Hello,
First post, new owner of 2005 CF Limited. colour white, located in Nova Scotia, Canada. First let me say how valuable this site and all members are to help keep this vehicle going, I hope that I may be able to contribute in some way going forward. I am handy but challenged mechanically, but do what I can.

Battery Drain and Sizzling Noise
I have had the car for 3 weeks and notice the battery was getting down after a few days, the previous owner had just put a new battery in a few weeks ago. So checked out this forum and got the info to do a inline amp test that resulted in 0.34 amps at the 10 amp setting, nothing turned on in the car that I know of. While doing the test I could hear a sizzling sound coming from the BCM box area every time I touched the probe to the -battery post. Stop the test and pulled Fuse #9 and tested again, reading now 0.01. Very concerned about the sound coming from BCM box area. Anybody have any thoughts what's up with the sound and if this could be the source of my battery drain.
Thank you for you time

 

There’s a small fan in the ECU/BCU/Relay control module box at the bottom. There could be an issue with this or you could be having an issue with the alarm
The alarm is located in the cowl (fresh air intake area) under the wipers right around the ECU/BCM/ relay module box.

Lots of posts here on how the test to remove alarm.

 

Thank you, I am pretty sure you are right, I think the noise that I am hearing is the alarm crackling and not in the BCM box. I will let you know when I get it out. Watch a few videos, looks like the wiper blades are the hardest part of it.

 

Get a wiper puller from Amazon or Harbour freight $6-$15

Before you remove the wipers go to a pick and pull and get a wiper grommet from a MB
Match the one on the passenger side
Our Cars did not come with one in the driver side. Several posts about this too.

 

It's not hard to remove or replace the alarm siren. While you have the cowl removed you should also clean the drains under it.
Here's a post that I did that I hope you will find helpful. There are many detailed pictures with descriptions.
Alarm siren and drain cleaning

 

Thanks, what a great write up, the details make such a difference. Removed the siren and no more noise, amps dropped down to 0.16, looks like I still have a issue on fuse #9. The search will continue. Thanks again

 

Thanks, picked up the puller this AM and they popped right off. Removed the siren and no more noise, amps dropped down from 0.30 to 0.16, looks like I still have a issue on fuse #9. I will check further. Thanks again

 

Be sure to clean the drains or you will get water inside the car causing major problems with electronics.

 

Yes, checked the drains and they were very clean, there was no debris under the cowl at all. I poured lots of water down each and all were clear. I am the second owner and the previous owner stored the car inside. The car has 34000km on it,

 

I'm glad that you found it useful.
For the fuse 9 issue; do you have leds in the dome light? Try shutting the dome light switch to off, or remove both bulbs. Be careful, the plastic on the lens is brittle.

 

Hello, I remove the dome light entirely and unplugged the garage/TPSM module and it made no difference. I removed the trunk light, the bulb was burnt out. I am not sure how the trunk light is controlled. I locked the car with the key put the latch in the closed position and with the trunk lid open I still get power to the trunk light. The other strange thing is before I removed the siren, with fuse #9 removed, my total amp reading was 10mA and now since I removed the siren, it has gone up to 80mA (fuse out) and still 160mA with fuse in.

One other thing, I decided to lock all doors while doing the Amp test and the now the security lights start flashing as soon as I touch the probes to the battery, can only do the test with the doors unlocked.

 

Hello again, as I was testing the amperage, I would wait for about a minute each time when the ready steady out and go with that reading. So I decided to clamp the multimeter probes to the battery post and clamp and start pulling fuses again. I got distracted for a few minutes and when I looked over, the reading had dropped to 0.01 and stayed there. So I tried it many times again and It took approx 1.75 minutes for the draw to drop down from 0.160 to 0.01, and then it stays there. Would this be normal and the siren was my only problem. Everything now is steady at 0.01 Ma. Thanks for your thoughts on this matter.

 

Another known draw on the battery is the stock radio. Do you still have the original radio?
If so, try pulling the fuses related to the radio and see if that draw goes away.
Pizzaguy has an excellent post on how to find a battery draw. It's in the troubleshooting section.

 

Yes, I still have the original radio. I pulled the fuse and it made no difference. I am going to watch the battery for a few days and see what % it goes down. I took the siren apart and the pcb was severely corroded. Will look for a new one before next spring as she is going into winter storage soon.

Bob

 

Do yourself a favor and just forget about the damn siren. Our cars are not valuable enough to steal anyway.

.055 or less is what you want to see. My car is a Base/SE model, mine runs .015 to .020. I can leave mine for two months with no 'tender' or charger on it and be just fine.

The common battery drainers are:
Siren
CLP/SSM (usually will have other weird symptoms)
HVAC "blower resistor"
..... anything on battery feed (sorry, but that list is long)

My procedure takes time and effort, but it always shows where the issue is, usually in less than 1/2 hour.

 

Do yourself a favor and just forget about the damn siren. Our cars are not valuable enough to steal anyway.

Hey Pizzaguy, Big smiles for little $

 

Mark,
I sure wish I had read your article before attempting to find my battery drain. It explain so much and answered so many questions that I spend hours doing searches/post/youtube videos. It was all there in one spot, so detailed, so well done for someone like me. Thankyou so much. This forum is so valuable getting to know the characteristics and common faults of the CF.

Checking the battery draw now is 10Ma after waiting 2 minutes. Looking forward, I am sure I will use this info and much more.

Yes you are right, no requirement for the siren, save me $250.00 .

thanks again

Bob