Sounds good. Will do it tomorrow. So measure the fuses in the 10A setting?

Either way, I'll connect the leads to the ground strap and negative battery post. Then disconnect that fuse that gave me the 30-40mv.

 

Push every lock bolt closed, then "lock" the car with the FOB (as mentioned in post #10) and the car will shut down in 1/2hr.
After that, you can pull fuses with full access to every compartment without waking the car up.

 

Yeah that's what I did. I latched all 4 doors, trunk and hood then locked the car.

 

You just check the amps reading of the multimeter, set at 10A range and inserted in the negative side of the battery (when it is down to 0.05-0.06 A), each time you pull out a fuse. When you see that a certain fuse, when pulled out, causes some drop in the Amps reading at the battery, that's the first one which carries part of the parasitic draw. Then just go on with pulling the fuses until you get 0.00 A at the multimeter. Mark every fuse that caused drop at the multimeter. Do not re-insert the pulled out fuses until you finish the investigation (reach 0.00 A) as it may cause parts of the car electronics to wake up and mess up your reading of the multimeter.

 

Sweet.

If that is no.5 on your right hand side heelboard (rear seat), then on a 1998 it is the passenger seat switch pack.
Not sure what year your car is, they changed the allocation of some fuses over the years, but most remained the same.​​​​​​​

 

So the fuse that gave me the 30-40 reading is for the rear heated seats. And it is indeed blown as well.

Did the parasitic draw test. Had everything latched, and car locked. Waited an hour. Pulled the fuse that gave me the 30-40 reading. Interestingly, the mutlimeter stayed at .06-.05

So, I said screw it. Started with pulling fuses one by one and checking the meter. When I pulled the number 1 fuse in the right rear compartment, under the seat, the meter went down to .03

That number 1 fuse is for the "left hand seat control module"

 

Of course, pulling a blown fuse will cause no change to the current draw.

Now find the fuse for the "right hand seat control module" and see if it causes further drop in the current draw and (if yes) by how much. Then, carry on until you get .00 amps.

 

Dumb question. Shouldn't there always be some form of draw? As in, going to .00 amps is impossible unless battery is dead/not connected.

 

When the car is in the "sleep mode", only certain modules/electronics will normally draw some current. Once the fuses for those modules are out, the current draw will go to .00. However, some other modules or electronics may draw additional current if they have some fault. Added gadgets or aftermarket radios and CD changers may also draw additional current.

In the case of your left seat module, you found that it draws some .02-.03 amps (its disconnection caused drop by this amount). According to the table below, each seat module should draw only .005 amps (0.5 mA) so your left seat module appears to be faulty as it draws excessive current (.02-.03 amps = 20-30 mA). It would be interesting to see how much your right seat module draws; if it is good, you should see practically no reduction in the current draw when you pull its fuse out. Here's a table showing which modules/systems normally draw current, and how much, when in sleep mode:

 

Dude that is awesome. Thank you very much! Will get to it tomorrow

 

Literally today was our first day with no rain. Found the Right seat control module fuse. It is located left heel board, fuse number 1, also 20amp. When I disconnected it, there was no voltage drop. Only when removing the left seat control module fuse, it shows voltage drop.

With that said, my left side driver's seat works fine. However I think the memory settings are not acting right. But I haven't been driving the car much. So I'll check that later today.

 

So after a 15 mile drive yesterday, I read the voltage once I turned the car off, 12.69v

Checked the voltage another 18 hours later(this morning) and the votage read 12.27v, not cool.

Ran a parasitic draw test again. Had everything latched, doors locked. Switching between .03 and .04 every 3 or so seconds. I'm at a lost as to why it drained the battery so quickly.

 

At the kind of current draw you have, it should not happen with a good battery and a good (13.5 - 14 volts) alternator. So it looks like you just have a bad battery. Cases when a battery cannot receive enough and/or cannot hold charge:

1. Old battery close to the end of its life; with cheaper batteries, this could be even just 1.5-2 years from new
2. A battery developed partial internal short in one or more of its cells
3. A battery which was, in the past, allowed to over-discharge. If the battery voltage is allowed to drop below 10.8 volts for some period of time (even a few days), an irreversible sulfation process will take place on its plates which eats-up the battery capacity. Such batteries can be revived (recharged) but will not take much charge and will not hold the charge for long i.e. will self-discharge rather fast. In bad cases of sulfation, the battery will still receive certain charge, will start the car easily and generally be ok for the day if the car is driven. Next morning - totally dead; even if the car does not have any parasitic current draw.

 

Good thinking there.

The .03 to 0.04 looks OK and could just be the meter unsure which value to show.

 

I bought it a new duralast gold last month. Alternator charges 14.3 ish on a cold engine. Once warmed with accessoires, about 13.v5 at idle.

I'm about to go read the battery voltage again. Yesterday it went from 12.61 to 12.51 in 5 hours.

 

Disconnect the battery, charge it and leave it unconnected. If it still shows fairly fast loss of voltage, then it is no good.

 

It holds charge perfect if you leave the negative cable disconnected.

 

I am about to change my battery as I found out that it has a high rate of self discharge - its voltage goes, from fully charged 12.65 V, down to about 12.0 V in just 3 weeks when it is disconnected. Before putting the new battery in, I decided to also check the parasitic drain and found out that it was 0.08 A (80 mA) more than twice the specified drain of less than 0.03 A. So, in addition to the battery's self discharge, I also had parasitic discharge. Still, I could start the car easily after about 10 days sitting (battery connected, reading 12.0 V). I didn't check for any longer sitting period but I guess the battery would go dead in about two weeks having self and parasitic discharges.

So, I went investigating the parasitic drain and found out that all the extra drain of some 0.05 A (50 mA) was going through the fuse #7 of the LH Heelboard Fusebox, line "17" to the BPM. When I pulled this fuse out, the battery drain dropped to just 0.025 A (25 mA), well within the spec. I found out that the line "17" is for the BPM to control the interior lights and the shift lock solenoid (perhaps a few other things as well). Anyhow, with the fuse #7 out, I could still remote lock and unlock the car but the interior lights would not come on and I could not move the shifter from Park. Everything else work fine.

Obviously, the BPM is drawing additional current of 0.05 A for something and, as the shifter lock is completely off with the ignition off, I suspect the drain is through the interior lights. The BPM's electronic circuit for delayed interior lights switch-off may not completely switch them off but may leave the 0.05 A still flowing through the bulbs (this small current will not cause the bulbs to light or even glow so they look like they are off). I hope this can help somebody struggling with the battery parasitic drain.

I considered replacing the BPM but I am not really keen to do this because of the trouble with the synchronising or programming of the new (used) BPM. Instead, I am going to insert a solid state timer relay (~ 1 minute) in the line of the fuse #7 (line 17 to the BPM) which will first be switched on for 1 minute when unlocking the car (by the flash of the indicator lights) and then kept permanently on when the ignition is on. After switching the engine off and locking the car, the timer relay will hold the power in the line 17 to the BPM for about a minute and then cut it out eliminating the extra parasitic draw.

 

I have no knowledge of the European version, nor would I suspect it different. But, when I prompt my unlock or open and close a door, my parlor lights and odometer cycle exactly 2:00 minutes to shut off if I do nothing else.

 

That is very interesting, I bet putting led interior lights would slow the drain down as well.