Current draw on battery, possibly glowshift gauges?

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by goku87

Lucky for me I work on electronics, and an ammeter I have. I'll check that next. About how many amps should I be looking for?

I have no clue what a fully charged battery should be dumping for current.... your Alternator should dump something like 60-80amps in the range of 2000-3000rpms. At idle it'll be much lower, maybe as low as 15amps.


Alts usually max out in the 2-3k range.

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by yarisugi

Though it may seem too early to get a new battery considering that's it's still a pretty new car - get a new battery.

if that bat isn't the problem tho... he'll have just started putting wear and tear on a perfectly good bat and essentially thrown some money away.

[mickymouse]

@goku87

first off all.. good luck with the battery.
second.. what is the rated battery capacity on the Yaris (like 38Ah.. 45Ah???)

Test the alternator charging properly:
(this is just a quick check, better is an amp-meter with a range of at least 100, so forget small DMM, rather a clamp amp-meter)
start the engine
turn on every electric load on the car (rear defog, high beams, fan max speed etc)
run the engine at about 3000 RPM
Battery voltage should be around 14.2 - 14.8

test the battery:
(quick check only, to test the battery you would need to do a 20h discharge test)
turn all electric loads off, turn the engine off.
battery should settle at around 12.5 - 12.9V (give it like 30 min). In case the battery drops right away (in a matter of 1-2 minutes) than you have a more serious problem.
watch the voltage of the battery and turn on the parking lights. The voltage should drop instantly to like 0.1 - 0.3V lower. any more than that and the battery is either:
a) damaged
b) not fully charged

If you have fully discharged a standard battery a couple of times, consider replacing it. Batteries nowadays don't take abuse any more (cost reasons) like they did 10 years ago.
Yuasa used to make decent batteries. Especially when the temperatures are colder you will figure out a weak battery.
BTW, any battery store will check your battery (their testers are somewhat ok and mostly accurate) for free.

If you have indeed a damaged battery, consider that a starter battery could loose up to 50% of its rated capacity and still start your engine at warm temperatures.
However, slow drains are the killer (like forget to turn off the dome light on a weekend).

Keep us posted.

Cheers, Mike

[goku87]

Went to my car again to find it wouldn't start. No surprise. I jumped it, and left it running whilst I went to Walmart get some stuff. I came back 45 min or so later to my (still running) car, and got in so I could drive it to my shop so I could check the alternator output. Something compelled me to turn on the hazards, and guess what happened? My dome light dimmed every time the hazards flashed. I'm talking uber hard-core worse than a power-hungry-amplifier-installed-with-a-horribly-insufficient-electrical-system dim. Nothing else was on, not the heater, not the radio, not even the headlights. Then I turned my car off and it wouldnt start again. Not even turning over. No clicking. No dummy lights. Nothing.

So my guess would be that my alt isn't putting out enough to charge the battery and that is what's causing my battery to suck.

[mickymouse]

Hi goku87,

hmm i would say on the contrary.
MAybe it is the alternator... however I would still say the battery is dead.

So.. did you go the shop to have everything checked out?
Any possibility to hook up a battery charger for like 5 hours (not talking about thise jump start packs.. I refer to real battery charger).

BTW.. there are other possibilites what could be wrong,... however the alternator would be my third guess.

Cheers Mike

[goku87]

now the car is in storage and i am en route to iraq. i'll continue troubleshooting whenever i get back.

[goku87]

I took the car into the dealership yesterday finally and they called today saying they needed $400 to pay for putting the car interior back together. When I said I wasn't going to pay that much the guy said I could put it back together for and pay $300 for current labor costs.

Also, they said the extra current draw was caused by the aftermarket gauges i have installed.

Which are disconnected...

I am seriously going to throat punch someone...

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by goku87

I took the car into the dealership yesterday finally and they called today saying they needed $400 to pay for putting the car interior back together. When I said I wasn't going to pay that much the guy said I could put it back together for and pay $300 for current labor costs.

Also, they said the extra current draw was caused by the aftermarket gauges i have installed.

Which are disconnected...

I am seriously going to throat punch someone...

ask for proof... contact the guage company and ask for specs on current draw for the product.

[PatrickJohnson]

Yep, that's a load of crap. There is no reasonable company that would charge $100 bucks to reassemble the interior, and furthermore if the gauges are disconnected, they have to prove they were ever connected to begin with if they want to deny a warranty repair.

[CTScott]

So, what exactly are they trying to charge $400 for? Did they replace anything or just spend hours yanking apart the interior (looking for those missing electrons)?

