Strange Battery Drain

[mark schofield]

Jim Green wrote:
>
> Well, if your not joking, here's the deal with
> electricity.  You are going to always have a voltage
> across that big red wire, and anything else that's
> grounded in the car.  That's good.  The voltage
> doesn't drain any power, you want to measure current.
>  If you are testing for battery drain, take the lead
> off the battery, and put your meter in between the
> lead and the battery post.  Make sure it is set to
> milliamps.  You should see a very small amount of
> drain just to keep stuff like the clock and radio
> settings.
>

No, no, no! If you think you have a current drain big enough to be
flattening the battery you don't start off at the milliamp end -
quickest way to kill a meter going. Start it off on the highest current
range available - probably 10A and work downwards. If you don't have a
problem then, as Jim says, the current draw should be in the milliamp
range. Don't even think about cranking the engine with a meter set to
current in the circuit - you are likely to melt it.

HTH

Mark