ecometer drain

[birdman]

Hi, My '08 LB is on it's 4th battery and the dealership finally figured out what was eating the batteries. The batteries started to fail following the installation of the ecometer. The ecometer continues to draw a serious amount of electricity even when car is parked. The ecometer display shuts off a few seconds after the key is out but it continues to draw the battery down. I have to remember to unplug it each time I park. Has anyone had this happen to them?

[R2D2]

Yep-I was sick awhile back and the car sat for 3 days. Wouldn't start. I haven't been having any more problems because over the winter I've been plugging in a block heater and battery tender.

Thanks for the heads up-I was really wondering what caused the drain problem.

Did they tell you exactly how many amps the draw was?

R2

[birdman]

I think he said 12?

[Palmer812]

12 amps is a HUGE draw. I don't have one but someone here that does should measure for themselves.

[Sidicas]

He probably meant 12 Volts... There's no way that little thing could be pulling 12 amps...

[birdman]

Added to the drain of my toyota security system it eventually wears the battery down until it dies. It takes about a month for the battery to go dead with normal use of the car. CT Scott mentioned that some Dodge cars using the ecometers are having the same experience. I wonder if someone in the club who has a car like mine with the security system and an ecometer could check theirs and report back? I would hate to disconnect the ecometer if it turns out not to be the cause of the drain. It's possible the technician used the ecometer as an excuse when they couldn't figure out where the real problem is. They could have told me the truth. I don't know.

[yaris-me]

I have a PLX Kiwi and I had battery failure. I keep it unplugged.

[Palmer812]

All you need to check it is a decent multimeter. A $20 one from Sears will do. Remove the ground cable from the battery. Turn the meter on and set it to DC amps and put 1 lead on the negative battery post and the other lead on the battery cable that you removed. That will show you how many amps are being drawn by your car. You can start unplugging things while watching the meter to see if anything changes. Just make sure you have the doors closed so the interior light is off. I don't know about the Yaris but most cars draw less than .1 amps at rest.

[Hershey]

the '09 5 door battery died when it sat for 3 days with the E.M. plugged in during some cold winter days / nights . Took it to dealer and said it something we left on . The ECO-METER was in the car when the battery was tested at the TOYO service center . Said the battery was fine . Didn't specify if it was the E.M. , but probably thought it was the source for the draw . The '09 had the flashing security light on dash as well .

[BLH]

I doubt it was 12 amps. That would be a lot of heat. 12 Amps X 12 Volts =144 Watts.

[bobalou1]

I have the ecometer and had the came problem. Contacted the company and they had me send it in and they upgraded it so the discharge doesn't happen, Havent had a dead battery in a year and keep it hooked up all the time.

[Hershey]

called ECO-METER and told them of dead battery . They said they're aware of the draw on the battery when car is off and that earlier 9100 units are the source . So , sent in the ECO-METER at my cost and sent me a new one that has been modified so not to drain battery when not in use . Took about a week for them to return new 9100 . Got it hooked up earleir today . Wait and see if any affect on car battery . Thanks for the head up BIRDMAN :thumbsup: .

[1stToyota]

Slightly OT, but has the SCII ever had battery drain issues, or is this mainly an ecometer thing?

[127.0.0.1]

Slightly OT, but has the SCII ever had battery drain issues, or is this mainly an ecometer thing?


the SGII has no drain issues.

[talnlnky]

the SGII has no drain issues.

ditto

i'm surprised that the company would make such a bad error in designing the EM. Glad they have it fixed now.

12amps is the draw you would expect from lights of some sort, or even a CD player/deck. even 1.2amps would be more power than i'd expect the EM to use when fully powered up. anything more than half an amp would surprise me.

newer cars like the yaris should have like 5miliamps worth in draw after you turn the car off.... it'll take awhile to drop that low, but the computers go into sleep mode and then the draw drops very low. Older cars (pre-computers) would literally have no draw, cept for the in dash clock which would take less than a miliamp.

