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sudosonic -> RE: Radio drawing 4 amps when off (4/5/2008 10:24:23 PM)
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I was looking on here for tips on what might have made my battery drain and found this thread. As I had my hummer parked for around 2 weeks and went to start it one day and found the battery dead. I was almost thinking I had something draining my battery too and didnt want to hook up a $200 yellow top optima only to run it down again over night, until I tried this(please read below).
When I was checking for current (amperage draw on the H3 with it shut off) with the same set up, I heard my radio as if it was searching for disks the instant I touched the leads. Then I took all of the CDs out, and realized it was moreso of a startup thing when I first reconnected the power because it did it every time. My total draw was at first around 2 amps, then after the radio cycled and waited another 15 seconds, my draw dropped to 0.6 amps. Then to my suprise with me still holding the meter to the terminal and battery after another 15 seconds it dropped down to around 0.2 amps(which is what it, or any car should be).
What was actually happening is I was testing for a "draw of current" for only around 5 or 10 seconds at first(not long enough). Everyone else checking for current draw be warned because waiting 40-60 seconds is not something you would normally do. In fact the $15 dollar multimeter I bought at Advanced Auto in the manual says to limit the time to so many seconds when checking for amperage in the 10amp range because you could damage the meter.
With actually holding the connection and it dropping down to 0.2 amps, I'm thinking I might have just had an almost dead battery like everyone else on here and there's no real extra "draw" on it parked. By the way I did a test against my MR2 which doesnt have cruise control, much less OnStar, power seats, 4x4 modules, etc, and it measured around 0.2 amps as well.
I'm sure having a 470watt kicker amp drained the factory delco battery over time even though its only an '06(2 yr old battery). By the way I've had the Amp and subs around 6 months.
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