How to help prevent parasitic drain?
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2018
Posts: 134
Likes: 4
From: Illinois
How to help prevent parasitic drain?
Hey everyone - quick question for anyone that may have had a similar problem to what I am experiencing...
My C5 has a quality AGM battery, yet if it doesn't stay plugged into my battery tender for more than a few days, it will require a jump start & a few cycles of "battery repair" to reach its normal resting / operating voltage.
My 2013 Camaro, on the other hand, can be left motionless and off the tender for months and will fire up without a problem.
Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening? It makes the ownership experience quite annoying at times...
Please chime in with any advice if you know better than me - thanks in advance!
My C5 has a quality AGM battery, yet if it doesn't stay plugged into my battery tender for more than a few days, it will require a jump start & a few cycles of "battery repair" to reach its normal resting / operating voltage.
My 2013 Camaro, on the other hand, can be left motionless and off the tender for months and will fire up without a problem.
Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening? It makes the ownership experience quite annoying at times...
Please chime in with any advice if you know better than me - thanks in advance!
Burning Brakes
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there are few videos…
I am up for the task this WE with mine…😵💫
and another one:
Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 5,139
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From: H-Town Texas
When I bought my '97 it would seriously drain the battery almost daily. A couple of things that added to the issue was the fact the rear courtesy lights would stay on and the aftermarket usb thing in the cigarette lighter. I removed those two fuses and it improved a little bit. However, when I replaced the alternator, I haven't had to jump it since.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 3,138
Likes: 802
From: Espanola New Mexico
Many posts on this problem, very first thing is to measure your cars sleep mode current, this is done by connecting a dvm in series with the negative battery terminal and cable. You should wait 20 minutes, normal current drain should be around 25ma. After you have determined that that it is excessive, reconnect battery and measure millivolts across the fuses like they show in the video, and yes alternators can have shorted diodes, remove and have it tested.
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