Battery drain

[Zoile]

Hi,

The battery and alternator were changed. I get a battery drain when i checked whit an ampmeter I found that if I take off the IOD fuse out the drain drops to 0.02 so almost disappear.

Any ideas?
Is it ok to keep that fuse out?

Thanks

[NitroPT]

Welcome to the forum

[Zoile]

......

[NitroPT]

Originally Posted by Zoile

Hi,

The battery and alternator were changed. I get a battery drain when i checked whit an ampmeter I found that if I take off the IOD fuse out the drain drops to 0.02 so almost disappear.

Any ideas?
Is it ok to keep that fuse out?

Thanks

Try reading this first!

PT problems read this FIRST

[Zoile]

Originally Posted by NitroPT

Welcome to the forum

Thank you.

2003 with 50k on it.
Second owner. No Mods.


Just got the PT for the wife ...but this problem gets her mad..lol

The car won't start if not use for a day

[Handy_Cruiser]

Welcome to the forum from the great sovereign state of Arkansas!

I just went through this with two Mopar vehicles at once. In both cases, it ended up just being the batteries.

First, I'd check the alternator by reading the voltage across the two battery terminals while the engine is running. Voltage should be somewhere near 13.75 voltage or higher. If the voltage is in this range, I would then load test the battery. If I didn't have a load tester, I'd go to a parts store and have them do it there while the battery is charged up and still in the car.

If the battery tests good, I'd do a test for parasitic drain. Running a multi-meter in series between the battery terminal and cable is likely not the best choice for this. Because the dome lights and other things are controlled by the PCM and/or BCM, the drain in the system is not going to be the same as when the battery is fully connected, the engine has run and the everything has initialized. I had trouble using this "old school" method on both my vehicles because of this.

Instead, I would use a current clamp. If you don't have a meter with a milliamp-reading current clamp yourself, the parts store may have one integrated into their load tester. And you can ask the person doing the load test to check the parasitic drain as well if they have a device like this. Unless you have an aftermarket stereo amp or another item pulling extra power, the drain on the PT with the key off, door shut and dome lights off should be less than 500 mA. I believe mine pulls around 200 mA. If you have over 500 mA, it will be time to look for a drain. Again, a current clamp come in very handy for this.

It should be noted that I am a Safety Engineer among other things and I haven't worked as a professional mechanic since I was young strapping lad with long sexy flowing hair before college. And even then, I mainly worked on big trucks and heavy equipment. Nowadays, I enjoy working on these funny looking little cars for fun and relaxation.

[rsrocket1]

The PT Cruiser should be drawing 5 to 35 milliamps of current after a few minutes of being shut down with the key out of the ignition.

A quick no-cost test is to make sure there is no CD in the player. Sometimes the CD player tries to read a non-existent CD so you can also test the current draw after sticking in a CD then ejecting it and turning the radio off.

You could also methodically test each of these one at a time to see if the current draw goes down:
Door locks (front ones and back ones)
Window switches
Features on the multi function switch (switches on the turn indicator lever)

Of course you can also put the ammeter across the IOD fuse socket and remove one fuse at a time to see which circuit is causing the excessive drain and narrow it down that way tool.

[Zoile]

Thanks for the info.

I tested the alternator and it charges ok.( it as been changed)

The battery is new.

When i stop the car the battery is at 12.4 so it's charged.

I don't know but it's getting frustrating, the battery gets drained.

Originally Posted by Handy_Cruiser

Welcome to the forum from the great sovereign state of Arkansas!

I just went through this with two Mopar vehicles at once. In both cases, it ended up just being the batteries.

First, I'd check the alternator by reading the voltage across the two battery terminals while the engine is running. Voltage should be somewhere near 13.75 voltage or higher. If the voltage is in this range, I would then load test the battery. If I didn't have a load tester, I'd go to a parts store and have them do it there while the battery is charged up and still in the car.

If the battery tests good, I'd do a test for parasitic drain. Running a multi-meter in series between the battery terminal and cable is likely not the best choice for this. Because the dome lights and other things are controlled by the PCM and/or BCM, the drain in the system is not going to be the same as when the battery is fully connected, the engine has run and the everything has initialized. I had trouble using this "old school" method on both my vehicles because of this.

Instead, I would use a current clamp. If you don't have a meter with a milliamp-reading current clamp yourself, the parts store may have one integrated into their load tester. And you can ask the person doing the load test to check the parasitic drain as well if they have a device like this. Unless you have an aftermarket stereo amp or another item pulling extra power, the drain on the PT with the key off, door shut and dome lights off should be less than 500 mA. I believe mine pulls around 200 mA. If you have over 500 mA, it will be time to look for a drain. Again, a current clamp come in very handy for this.

It should be noted that I am a Safety Engineer among other things and I haven't worked as a professional mechanic since I was young strapping lad with long sexy flowing hair before college. And even then, I mainly worked on big trucks and heavy equipment. Nowadays, I enjoy working on these funny looking little cars for fun and relaxation.

[NitroPT]

One correction..

The PT Cruiser voltage should be min *13.50 volts engine idle speed. This is the *default to the charging system should any sensor fail and the generator is still in good health.

Your response #8 information about the battery needs to be addressed more. You voltage is making me suspect if anything that you should have the battery properly load tested.

Nitro's way of checking a battery

[NitroPT]

Originally Posted by rsrocket1

Of course you can also put the ammeter across the IOD fuse socket and remove one fuse at a time to see which circuit is causing the excessive drain and narrow it down that way tool.

Or a Digital Volt/ohm meter