Hey everyone I am having electical issues with my 2000 corvette FRC and its been bugging me for a long time and today my dad and I finally sat down and started going through everything. So if I let the car sit for 2-3 days the battery would be dead where the car would just click when I tried to start the car. Every 3-4 months when I turned the car off and opened the door the radio would stay on and I would remove the number #5 fuse from the interior fuse panel and it would be good for a while. I also recently found out the glove box light was on so i put some double sided tape where the plunger hits the glove box door and that stays off now but the car would still die.

Today we hooked up the amp meter in series just like Bill Curlee suggested in his electrical post and after the computer went into sleep the lowest we could get it is .06. With the radio and box needed to use an after market radio the draw went up to .16. Before we touched the radio we removed every fuse, micro relay, relay and mega fuse in both the interior and under hood fuse box and we still had a .10 draw at minimum. I unplugged the headlights, the headlight control module, and checked the alternator and no difference.

Can .16 amp draw kill the battery in 2-3 days? what else could cause the car not to go under .06?

 

Anyone?

 

Your GOAL current draw is .02 AMPS (20 milliamps) the higher you get from that goal draw, the less reserve time your battery can provide.

At .02 amps, my car can easily set for a MONTH+
You Can easily SPLIT the electrical system in HALF. The B+ terminal on the under hood fuse box has two wires. one comes from the battery and the other goes to the passengers fuse box.

REMOVE the wires from the under hood box B+ terminal and connect the TWO WIRES that you removed from that terminal together. That way you are ONLY powering the passengers foot well fuse box.

The ALTERNATOR is also connected directly to the battery. In a separate test, You can remove the large red wire on the back of the alternator (BATT TERMINAL) and insert the AMP METER in series between the wire and the Alternator. You should see ZOERO amps if the diodes (bridge rectifier) inside the alternator are good.

Give that a look.

YES!!!!!!!!! .16 will kill the battery in short order.

BC

 

Thanks Mr. Guru Bill Curlee. With the alternator i did remove the red wire from the post and hook the amp meter one lead to the wire and one lead to the alternator post and i showed 0.00.

with the radio and the harness removed the lowest we could get was .06 regardless of what we disconnected or what fuse/relay we pulled.

So if we remove the two wires from the B+ terminal on the under hood fuse box should we bolt and nut them together and then continue the test?

 

Just eliminate the under hood box and see what you get. What you read on the AMP METER will be just the other box and alternator.

See what it reads and report.

You can pull a FUSE and insert the probes where the fuse goes and read exactly what that specific component is drawing.

Bill

 

Okay so last night i was able to work on the car. So i removed both power wires from the end of the under hood fuse box and hooked up the amp meter and it started to sit at .07 and i opened the door to start pulling fuses again and we decided to wait to work on it so i closed the door and after a little while the amp meter showed .000 and sometimes flashed to .01 or .001.

We did not plug in the radio or anything else at that time.

 

SO,,,,,,, ALL of the circuits left connected to the passengers fuse box are good (except the radio) Reconnect the radio fuse and see what you get. If its HIGH, theres an issue the boes amp is most likely the suspect or the relay that controls it.

BC

 

do you think it would be the Bose amp or relay or do you think its the radio itself and box that is required?

I remember pulling the amp and fuse for the bose and it didn't go down at all. It only went down when i pulled the actually radio and box.

 

REMEMBER!! You can insert the amp meter probes BETWEEN any fuse or circuit contact and measure exactly what that component or circuit is drawing. Measure each one and see what it is.

I believe the BCM is suppose to shut the radio OFF. If its always ON, the BCM could be at fault. Not shutting the radio head unit off.



Bill