is the jack you should be using.

You can use the 10A max banana jack when the meter is set to the 10A scale. Also note that above the 10A jack it states "unfused 10 sec max off for 15 min". This meter is a disaster in the makings. I suspect the shunt resistor in the meter (probably something about 10milliohms) will become your fuse, except it won't blow. It will probably melt and smoke as resistors do.

I suspect you didn't measure anything with the meter configured as in the picture. Like other people have said, that is measuring 30 microamps which is relatively nothing. That might be the meter noise. Pull the leads off. Does it read the same or close?

Be safe with that meter and save up for a good Fluke meter. Don't use that to measure any significant voltages or currents. I would not rely on it to keep yourself safe! :-)

 

One last thing. Whenever you are done making your current measurement, take the lead out of the 10A current banana jack and insert in the volt/ohms jack. Also turn your meter to the volts scale. If you forget to do this, and the next measurement you make is across a big voltage source (battery!) you will blow the fuse, if the meter has one! :-)