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Posted on Aug 25, 2011
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What is the amp draw when the car is on accessory with nothing on. just a estimation. My car is drawing 5 amps with the key in and turned and it killed my battery?

  • Anonymous Aug 25, 2011

    Can't tell you exactly but draw should be way lower than one amp. 5 is way too high. Time to start pulling fuses to find the system that's staying on.

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Chris Hall

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  • Master 842 Answers
  • Posted on Aug 25, 2011
Chris Hall
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When you say NOTHING on, are you saying no radio or interior light? No light on in the boot (trunk) and no sidelights? If this is the case then a 5 amp drain does sound a little odd.

That said 5 amps should not be a great drain on the battery. If you have a 70 amper hour battery (Obviously, I don't know what car and rating battery you have, so I just took a general stab at a Mitsubishi Charisma which has a 70ah battery) then a 5 amp drain should take 14 hours to kill it stone dead. I imagine that 5 hours would put it in a pretty poor condition and 10 hours would probably have discharged it to the point where all your lights are dim and the vehicle wont turn over on the starter motor.

It does sound like you have something draining moe power than would be expected

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Related Questions:

0helpful
2answers

What is normal current draw with engine off, key removed, doors closed?

Ideally it should be nothing. However, given all the electronics/accessories it should not be higher than 250ma or 1/4 amp. Even this low draw will drain an unused vehicles battery in a few days
0helpful
3answers

My 2002 Chrysler town and country blower fan works when ignition is in accessory mode but when car is running there seems to be a great draw on the engine. Do you know what might be wrong?

In accessory mode you won't notice the high current draw because the alternator is out of the circuit and the engine is not running. With the engine running, you will see the excessive draw on the volt/amp gauge. If bad enough it will pull the idle RPM down a bit.

Your blower motor is bad or the wiring has deteriated to the point of causing a high current draw. A good auto tech (or knowledgeable friend with a DVOM and amp gauge) can diagnose the problem in 10 minutes.
0helpful
1answer

2007 Pontiac Torrent: Radio drains battery when off.

hmm... well normally that line will also power the clock but i cant see it drawing that much power :/ If you take that fuse out does it still flatten your battery? what about immobilizer? or car alarm? but whatever it is... you may have to divert power to ignition instead of accessories so that it only uses power when the key has been turned to 'on' position... but there's definitely something using power there.... I'm curious!
1helpful
1answer

Ther is some thing on in the car that kills the battery i thought that it has some thing to do withe theft system so i pulled the fuse and the battery still dieed

You are doing the correct thing, you will need to try and loctate the draw, you will need a meter connected to the battery that shows the amp dram, an amp meter, you turn key off and close all door and see the amount of draw on the battery then start pulling one fuse at a time until the draw drops, the normal draw may be about .03. good day.
0helpful
1answer

2004 EXPEDITION GOES DEAD, 7 AMP DRAW AND THEN GOES AWAY AND COMES BACK

Have you disconnected all accessories in the car (phone charges, GPS and aftermarket accessories)? A 7 amp draw is pretty low and I have had cars with some aftermarket goodie that caused a low draw like that.
0helpful
1answer

03 chev s 10 pickup no start -turn the key get lights stereo fuel pump everything But the starter-have to turn the key back and forth until it finally starts except one time ten minutes of nothing gave up...

I'd start with battery cables. (Hear me out) Lights and other accessories draw minimal amps whereas your starter draws 100s of amps. Your battery cables, especially the bottom ends are exposed to grease and grime which causes resistance. By turning key multiple times you actually heat cables up and they expand making better contact. That would be my first thing to look at. You very well could have bad starter & solenoid but I'd start w/cables. Clean them with a good stiff wire brush.
0helpful
1answer

1984 ford f250 inline 6 Have replaced battery, alternator, starter solenoid, starter, and voltage regulater, along with battery cables. Battery is being drained when the truck sits more than 15 hours....

If you don't have any idea what to check next, maybe now is the time to take the vehicle to an auto electric repair shop that specializes in tracing wires. You may have a short to ground somewhere, or an accessory, that is drawing current when the vehicle is off, to the point of making the battery go dead if sitting more than 15 hours.

One check that you could do yourself, with the proper tool, is to check the amps being drawn when the car is off. If the amps drawn is above .2 Amps, then it's too high of a draw. The symptoms you describe sound like it is more like 2 or 3 (or more) Amps being drawn on the battery.

Try to remove fuses to various accessories to see if that reduces the amp draw on the amp meter.
I would use an Amp meter that is inductive and has a claw that opens and surrounds the positive or negative battery cable and measures current without having to actually remove any cables from the battery, and connect in between the battery terminal and the battery cable.

Let's say, for instance, that it was an accessory like a radio that was drawing an inordinant amount of electrical current. Then, if you removed the radio fuse, the draw should go from 2 or 3 amps down to below 0.2 amps. So, that's what I would do to try to narrow down the possibilities.

Good luck on this repair.
0helpful
2answers

Battery is being drained by something, its new

2 things, not enought cold cranking amps, or while you where trying to start the car the brushs inside the starter caused a ark on the armature causing the starter not to be working at 100% option 1 have a drain test done or 2 replace the starter the drain test will show how much amps its taking to spin the starter if its pulling a high amount of amps/votage to spin the start then replace starter
0helpful
1answer

Nothing turns over at all when i turn the key but the lights come on

lights draw about 5 amps each.
a starter pulls 200 plus amps so sometimes low current things work. hook up a good battery and try it.
is it auto?look for a problem with the neutral safety switch,put in neutral and see if it turns over.if it is a standard,there is a switch on the clutch that is connected to the starter circuit,make sure it is ok.these things are all possible...battery,cables,,starter and solenoid, ignition switch,safety neutral switch.
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