Acceptable battery drain level?

[Terryd]

Anyone know what an acceptable battery drain level is? I am chasing a draining battery gremlin..... I am seeing a current flow of 46mA when the car is off. I wouldn't have thought 46mA would be enough to cause the battery to drain over a week. Load tested the battery shows good. If I disconnect the battery for a week and reconnect, no drain. Pretty much eliminated the battery. Looking.....��������
Thanks!

[ADY]

I've had the same issue with my Yellow top Optima, replaced it thinking it was too old, but still had the slow leak somewhere in the system with the new Optima. Suspect that the Vintage Air system might be the culprit as I hear a ticking sound (even when the car has sat for a week), but haven't had the time to isolate the system and check. My only recommendation is to pull the fuse one by one and see when the current draws stops.

[Terryd]

Originally Posted by ADY

I've had the same issue with my Yellow top Optima, replaced it thinking it was too old, but still had the slow leak somewhere in the system with the new Optima. Suspect that the Vintage Air system might be the culprit as I hear a ticking sound (even when the car has sat for a week), but haven't had the time to isolate the system and check. My only recommendation is to pull the fuse one by one and see when the current draws stops.

Same here, Optima yellow top. I have the drain isolated to two circuits. One is the battery feed to the ECM, 15mA and the other is either the Vintage Air or the Digital Dawg keyless ignition, 31mA. Have to go further downstream to tell which it is. These are both direct battery feeds that don't go through the main fuse panel (each has an inline circuit breaker).

So the question is to determine if 46mA is considered an "excessive" drain.
All my late model stuff has to be seeing some level of battery usage in a non running state and they always start. Thought about comparing to my 2015 Silverado......

Thanks for the input!

[Vegas69]

I thought the spec was 50 or 100 ma. Optima batteries don't sit well. I always had mine a tender.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

I thought the spec was 50 or 100 ma. Optima batteries don't sit well. I always had mine a tender.

Egg Sack Lee!



Any "drain" is a drain..... what difference does it make as long as it's not excessive. You'll now go in to new car dealerships and see cars sitting with 'trickle chargers' hooked up to them.

Get yourself a tender that can handle the TYPE of battery you intend to keep topped up. Personally I use CTek brand.


Or - for many years people just put a disconnect switch on the ground..... but then you can still end up forgetting about the battery and it sits for months and runs down. So just putting it on the proper tender is the easiest way to do it.

[CamaroAJ]

GM spec on new vehicles is 40mA for what it's worth.

[Terryd]

Originally Posted by CamaroAJ

GM spec on new vehicles is 40mA for what it's worth.

Thanks, just the info I was looking for.

[Terryd]

I had a little time this afternoon to do some more troubleshooting. This is where things are as of now, not done yet. Working through it as time allows.

I have 4 power feeds at my positive bulkhead connector excluding the incoming battery feed. They are feeding: Vintage Air, Cooling fans, ECM and the battery feed to the main fuse block.

Have isolated the drain to two items. The Vintage Air has a 15mA current (wth ?) and the balance is coming from the keyless ignition module. Nothing in the main fuse block has a current draw.

I spoke with Digital Dawg and they advised that unless there's a fob in range I shouldn't see any current flow. I don't think the fob was in range but I will recheck tomorrow. The 15mA on the Vintage Air has me baffled. I am running a Dakota Digital climate controller. So I guess I'll be calling both of them too.

I know I can always use a tender, which I will in any case just to treat the battery right. Just bugs me and I have to find the source. My kids say I'm OCD...wonder if they are right ?.. LOL

I'll keep isolating, sooner or later I will get there...

[simon455]

0.035a is a limit on a lot of new vehicles with verious "bus" communication system. Barely even see anything near that when making sure no draw is present.