[1stToyota]

the SGII has no drain issues.

That's good to know. Never thought I'd actually buy a SGII for fear that I'd be pegged as a hypermiler or going for the sleeveless sweater look...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Tanktop2.jpg/384px-Tanktop2.jpg
...but I'll probably be doing a lot more in town driving and a lot less freeway driving, soon, so it might be pretty handy to have.

[talnlnky]

That's good to know. Never thought I'd actually buy a SGII for fear that I'd be pegged as a hypermiler or going for the sleeveless sweater look...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Tanktop2.jpg/384px-Tanktop2.jpg
...but I'll probably be doing a lot more in town driving and a lot less freeway driving, soon, so it might be pretty handy to have.

it has actually helped me with freeway driving some too. I don't know if i'm a hypermiler, but I do keep track of my mpg's, and i've averaged over 40mpg for the life of my vehicle (my 90 average is low due to long trips @ 70mph in which i don't care about mpg's but rather 7 vs 8 hrs).

it's easy to save a bit of gas on highways by going up to speed, then using the throttle sensor on the scanguage to find out exactly how much you can back off the gas before you lose your momentum. Usually you can back of one or two clicks without any ill effects (after you reach cruising speed).

It's much easier to do in flat stretches than on rollercoaster highways.... i'm usually going over mountain passes and through gorges, but it still has helped a lot.... when I care to pay attention to it.

[1stToyota]

it has actually helped me with freeway driving some too. I don't know if i'm a hypermiler, but I do keep track of my mpg's, and i've averaged over 40mpg for the life of my vehicle (my 90 average is low due to long trips @ 70mph in which i don't care about mpg's but rather 7 vs 8 hrs).

it's easy to save a bit of gas on highways by going up to speed, then using the throttle sensor on the scanguage to find out exactly how much you can back off the gas before you lose your momentum. Usually you can back of one or two clicks without any ill effects (after you reach cruising speed).

It's much easier to do in flat stretches than on rollercoaster highways.... i'm usually going over mountain passes and through gorges, but it still has helped a lot.... when I care to pay attention to it.

I'll be switching from about 70% flat freeway driving to 100% stop about every mile or so for 4-way stopsigns and traffic lights. It'd be a real challenge to keep my 40+ average. I don't employ any real hypermiler tecniques or tactics, just flow with the traffic but don't do the jack-rabbit starts or the aggressive lane switches that's become so popular now. About $160.00 at Autozone, but I'm pretty sure that I can get them to beat that price.

[yarrr]

i'm surprised that the company would make such a bad error in designing the EM. Glad they have it fixed now.

Pretty unforgivable in my opinion - even if it wasn't supposed to be helping you save energy. This is like first year EE crap. Pretty much cemented me into the "would never even think about looking at an ecometer" category. I'll buy a scangauge, no need to wait to see what else ecometer botched horribly.

[talnlnky]

I'll be switching from about 70% flat freeway driving to 100% stop about every mile or so for 4-way stopsigns and traffic lights. It'd be a real challenge to keep my 40+ average. I don't employ any real hypermiler tecniques or tactics, just flow with the traffic but don't do the jack-rabbit starts or the aggressive lane switches that's become so popular now. About $160.00 at Autozone, but I'm pretty sure that I can get them to beat that price.

for stop and go traffic i've noticed accelerating with a throttle position (TPS) of under 26 helps... especially if you can keep it below 25. The range for the TPS goes from around 15 to 80. 15 or 16 being idle, and 80 being WOT. I hardly ever go higher than 35. I'd say 90-95% of driving is under 30.

[Hershey]

the new ECO-METER hasn't drained battery as of yet . Car has sat for 3 days and started fine .

[Qmobile]

hmm I better send mine in now......I haven't had any issues...course my car don't set for 3 days at a time either but just to be on the safe side. Where do you send it back to Autometer?

