[s-cars] Stumped is better than stomped, I guess

[CLAG500 at aol.com]

Bob,

  I've heard of the vacuum pump under the rear seat draining the battery before.

Chad Tobin

In a message dated 10/10/2002 2:20:31 PM Eastern Standard Time, s-car-list-request at audifans.com writes:

> Hi Y'all,
>
> Here I am again with YAQ (yet another question).  For about a week the
> battery (new just this past summer) has been going down overnight.  Down
> enough so that after jump starting the car I've had to re-enter the radio
> code.  The charging system is fine.  After starting it puts out a solid 14
> volts as indicated by the dash gauge.  A charger attached overnight still
> shows about 2-3 amps going into the battery in the morning.  This suggests
> to me that something is drawing in the vicinity of 2-3 amps or a little
> more while everything is (supposedly) turned off.
>
> This morning I finally had enough time to start some troubleshooting.  I
> opened the relay box and felt for warmth from a possible stuck relay or the
> like.  Nothing was noticeably warmer than anything else.  Then I
> disconnected the battery cable and inserted an "ammeter" (a wired brake
> light) in series.  A good current was indicated the light lit up fairly
> brightly - perhaps half brightness.  With the light in view I pulled each
> fuse in turn from the fuse panel inside the driver's door.  No variation of
> brightness was observed.  As a test, the bulb brightened noticeably when I
> switched the radio on which indicated that I should have been able to
> detect a significant decrease in current if the right fuse was pulled.
>
> I'm satisfied that none of the circuits fused at this location is drawing
> sufficient current to cause the battery to go down overnight.  Am I
> overlooking some other fuses which are not at this
> location?  Any other
> suggestions?
>
>
> Bob