Just had to replace a 2 year old battery which had a 3 year warranty. I suspect there is a constant drain on the battery when the engine is off because with a trickle charge device (Deltran Battery Tender Plus) connected, the light pattern indicates an "excessive current draw.". I believe that means the tender cannot ever fully charge the battery. I checked the tender's operation on another car and it is working as specified, so that lends credibility to the excessive current draw.
From reading other posts that could be related, I believe I need to eliminate the possible sources of the current draw until I find the culprit. I need help/advice on how to do this. I don't have a tool to enable measuring mA current - what do I need? And if I get that tool, how to go about the process?
Thank you in advance!

 

You need a multimeter, harbor freight has cheap ones that will measure milliamperes and amperes up to 10. It will be useful for checking voltage and continuity looking for open or shorted connections. You need to go to utube to see how to use them and or read up on the application of a multimeter. Its electricity = simple but miss-connections cause instant failure of test equipment and or parts. Youll have to do some learning or find a friend who can assist. Woody

 

I have a small multimeter and I understand that I would need to put it in series with a circuit to check mA, but I am not sure my little meter can handle the possible draw. Are there devices that can measure current flow without being physically connected? I will have a look at Home Depot. Any hints on where to check/pull fuses to isolate the bad guy? I found a description of where to find and deal with the fuses in another thread.

 

got a decent multimeter and checked for parasitic draw. It shows .2 amps Later today I will start looking for the source. Any likely candidates?

 

 

like he said, 10 a should cover it and you can focus on the issues. Door opening will bring on the lights, so Id suggest the doors be open and wait till they turn off. Fuses will localize it, I always look at the glove box light as a hidden problem/ Let us know, Woody

 

The plastic spacers that contact the door ajar switches are a common issue. That C shaped trim with one tiny screw holding it on. Right around the latch opening on the door. If one side is missing I can promise you there is a draw. No amount of fuses you pull are going to tell on it.

 

Although I am not having an issue right now, I would like to know more about this issue. Can you explain more? thanks, James

 

When we bought this Crossfire in late 2004, we had a Lowjack system installed. I understand that their unit is connected directly to the car battery and uses a rechargeable lithium battery. When the lithium battery dies completely, the unit will make a continuous drain on the battery. Perhaps this is a candidate for my parasitic drain problem? I have no idea where the Lowjack unit is hidden or how is has been connected to the car battery.

 

Aha! There's your prime suspect

 

Well, no luck so far in finding the Lojack device. I found a bunch of pictures of different possible units that it might be, but it's totally unpredictable where it was placed. I need to get the car up on a lift to inspect the underbody. I also left a query on the Lojack customer support site.

The other news is the parasitic draw has gone down (for no apparent reason) from the 0.2 I was getting before to 0.03 to 0.04 amps now, which I think might be normal for this (or any?) car. Any information on what is normal? This THREAD supports it is in normal range. But why the earlier .2 amp draw?

Also, the "C-shaped spacers mentioned above appear intact and untouched.

 

It's been a couple of days since I had any out of spec readings so I am closing up the hood and hoping for the best. I will check again for any parasitic drain in a few days. Thanks for the advice and for the resources on this site!

 

Did you ever find the Lojack? This link ( ) will tell you what that Lojack transceiver looks like including the standby battery. It may look slightly different (see minutes 2:19 to 3:40 in the vid) BUT you'll see that they look like in this instance (cable/wires/external battery). Seems this post is over a year old BUT when I signed in the site this post was 'RED' as if a current comment was in it. Don/t know HOW that happened.... Good luck!


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