Parasitic Battery Drain e53

[Bmwe5320023.0]

Workingonit

Thank you for sharing your experience!! Looks like optima served you well!

EODguy
I keep hearing that Optima went down the drain, but worst case, they all carry warranties....though it make be complicates, no retail store in Canada where I live carry H7 optima, and it's backordered online with 4 week lead time.
Has anyone tried lithium?

[Bmwe5320023.0]

So far I removed fuse 25, completely useless to me.
And installed buttons for the two USB chargers in the front and the back.
Now I can turn them off and turn them on only when the car is running.
So this is saving me 50 milliamps.


What's your guys draw before the car goes to bed? Mine is about 400 milliamps, is that normal?

Now when sleeping, my draw is about 50 milliamps.
This, this remote starter disconnected.

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

... What's your guys draw before the car goes to bed? Mine is about 400 milliamps, is that normal?

Now when sleeping, my draw is about 50 milliamps.
This, this remote starter disconnected.

Mine sits at 400mA in the few minutes before it goes to sleep. At 16mins it drops to 60-70mA - not as low as I'd like but still ok - for a week or three anyway.

I DO have an additional remote receiver (start) for my Webasto auxilary heater, which draws about 10mA when not operating, so I guess mine is about the same as yours.

[X5chemist]

Spec is 11 mA. I'm not sure if it means armed. I know mine goes to 11 mA after a GMIII replacement. It's probably slightly higher alarmed and nose button flashing. New cars have ~30 +/- mA with all kinds of electronics.

50 mA is still slightly higher but acceptable. It could even be within error of your voltmeter.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

Ahhh 11mA, you're a lucky man!
My 50 is kinda high, when I connect the remote starter it will get worse.
It kinda sucks that I found the fuses that cause the drain but can't do anything about it.
I'll put the trunk together for now. I installed a battery disconnect switch, so I can completely cut off power without taking apart the trunk.
I ended up just upgrading to motomaster h8 agm battery for now, because my previous battery still had prorated charge and I only paid 2/3 of the price. Plus this added another 5 years of warranty.
I really wanted to go lithium, but $200 vs 1500....
Maybe ill get a tester like this for fuse voltage drop test, but kinda expensive at $90!
30 Amp Automotive Fuse Circuit Tester https://a.co/d/eUR4p8X

[X5chemist]

Another option to use a digital voltmeter.

Can you get a fuse buddy?

[Bmwe5320023.0]

https://a.co/d/hgajdkg

Fuse buddy is pretty decent at $42 CAD.
But at least I hope it will give me a better reading that a multimeter that constantly shifts.

Oh BTW I tried disconnecting all the fuses that were drawing power along with GM. Even with GM disconnected, still had 30mA draw.
I'll monitor how much the battery voltage drops.

[X5chemist]

Nice. I have a Fuse Buddy I keep in my electronics bag. Wow, the GMIII module eliminates a lot body control functions. Do a voltage drop across the spare tire trunk fuses. I don't know how many rear fuses would be eliminated with the GM module disconnected. I think the DME is the biggest wired module left after the GM.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

My advice is to first get the battery tested. Batteries that had a drain problem could be damaged, as was in my case. I thought my battery was new, less than 5000km on it. Well it was dead and didn't hold a charge.
Then just measure what's your amp draw once the vehicle goes to sleep.
Once you now the draw, you can start either pulling fuses or doing voltage drop test to identify where the drain is.

[g300d]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

My advice is to first get the battery tested. Batteries that had a drain problem could be damaged, as was in my case. I thought my battery was new, less than 5000km on it. Well it was dead and didn't hold a charge.
Then just measure what's your amp draw once the vehicle goes to sleep.
Once you now the draw, you can start either pulling fuses or doing voltage drop test to identify where the drain is.

Thanks for the advice! I actually had just replaced the battery to start off with a clean slate, then found it dead the other day. So it should be good to go? Will still get it checked to be sure though.

After jumping the X and using it for the day, I checked battery voltage on the OBC 6 hours after shutoff and it was at 12.2v. 10 hours after that voltage was at 11.8v.

I took a short drive with it and voltage was 12.5v at shutoff. Will check again after 24 hours.