New battery in car drains

Tiny
AWORD
  • MEMBER
  • 1994 LEXUS ES 300
  • 200,000 MILES
New battery in car drains dead in 4-5 nights. Amp meter on battery line to see what was draining it. Draining at.02 amps. Pulled dome light fuse drainage stopped. Need dome light schematic.
Monday, March 19th, 2012 AT 10:56 PM

5 Replies

Tiny
SATURNTECH9
  • MECHANIC
  • 30,869 POSTS
Does your alternator test good?
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Monday, March 19th, 2012 AT 10:59 PM
Tiny
AWORD
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Yes
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Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 AT 12:02 AM
Tiny
AWORD
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If you jump start the car than all the light get bright.
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Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 AT 12:07 AM
Tiny
SATURNTECH9
  • MECHANIC
  • 30,869 POSTS
Here is a wire diagram I tried to posted the wire diagram the best I can.
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Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 AT 12:39 AM
Tiny
ROCKETMAN
  • MEMBER
  • 7 POSTS
So did you figure this out or are you just doing without interior lights :-).
Strictly amateur opinion: Is this dead after 4-5 days of storage/sitting? How dead is dead? 0.2A is only about 2.4 watts. They do make courtesy lamps in that range, more often than not though they are LED's. I don't think the brain drain progression is linear, but still, if my math is close, it would take almost 18 days to draw a typical 45 Ah car battery down only 20%. Can't believe that's enough, by itself, to kill a battery in a stored car in 5 days.

2 regular guesses and some additional wild guesses.
1. Was anything added to the car that may have tapped into that circuit? Led lighting etc? (Had a Cressida with a built in cell phone that was killing batteries, wasn't on a circuit though (tapped at battery, so hard to find))
2. Short. Good luck, always fun. Pulling lights in the circuit 1 at a time may give you more info. (Example 2, Ford E-van with holes in the front timing cover. Has timing chain, not belt, so oil is in the compartment and was getting spewed out all around the front of the engine compartment. Mild short of some kind (conjecture) developed in the oil soaked electronics and it would't start after sitting a long weekend.)

Wild guesses. Outside of the above the only thing I could see that could be happening without you knowing it is in the luggage light circuit. Can't tell what the connection to the Trunk CD player off the luggage light circuit does. Also don't know if the connection to the Anti-Theft computer from luggage light is capable of a small draw. Pulling luggage compartment light should eliminate those.

Good luck. Only have 167K on our 93ES300
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Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 AT 2:52 AM

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