Parasitic current draw 300+ mA

[dcpppf]

So as is my car will die if not started for ~7 days. I installed a Polar FIS a long while back and had always assumed it was the root cause, so I've been cautious with a battery tender and what not if I would be gone for extended periods of times (or it was good bike weather). Well, over the holidays I had some spare time and finally decided to confirm this thought. With the unit connected I was seeing 0.453 mA after all the diagnostics finished (I'd connect to a DMM and it would bounce around between 1.5A and 3A for about a minute, then drop to a steady 0.453).

Now when I removed the polar fis, it only dropped to 0.311 mA. This still seems much too high to me... Curious if anyone has any thoughts or ideas on what may be causing this. I do have a JL XD300/1 amp installed, but rain settled in before I could disconnect it and check.

Any tips/thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[dcpppf]

Pulled the amp fuse and stayed the same... Still looking for any thoughts before I take it to the dealership...

 

[nik]

Strange. I'm having a parasitic draw issue as well, and I have an FIS too. I thought it was my remote start killing my battery though as I have the smart start module hooked up and figured it was the module constantly being connected to a cell tower. Haven't done the amps draw test on my car yet though. May do it in the spring when I can feel my fingers. In the mean time I have to make sure I drive my car more to keep the battery charged.


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[dcpppf]

I've got a battery tender I use if I know i won't be starting it for more than a few days, but still quite annoying. I'd be curious to hear what you find out when you do your testing!

 

[nik]

Which battery tender rating did you get? I was thinking of picking up one of those nocco units. But wasn't sure which one is appropriate for these cars.


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[dcpppf]

I just got the cheaper Jr. (750 mA). If/when I use it I'll leave it on for days at a time so it's never a rushed thing. If I need a start asap I've got a portable jump starter floating around.

Never had seen the nocco ones before, but they look pretty dang nice though. There is one photo on amazon with the nocco plugged in that makes it look awfully bulky (blocking other plug ins). Dk if that'd bug you or not

 

[nik]

Thanks for the heads up! I was just looking for a top up/ maintenance device too. I just know the battery is running a little low because the trunk and floor lights don't come on when I unlock in the morning and the dome lights shut off relatively quick too. Plus my commute is more or less 7 minutes in the morning.

One thing that did click for me was occasionally I get the cellphone morse code beeping through the speakers when I shut the car off. Indicating they're still live. I had a back up cam too, which has since broken but not sure if the amp and radio stay live for a bit causing this. May be worth looking into.


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[dcpppf]

haha that's funny about the floor/trunk lights... I just noticed that same thing the last time I let the battery get too low. My trunk light is the first to act up.

Hmm, I've got the dynaudio system and never have had any noises/beeping after i shut the car off... at least not that i've noticed.

Curious now if the LED interior lights might be the culprit... but I'm far too lazy to put the stock bulbs back in to test...

 

[nik]

Probably not. I only have an SMD LED in the trunk. My fronts are stock.

If you have Vagcom check if you get a short on canbus. I saw it in the summer but didn't think much of it. It came back after I reset the fault code as well. I thought it may be remote start related.


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[dcpppf]

Will do. I think the polar FIS throws canbus errors when I scan though. I'll check for sure, but not sure it'll work.

 

[nik]

I picked up a Noco genius 3500 for 20% off. Not a bad little unit. I got the battery up to between 75 and 100%. Didn't want to leave it overnight so left it at that.


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[zrickety]

I've read that a broken wire in the door harness can cause the canbus to stay awake.

 

[nik]

I've read that a broken wire in the door harness can cause the canbus to stay awake.

Do you have a link to that by chance?


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[zrickety]

No, saw someone post about it on vwvortex. He said there is longer harness or an extension.