piper27

I still think I have a parasitic drain on my battery. I've checked all the fuses for voltage draw, and they all show 0.00 draw. I'm thinking it might be a bad alternator diode drawing power back from the battery at night. As a test, with my battery fully charged, if I pull the 2 wire connector off the alternator and leave it off overnight, will that stop the draw if it is a bad diode?

Cat Man HHR

How bad of an amperage draw do you think you have ?
Watch this, it might help;

whopper

Have you checked to see what the parasitic CURRENT draw (measured in AMPS (with an ammeter), not voltage) is from the battery when the car is shut off? That will also tell you the difference if/when you disconnect the alternator.

Anything over a 80-100ma is considered unacceptable as per https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-u...parasitic-draw
This video discusses battery/charging system and parasitic draw issues - An explanation on measuring and troubleshooting a parasitic draw issue starts at the 1:20 mark -

and this one from Eric the car guy is pretty good as well, with a little more detail on tracking down a parasitic draw -

piper27

It looks like 140 milliamps/ 0.14 amps. Should I remove relays also to check where the draw is? Actually after 15 or so minutes it went down to 0.00

piper27

Thanks Whopper, I've seen both of them

donbrew

The car has retained power.

Cat Man HHR

Yeah but not enough to drain the battery.
piper 27 you have more than enough info to diagnose your problem.
I would suggest you take it to a qualified repair shop if this is above your mechanical skills.

donbrew

I was referring to the "after 15 minutes it drops to 00" part.

Power is retained for the windows, locks, radio, sunroof, head lights, interior lights etc.

piper27

I would suggest you take it to a qualified repair shop if this is above your mechanical skills.
Yeah Cat Man, if I was smart i'd do that, but I just can't throw in the towel yet. I'll keep plugging along for awhile.

Cat Man HHR

OK then watch the videos and learn.