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battery being drained

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cschill
New User

Aug 29, 2009, 3:05 AM

Post #1 of 2 (2515 views)
battery being drained Sign In
Hi, first time poster here.

I have an 87 bmw 325 with electrical issues (go figure!). The car has about 260,000 miles on and the engine (a 2.5 I believe) runs great. There is, however, an electrical problem. When the car is parked (no key in the ignition) the batter is being drained. I am trying to test this and need some advice. Here is what Ive done so far.

I have a dmm which I setup for the 10ADC connection. I then disconnected the negative connection from the car battery. With the car off and no key, I was getting a reading of about 0.5 (connecting the terminals of the dmm to the neg terminal on the battery and the terminal connector). Now, I turn the car key to the on position and (with the battery about half charged) I am getting a reading of about 5A or so. I am not sure what to make of these numbers.

I guess the 0.5A worries me when the car is off.

I am not sure what the next step is? Should I start pulling fuses and seeing if the 0.5 drops? What to do after that?

On that note, does anyone know where I can find a fuse diagram for the 87? Finally, if pulling fuses tells me nothing, what do I do?

Thanks a million
Chris S.


cschill
New User

Aug 29, 2009, 3:29 AM

Post #2 of 2 (2508 views)
Re: battery being drained Sign In
Hi Again,

Update2: I found the fuse diagram. Apparently the fuse was partially for the trunk light, which was indeed coming on when I put the fuse back in and tested with the dmm. Once I hatched down all the lights I found that the dmm was reading .01. This is damn good. But I do not understand how on earth the battery was being drained if there is no current pull when the car is off. Ill keep running tests...

An update: I started pulling fuses and found one that seemed to suck a lot of juice. After I pulled the fuse with the key off, the reading on the dmm went from 0.5 to 0.16. I pulled the rest, but still get a residual reading of 0.16. Still seems like a lot for the car being off.
Still look forward to any ideas/suggestions.

Thanks
Chris S.


(This post was edited by cschill on Aug 29, 2009, 4:09 AM)





 
 
 






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