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vehicle electrical
Thank you for your alternator advice. It looks like mine was a battery problem even though it was showing 12 volts when charged.
Would you have any advice on checking for battery drain by shorts in the system? Ammeter in series from the battery when everything is turned off? What ammeter range would you start with?
Thanks. Paul Tatarewicz
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Howdy Paul,
The first answer depends on if you have help or not. If you have help, you can place the ammeter in line with the positive terminal, and have someone under the hood watch the meter.
After that, you can access the fuse panel, and remove each fuse, and ask if there is a change. Take note of any fuse circuits that are drawing current, and see if they should be. Your radio draws for storing settings, and some cars computers are always on. Your alarm system is another one which is always on.
If you find something that shouldn't be drawing power, then you know where to start looking.
Most cars now have inside and outside fuse panels. You can check the ones under the hood by yourself this way, and then use the next method I am going to describe to check the interior fuses if you don't have help.
If you have no help, then pull each fuse, one at a time, and place the probes in line with the contacts where you took the fuse out. Any draw on that circuit will be shown this way.
Be careful not to jam the probes in the contacts. You want the fuse to make firm contact again when you are done, so spreading the contacts is a bad idea. Just use enough pressure to make good contact, and you should be fine.
As to which setting to use: The highest one your meter offers. If the draw is enough to prematurely drain your battery, it should show just fine.
Let me know how you make out with all this.
DN.
P.S. Just for future reference, I had an internally shorted (mineral buildup) battery show 12 volts, and discharge over a short time. Went just about nuts trying to figure it out back then. You said it was a battery problem, so I am assuming you changed the battery. If you haven't, then that would be something to check if you don't find anything odd in your electrical system.
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