Originally Posted by
edcross1608
My 2005 coupe also has a parasitic drain. Here are my finding after digging into it this morning: With the car locked the drain was significant and fluctuating. In unlocked state the draw settled down to .25 Amp with all fuses in place. After checking all fuses I found Fuse #35 (instrument cluster) accounted for .05amp drain and #9 (int lights, horn, alarm) accounted for .17amp drain. Remembering that the RCM had been updated allowing the horn to work independently I'm removing fuse #9 to reduce the draw to .08amp, when unlocked. I did not check the draw by locking manually. Not ideal but an improvement
I wonder if your measurements are accurate. A BIG misunderstanding is that you can measure the current quickly. You cannot.
Once you connect your meter, (which means you are connecting your battery up to the car after a period of time where it was not connected, that is, while you were opening the battery cable connection to insert your meter) you MUST wait for the modules to "sleep".
You CAN NOT just read the current and think that is the actual standby current. The time it takes the modules to 'sleep' seems to vary as to what modules were "woke up" by your actions. That means that ALL modules must "sleep" after batttery re-connect.
NOW, say you wait and things settle down. You then hit "lock" or "unlock", this wakens the SKREEM, BCM and CLP/SSM. They must sleep before you know what current you have - this will take a lot less time than in the case of a battery reconnect.
What I tell people is to wait three minutes - just to be safe.
"But Mark, that will take so long. This should be easy, I am sure I can hurry thru this..."
Yes, being methodical and patient is why I can find the problem when others can't. It's just current flow, if you MEASURE IT ACCURATELY, you can always find where the current is going.
If you take the time, you can always find it. I spent over three decades doing this kind of work, before I learned how to make money teaching and writing.
Attached is my procedure.