GM - CHALLENGE "PARASITIC DRAIN" c'mon guys, try!

PAT HOLLETT

MEMBER
BUICK LESABRE
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
50,000 MILES

Had remote starter installed. Original battery starts failing. Replaced battery. Fails intermittently overnight. Alternator shows 14.5-15V. Battery showing 12-12.5 in morning. Car gets 25 min. Drive twice a day. Put digital multimeter between - post and cable and removed + cable to fuse box under rear seat. Shows.127 amps, same as before removal. Reconnected and remove cable feeding underhood fuse box. Shows same.127 amps. Removed alternator connections with no change. Totally disconnected remote starter with no diff. Connect alt. And disconnected both fusebox feeds and got no draw. Charged battery after hooking everything back up except remote starter(installer's advice) and tried it next morning. Battery showed 12.5 volts first day and 12.1V second day. Old battery, recharged on bench is giving me 13.4V both days.
is DMM a concern? What's common to these fuse boxes? Go back to test light in series? Would the gm dealer find out differently than I would? Out of ideas.
thanks for the help as I thought I had a handle on what I was doing.

1 Reply

DENNYP

MECHANIC
1,824 POSTS

Hook up your dmm on the negative battery cable. Measure the amps between the battery and the cable. Record the reading at initial hook up and after vehicle has sat for 45 min. After 30-45min, you should see less than 500mA draw. If not, start pulling fuses until you see the amperage drop.