T

toptech

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i have a 2000 chevy express 3500 van,, if i leave it parked for two days
the battery goes dead,, after battery replacement the problem is still
there so i did some checking and found that i have a .054 millieamp draw
on the battery.. according to the dealer ther should only be .025 milliamp
draw.. so i removed fuses till i found the juice sucker,, it turned out to
be the plain jane radieo mem. fuse #19so i replaced the radieo 2 days
later, dead battery,,, any ideas??? stumped

 
Is it possible your ignition switch is sticking? Do you have a large
keychain?

Carl


"toptech" <wenken2@aol.com> wrote in message
news:6ee2061a167c825b413546a1f9bc355e@localhost.talkaboutautos.com...
> i have a 2000 chevy express 3500 van,, if i leave it parked for two days
> the battery goes dead,, after battery replacement the problem is still
> there so i did some checking and found that i have a .054 millieamp draw
> on the battery.. according to the dealer ther should only be .025 milliamp
> draw.. so i removed fuses till i found the juice sucker,, it turned out to
> be the plain jane radieo mem. fuse #19so i replaced the radieo 2 days
> later, dead battery,,, any ideas??? stumped
>



 
On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 22:48:48 -0400, "toptech" <wenken2@aol.com> wrote:

>i have a 2000 chevy express 3500 van,, if i leave it parked for two days
>the battery goes dead,, after battery replacement the problem is still
>there so i did some checking and found that i have a .054 millieamp draw
>on the battery.. according to the dealer ther should only be .025 milliamp
>draw.. so i removed fuses till i found the juice sucker,, it turned out to
>be the plain jane radieo mem. fuse #19so i replaced the radieo 2 days
>later, dead battery,,, any ideas??? stumped


A .054 *milliamp* draw is a draw of .00054 amps. That is nothing.
Unnoticable by any battery, even a flashlight battery won't care.

If it is a .045 amp draw, then that should not cause any problems
either. At .054 amps (that's 45 milliamps) would take weeks to drain a
battery, not two days. Even ten times this, .45 amps would take a
while to drain the battery--probably more than a day.

You have some other problem, and need to monitor and record the draw
over the period of time that drains the battery (a recording
amp-meter) to determine whether the drain is coming and going.
 
You got your units mixed up! Current draw of 25 - 50mA or 0.025 - 0.050A
sounds in the ballpark of current consumption for a car switched off.
A fully charged battery has a capacity of around 60Ah, with 0.05A
current consumption it will last 60Ah / 0.05A = 1200 hours, that is 50 days!
So something does not add up!
My guess would be that your battery does not hold full charge, because
either the new battery is dying (they gave you a semi dead one), the
charging system on your car is not working correctly, or as the previous
poster mentioned your current draw is not just 50mA!

Good luck, Peter

toptech wrote:
> i have a 2000 chevy express 3500 van,, if i leave it parked for two days
> the battery goes dead,, after battery replacement the problem is still
> there so i did some checking and found that i have a .054 millieamp draw
> on the battery.. according to the dealer ther should only be .025 milliamp
> draw.. so i removed fuses till i found the juice sucker,, it turned out to
> be the plain jane radieo mem. fuse #19so i replaced the radieo 2 days
> later, dead battery,,, any ideas??? stumped
>


 
"toptech" <wenken2@aol.com> wrote:

>i have a 2000 chevy express 3500 van,, if i leave it parked for two days
>the battery goes dead,, after battery replacement the problem is still
>there so i did some checking and found that i have a .054 millieamp draw
>on the battery.. according to the dealer ther should only be .025 milliamp
>draw.. so i removed fuses till i found the juice sucker,, it turned out to
>be the plain jane radieo mem. fuse #19so i replaced the radieo 2 days
>later, dead battery,,, any ideas??? stumped


I worked on a friend's Cutlass that had the same symptoms, but
intermittently. Every 1-3 days, the battery would be dead after an
overnight sit. Pulling the battery cable off and inserting a digital meter
in current mode, and there was less than 10mA flowing to run the
radio-clock. That will never run the battery down in a day or two or even a
week. Dome lights, trunk lights, and glove box lights were all suspect, but
not the problem I had

After six days of experiments, I used a clamp-on DC ammeter (Fluke made one
that used a Hall-effect sensor to read DC amps - normal clamp on ammeters
can't do DC, just AC) to read the steady-state current draw when the car
was turned off. The ammeter read 1.5 - 2A about every third time I turned
off the car, not zero. The reason to use the clamp-on ammeter instead of
the 10A range of the Fluke 77 DVM was that I wanted to be able to start the
car, then read the turned off current after the ignition switch was off.
The high starter current would have fried the 10Amp range shunt resistor
inside the Fluke 77 meter.

With a clamp on ammeter, there is no shunt resistor to fry, and the reading
was the true current flow in the battery wire. (I'm an electrical engineer
for a day job. :)

The problem with the car was the engine computer wasn't reliably going into
sleep shutdown mode after the ignition was turned off. I could have found
that by doing wholesale component swapping, or by spending more money on
parts. That's not elegant. When the computer didn't go into sleep mode, it
was sitting there running 1-2 amps on its own, thinking that the ignition
key was on and the car was about to start.

Swapped the computer ($75 exchange at the local parts place) and the
problem went away for good.

Your problem might still be a dome or glove box light you haven't found
yet. But if you have a buddy with a similar vehicle, you might try
exchanging engine computers with him and see what happens.
--
Bill "the Roadie" Carton
 
I had the same problem on mine. found the courtesy light in the console
was on all the time. Removed the bulb and haven't had the problem in 5
years.
KenG

toptech wrote:
> i have a 2000 chevy express 3500 van,, if i leave it parked for two days
> the battery goes dead,, after battery replacement the problem is still
> there so i did some checking and found that i have a .054 millieamp draw
> on the battery.. according to the dealer ther should only be .025 milliamp
> draw.. so i removed fuses till i found the juice sucker,, it turned out to
> be the plain jane radieo mem. fuse #19so i replaced the radieo 2 days
> later, dead battery,,, any ideas??? stumped
>

 
KENG <KEN@dont.spam.me.com> writes in article <0xqPe.53377$ll3.603453@twister.southeast.rr.com> dated Thu, 25 Aug 2005 21:14:36 GMT:
>I had the same problem on mine. found the courtesy light in the console
>was on all the time. Removed the bulb and haven't had the problem in 5
>years.
>KenG


>toptech wrote:
>> i have a 2000 chevy express 3500 van,, if i leave it parked for two days
>> the battery goes dead,, after battery replacement the problem is still
>> there so i did some checking and found that i have a .054 millieamp draw
>> on the battery.. according to the dealer ther should only be .025 milliamp
>> draw.. so i removed fuses till i found the juice sucker,, it turned out to
>> be the plain jane radieo mem. fuse #19so i replaced the radieo 2 days
>> later, dead battery,,, any ideas??? stumped
>>


I had the problem on a Mercury Capri (worst vehicle I ever owned). I got
around it by keeping the battery cable loose, so I could lift it off every
night when I parked. The only drawback was I had to re-program the radio
every morning. A pain but better than jump-starting.

-- spud_demon -at- thundermaker.net
The above may not (yet) represent the opinions of my employer.
 
i had the problem on a 87 chevy 2500 and i found the glove box light was on
check it in the dark....I ended up disconnecting the switch....

 

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