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by CTScott

So, what exactly are they trying to charge $400 for? Did they replace anything or just spend hours yanking apart the interior (looking for those missing electrons)?

sounds like they fixed his problem... but denied the warranty coverage by blaming the aftermarket guages.... probably because they don't know why it went wrong, and want to charge him cause autosales are low this year... and they figure he'll bend over and take it like most people do.

[goku87]

Question/Statement Replies:

Originally Posted by talnlnky

ask for proof... contact the guage company and ask for specs on current draw for the product.

still awaiting reply from glowshift.

Originally Posted by PatrickJohnson

Yep, that's a load of crap. There is no reasonable company that would charge $100 bucks to reassemble the interior, and furthermore if the gauges are disconnected, they have to prove they were ever connected to begin with if they want to deny a warranty repair.

it's easy to prove they were connected by the stripped wire in the car. however, the particular wires in which they are connected is the key factor here...

Originally Posted by CTScott

So, what exactly are they trying to charge $400 for? Did they replace anything or just spend hours yanking apart the interior (looking for those missing electrons)?

I have no clue what they intended to charge me $400 for. They sure as heck didn't find those missing electrons.

Originally Posted by talnlnky

sounds like they fixed his problem... but denied the warranty coverage by blaming the aftermarket guages.... probably because they don't know why it went wrong, and want to charge him cause autosales are low this year... and they figure he'll bend over and take it like most people do.

They didnt even fix the problem
----------------------------------------------------
Situation Update:

After I picked up my car (and paid $0 for anything) I decided to give them the benefit of doubt on my part in the possibility I had left the guages installed. I remember them being "off" since before I deployed, and when I picked my car up, they were hooked up and working well. So me in my curiosity checked the current draw and of course it was nowhere near the 100mA they claimed it was. And just for $#!+s and grins I completely disconnected the guages; guess what? Battery is dead. How convenient.

This was in the concern description box said on my receipt, typos included:

Cust states battery will go dead if it sits for 2 days verfiy concern found 100mA draw when timed out. cust has aftermarket gauges installed, they are wired through the radio and dome light circuit, even unpluged from the radio voltage is backfeeding into body ECU possibly causing permanent damage to ecu and replated ecus. Cust declined any repairs or removal of aftermarket wiring at this time veh still has draw and possible damaged body ECU. None of these repairs are covered under warranty due to aftermarket wiring.

Seriously? Backfeeding voltage? What the hell is that supposed to mean? My yaris can manipulate laws of the physical universe and make electrons go from positive to negative? riiiiiiiiiiight. And how can something wired to the "radio and dome light circuit" possibly hurt the ECU?

I'll check what pins I actually have it hooked up to, but seriously, should I get a frigging lawyer on their ass?

[CTScott]

I think the crack pipe was being passed around in the service bay that day. I would definitely fight it since you paid a significant amount without the car being fixed.

You mentioned that you measured the current draw at <100mA. How did you measure it? Have you actually measured how much current is drawn with the car powered off (using a clamp-on ammeter or pulling the negative battery lead and putting an ammeter between the negative battery terminal and the negative battery cable)?

[goku87]

Originally Posted by CTScott

I think the crack pipe was being passed around in the service bay that day. I would definitely fight it since you paid a significant amount without the car being fixed.

You mentioned that you measured the current draw at <100mA. How did you measure it? Have you actually measured how much current is drawn with the car powered off (using a clamp-on ammeter or pulling the negative battery lead and putting an ammeter between the negative battery terminal and the negative battery cable)?

Luckily I bitched enough so I didn't have to pay when I picked it up. I measured with an in-line ammeter on the ground of all three gauges combined. If I can remember correctly it was somewhere in the ballpark of 5mA. I went to go under the hood today and measure the current draw of the whole car. Guess what?

The hood release latch beneath the dash is GONE!!!!

Seriously, wtf is up with these guys? Now I can't test anything under the hood because their dumb asses are lazy and can't do their job for shit.

[Altitude]

Originally Posted by goku87

Luckily I bitched enough so I didn't have to pay when I picked it up. I measured with an in-line ammeter on the ground of all three gauges combined. If I can remember correctly it was somewhere in the ballpark of 5mA. I went to go under the hood today and measure the current draw of the whole car. Guess what?

The hood release latch beneath the dash is GONE!!!!

Seriously, wtf is up with these guys? Now I can't test anything under the hood because their dumb asses are lazy and can't do their job for shit.

This is why I hate letting anyone do work on my car. They simply don't give a shit.

[goku87]

could someone verify on their yaris the current draw on the battery with car turned off: I'm measuring approx 785mA.

For whatever magical reason, this isn't killing my battery in a few days, but with the guages connected, the extra 90mA will. wtf?

[CTScott]

I measure just over 300mA with the car off.

[goku87]

i wish the dealership wasn't so gay and just fixed my problem without trying to rape my wallet.