I have an '01 Durango that has a power drain. I hooked up a meter on the negative side and it showed 12.3. I started pulling fuses from both fuse panels and didn't see a drop. I disconnected the positive cable from the fuse panel and the power drain dropped off to 0.2. What can cause this and what should I do to fix it?
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1I've got some questions: What problem lead you to start investigating the drain? Is the 12.3 a voltage or a current reading? Where did you connect the meter (to the negative side of what? where was the other meter probe?).– dluDec 12, 2016 at 1:15
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Disconnected the neg side of the battery connected the meter between the cable and the post and its voltage– Wade ChristensonDec 12, 2016 at 1:34
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So, I think back to the first question of my comment above – can you tell us what lead you to start investigating this?– dluDec 12, 2016 at 5:39
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Battery kept being drain when sitting new battery charge it up and three hours later dead– Wade ChristensonDec 14, 2016 at 1:24
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Does the battery hold a charge if not connected to the car?– dluDec 14, 2016 at 1:45
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1 Answer
This is not a power drain, this is normal. Your battery will sit at ~12.4 V with the car off. You can pull out all the fuses in the world, you can even take the battery out of the vehicle and carry it a full mile away from your vehicle, it will still read ~12.4 V.
If you are really investigating a power drain, you need to measure current, not voltage. Repeat your procedure (you were doing the right thing), just switch your meter to DC amps.
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Also, make sure that you're on a suitable scale. The normal draw when the car is turned off will be a few 10s of milliamps. Most meters with an amp scale can measure this, but if the draw is large you may blow a fuse in the meter if the you're on the wrong scale. Many meters have three jacks for test leads, one often on the left, is for a higher amp range. Start there so that you don't end up having to look for a new fuse…– dluDec 12, 2016 at 5:42
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