battery draw
- Thread starter Barlow
- Start date
Simple method, disconnect a battery and see if you can make a spark. Better method, disconnect a battery, and check to see if you get voltage between the cable and the battery terminal using an ohm volt meter. Set it to ~20 volts DC. Most modern cars and trucks use electricity when sitting for alarms, radios, clocks, OnStar, etc.
The old skool method was to remove your ground terminal and put a test light between the ground cable and the neg post on the batt. If the light came on, there was current flow meaning your vehicle was drawing power.
Nowadays, like Pat said almost every vehicle has a little bit of current draw due to the various fancy dance gadgets they all have. An analog ammeter in place of the test light will tell you how much current is flowing and then start pulling fuses to find out what is drawing power. An inductive pickup style ammeter may also work for you if it is very sensitive.
Nowadays, like Pat said almost every vehicle has a little bit of current draw due to the various fancy dance gadgets they all have. An analog ammeter in place of the test light will tell you how much current is flowing and then start pulling fuses to find out what is drawing power. An inductive pickup style ammeter may also work for you if it is very sensitive.