• Help Support Hardline Crawlers :

Tracking Down the 'Ol battery Drainer thief

Rich1

I looked--I listened--I changed
Joined
Dec 10, 2006
Messages
2,986
Location
northwest
Alright..... call me dumb! but i'am getting my ass handed to me here.

On my Zuk,

I have a great Charging system & battery that work perfectly, but i have a short that is playing hide & go fawking seek... :mad: what / how - can I go about finding the little bugger?

i'm heading out there now... going to check fuses for power when everything is off, looking for a, "Bad Ground" i think... you'd think it has to be something left on or Draining Power to kill my Battery... right?

--------- be back in a few... meanwhile, throw me some idea's? Thx. Rich
 
Sami shorts are usually in the loom that runs between the battery and the firewall (physicaly not electrically). Battery acid soaks into the wire and it coroads the wire from inside out.
 
ToyZuki said:
Sami shorts are usually in the loom that runs between the battery and the firewall (physicaly not electrically). Battery acid soaks into the wire and it coroads the wire from inside out.

I got the 1.6 16 valve motor swap, i think i found the short, as the previous owner said he never had this problem...

looks like the top post is hitting the underside of my hood.

if this isn't it, i'm just going to have to start on each wire & see whats got power when off that shouldn't... i might of got lucky though...
 
maybe.............. it's the starter / alternator....

going to go check............

:corn:
 
how good is your battery? It might have an internal short that drains the power. I replaced one in my 4x4 recently just for that reason.
 
ZukPirate said:
Ilooks like the top post is hitting the underside of my hood.

normally when this occurs, you have massive arc welding underhood, followed by a nice fire. doubtful

They make tools for diagnosing electrical shorts. If you don't find it, Mike or Aventone or someone like them can probably find it for you in under an hour. Only in rare occasions do we (at our shop) have the really pain in the ass times trying to find a short (and normally they don't drain the battery, but rather set a check engine/trouble light).
 
TreeClimber said:
normally when this occurs, you have massive arc welding underhood, followed by a nice fire. doubtful

They make tools for diagnosing electrical shorts. If you don't find it, Mike or Aventone or someone like them can probably find it for you in under an hour. Only in rare occasions do we (at our shop) have the really pain in the ass times trying to find a short (and normally they don't drain the battery, but rather set a check engine/trouble light).

after talking w/ another member from this board & hearing some resolutions,
i'am just going to go get a - Battery Cut-off switch... to solve my problem for the meantime, until i have the time to Track it down...

thanks guys.
 
You need to hook an ammeter inline between your batter positive post and your battery cable. Don't fry the thing by trying to start the rig with it hooked up. Find out what your current flow is with everything off, then start pulling fuses. Hopefully that will isolate the problem to a particular circuit.

Shorts are always fun :D
 
CrustyJeep said:
Shorts are always fun :D

tHOSE are EASY! And yes an ammeter will do the trick but be carefull as anything over 10 amps and POP(unless its a cheapo and alot less to make it go poof)
 
Yes .. If there is an ECM or Pcm You will need to let it so called go to sleep about 30min to shut down if on compurtor it take only take seconds. Hook up to positive battery terminal with one lead of the meter and the other lead to the positive battery cable ' set meter on amp at first and test if reading is below 0.100mamp than set meter to milli amps and read any thing OVER 0.030will cause battery to dain to fast . Note A 194 dash light bulb draws 0.500m amps and an bad alt. can draw0.250 or 1/4 amp.:D
 
well...... 5mins later & the - 'Ol Battery Draining Theif is No more - :D

> hooked up a Battery Cut-Off Switch.

Now it's time to just sit back & watch for the smoke show or wait till something pop's... but, i think *(12:48 PM SemiTrkDrvr ) nailed it. from what we talked about on the phone... it is most likely the Alt / Starter draining.

it's a large drain, & theres nothing else that could suck this much juice overnight...

*unless............ the wife is playing tricks again! :corn: Naa she wouldn't.
 
jeeptech 1 said:
Yes .. If there is an ECM or Pcm You will need to let it so called go to sleep about 30min to shut down if on compurtor it take only take seconds. Hook up to positive battery terminal with one lead of the meter and the other lead to the positive battery cable ' set meter on amp at first and test if reading is below 0.100mamp than set meter to milli amps and read any thing OVER 0.030will cause battery to dain to fast . Note A 194 dash light bulb draws 0.500m amps and an bad alt. can draw0.250 or 1/4 amp.:D

You don't get to play with the new stuff,lol...

If there is onstar you also get spikes every hour for 24 hours till the module fully shuts down. I could ramble on for hours about this stuff (Electrical is my specialty)
 
crash said:
You don't get to play with the new stuff,lol...

If there is onstar you also get spikes every hour for 24 hours till the module fully shuts down. I could ramble on for hours about this stuff (Electrical is my specialty)

So say 1 of those Mumble Jumble speels & make it go away man....
make it just go away...

*(breaks down in tears) i got to go back out & work on something.

I could see you chanting around the ZuK in the purple tribal ceremony uniform... chanting your mojo & ....... wacking a stick at it...

:haha: :haha: :haha:
 
jeeptech 1 said:
Yes I know ALL about North star and caddys BUT lets stay on track again we are talking about an ZUK .

But to keep things simple just do what crusty said--you should have maybe 4mA draw on that zuk
 
jeeptech 1 said:
Yes I know ALL about North star and caddys BUT lets stay on track again we are talking about an ZUK .

w/ a 1.6 16 valve motor swap - hoping it's not in the re-done wiring harness.
 

Latest posts

Top