As above, how do you measure the standing drainage usage of our cars? Went to maplins over the weekend and bought a multimeter, the guy started explaining it to me but he just went off on several random tangents and just lost me lol.
Measuring car amp drainage, how?
- Thread starter Dani_B19
- Start date
Pop the multimeter terminals onto the battery, set the multimeter accordingly sit back and watch!
Nick090884
Registered User
Don't put across pos and negative that will blow the meter It's in amps and meter goes inline of pos i. e one lead on pos lead one on battery . And make sure it's running with what ever load your desire to measure. Check the rating of the meter first.
Battery went dead mate. Cars not really getting used these days so looking to buy a solar trickle charger and i want to see what the standing drain is to size the right trickle charger up.
Mine did the same. Had to buy a new battery on saturday. Struggled to start in the morning then wouldnt start after that had to bump it about 4 times. New battery on and all is well. Will be checking it when the other half gets home with my multimeter.
Squirrelofdoom
Registered User
I've done this before. Don't do it over the battery terminals and don't do it across the live terminal either. Do it this way (copy pasted from my project thread)
"In your case sir, I would grab the diagram of fuses from your manual then get a mate to help you. Open the front door so you can get to the fuses, open the bonnet so you can get to the battery. Lock the bonnet lock manually by pushing in the latch (mimicing the bonnet being shut) and then disconnect the negative terminal off the battery. Put your multimeter across the chassis and negative terminal in current mode, make sure you have a good connection to each, and then fire the door locks. Keep holding the multimeter in place (this is where having a mate helps ) and wait around 5 mintues for the car to enter sleep mode. Now you can see the actual drain on your battery. Around 20mA is normal, mine was 370mA before which is not normal lol. Then go through disconnecting the suspect fuses and see which one drops the current. After you figure out which loom is doing it, you'll have to investigate further."
"In your case sir, I would grab the diagram of fuses from your manual then get a mate to help you. Open the front door so you can get to the fuses, open the bonnet so you can get to the battery. Lock the bonnet lock manually by pushing in the latch (mimicing the bonnet being shut) and then disconnect the negative terminal off the battery. Put your multimeter across the chassis and negative terminal in current mode, make sure you have a good connection to each, and then fire the door locks. Keep holding the multimeter in place (this is where having a mate helps ) and wait around 5 mintues for the car to enter sleep mode. Now you can see the actual drain on your battery. Around 20mA is normal, mine was 370mA before which is not normal lol. Then go through disconnecting the suspect fuses and see which one drops the current. After you figure out which loom is doing it, you'll have to investigate further."
