Battery drain reference
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 4,990
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From: Hilton NY
Battery drain reference
The battery drain current at rest was measured at 20ma or 0.020 amps on a 1998. When an ammeter was first hooked up the current draw was 1.1 amps, then 880ma, then 80ma and finally 20ma, all within a minute as the computer turned things off. The underhood lightbulb was unplugged for this test. At a 20ma drain, a decent battery should hold a charge for a month; longer storage requires the battery to be disconnected. The glovebox door was left open and the test repeated; after 15 minutes the current dropped to 20ma after the computer shut the power off to the glovebox light. Anyone questioning why their battery went dead in a short time needs only to check the current draw and compare to 20ma.