[Hershey]

sent ours to ;

AUTO METER PRODUCTS , INC.
413 W.ELM STREET
SYCAMORE , IL. 60178

Call this number to get details : 1-866-248- 6357 , very helpful .

[R2D2]

Thanks Hershey!

[JonS]

I gave ecometer a call today (very helpful and courteous, I must say) and they told me that 9100s with the firmware version 4.05 is the problem version. Any other version seems fine, according to them. To check yours, unplug the bugger, start the car, plug 'er back in while holding the right button, release it and then the version number should be displayed. Mines going back tomorrow...or course it had to be 4.05.
Hope this helps and isn't a repeat of what's already been posted.

Jon

[Qmobile]

I'll have to do that before I send mine in......even though I prolly got one of the bad ones lol.....

[birdman]

Thanks Hershey!!!

[birdman]

Thanks everyone. I just sent mine in for replacement too.

[Hershey]

:thumbsup:

[birdman]

I never appreciated sneezing so much!

[kuyachris84]

Anyone with updated versions of the Ecometer still have problems with the battery drain?

I opened the new box that I received from Ecometer and checked the version. Version 4.51

4.05 was the culprit to the drain according to the forum

I plugged it in and will leave it in my car tonight to see if it drains my battery

I had it plugged in earlier and went to work out and after an hour my car almost had problems starting... so Hmmmmm

Curious to know if the new versions still drain power from the battery? Anyone?

[Hershey]

No drain with car sitting for 3 days . Cranked over with no problem . Have to wait and see if the cold of winter has any impact with the car idle for 3 days or more .

[birdman]

I got a replacement ecometer for free and it malfunctioned so I returned it and they sent me two free ones. This first of the two shows me getting 3 mpg less than the very first one. Now I'll try the other new one and see how it averages my mpg's. I asked the customer service guy where these things were designed and made. He said they were 100% a product of the USA. Why am I not surprised?

[daf62757]

I guess this is one of those ah hah! moments. I came back from a week long trip and my car was dead. Its the second batter I have replaced since I have had my Yaris. Took it to Wally Mart and was told something was draining the battery.

Guess I should have looked on here. My ecometer was the criminal!

[maineyaris]

called ECO-METER and told them of dead battery . They said they're aware of the draw on the battery when car is off and that earlier 9100 units are the source . So , sent in the ECO-METER at my cost and sent me a new one that has been modified so not to drain battery when not in use . Took about a week for them to return new 9100 . Got it hooked up earleir today . Wait and see if any affect on car battery . Thanks for the head up BIRDMAN :thumbsup: .

So how can you tell if you are getting one that doesn't drain the battery. The model is still called the 9100? Is it just if it was made after a certain date?

[R2D2]

Here is a description of how to determine if you have a problem unit:

I gave ecometer a call today (very helpful and courteous, I must say) and they told me that 9100s with the firmware version 4.05 is the problem version. Any other version seems fine, according to them. To check yours, unplug the bugger, start the car, plug 'er back in while holding the right button, release it and then the version number should be displayed. Mines going back tomorrow...or course it had to be 4.05.
Hope this helps and isn't a repeat of what's already been posted.

Jon

I returned mine as well;very fast turnaround (good thing-I felt lost without it!) and no problem since!

R2

[KrazyDawg]

I'm running 4.51. For some reason, I thought you had to hold the left button down but it's the right. I didn't want to accidentally reset my avg MPG from holding down the right button but it didn't affect it.

[birdman]

The new improved Ecometer drained down the battery after sitting in the garage for 4 days with the alarm off. The Yaris barely started. The dealership determined that the excessive draw from the new Ecometer is the same as the old one. These US made Ecometers have wasted me time and over 200 bucks in batteries. Once the Asians surpass us in computers and software development there will be very few things made in this country that will lead the world anymore. We'll still lead the world in global warming and the denial that assures it. If you drive a humongous SUV or pickup that's a good thing. It's all about protecting our freedumb!