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battery drain

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Old Apr 22, 2010 | 06:04 PM
  #1  
zcookie49's Avatar
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From: Bel Air
battery drain

hi. i just purchased a 95 rx7 and besided the u-joint on the driveshaft to differential blowing out, my battery died after sitting for 1 week.
.
i have searched threads and the FAQs and have only seen mentions of disconnecting the power cable to battery, which i shouldnt have to do. Also to purchase a trickle charger to maintain battery life. i dont mind doing the trickle method as a stop gap, but any ideas as to what could be causing the draw off the battery while parked and off?. the prior battery was 6 months old and could not be revived, so i bought a new battery with 3 yr guaranteed replacement.
. the vehicle has the fan mod that runs 10 mins after car is off, then shuts off. could that be the drain? the original owner said he recently replaced the alternator and spent $300 on a charging system for the battery and thought that would take care of it. It hasnt and i dont like the idea of having starting uncertainty problems.
Any ideas where i can began to look for this drain, i would greatly appreciate it.
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Old Apr 22, 2010 | 10:07 PM
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From: Mont Alto, PA
Connect a multi-meter in series with the negative cable to the battery. In other words, remove the negative battery cable, connect one lead of the meter to the battery terminal and the other to the battery cable you just removed. Set the meter to read amperage, with the engine off and all electrical loads off, what is the meter reading for amperage? Should be about 50 mA or less. That's .050 amps. It will likely be considerably more than that based on what you say.

Then systematically remove fuses one-at-a-time until the draw drops to acceptible limits. That will tell you which circuit is causing the excessive dark current draw. Then you will have to track down which of the components on that particular fuse circuit is drawing power or has shorted wiring. You can do that by systematically disabling each component (i.e., unplugging, removing a bulb, etc.) until you track down the culprit.

For a copy of the factory service manual go to:
http://wright-here.net/cars/rx7/manuals.html
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Old Apr 23, 2010 | 09:56 AM
  #3  
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From: Phoenix
I had a problem on my fd with this and it turned out to be the relay for the amplifiers for the factory bose system after I changed it to an alpine unit. The relay would activate as soon as the negative cable was connected.
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