Thank you Dave, I could tell by the rear end passenger side not frosting up like the driver's side rear end, that it was being warmed enough that frost would not form on that side of the car like it was forming on the other side, for a day or so as the battery drained.

I could tell first off as I followed the twisted wire pairs at the end of the amp, then felt a pair of twisted wires at the side of the amp closest to the inside fender, that was wrapped around the sharp shelf 'leg' to get it close enough to plug in. It does not 'feel' correct at all, and the cuts on my wrists and fingers just from feeling around the edges tells me that set of wires and possibly another single cable that plugs in on the side of the amp as well, may have damaged insulation allowing contact there as well. I bent them away as best I could to prevent contact, but I do not know if it has had an effect on the drop, I need to go out and take a reading. Also, the dead rear speaker and the trail of hydraulic fluid flowing directly into the vents on the top of the amp lead me to suspect it as well.

I have had the latch green shower in my car prior to my ownership, and have found fluid behind the CC buttons, and I pulled the on/off button on the stereo out as far as I could without removing it, and now I have a blue circle around the on/off button that lights up, so hydraulic fluid contamination of the on/off button on the head unit is also on the table.

 

11.59VDC after ~30 hours sitting, previous voltage was ~12.89VDC the last time I drove the car. Fired right up with a couple of DSC and ABS warnings that cleared immediately once the car was running. I found the black rectangular plug on the side nearest the inner fender, with at least two more white wire blocks that I can see, these are the ones scraping the sharp surfaces, the power cable appears more robust, but until I pull the amp out I cannot tell for sure. All fuses are good according to the meter ohm setting and applying the leads to the tops of the fuses, one by one I got the tone on all. The repair that led to all of this, I believe, was to the antenna, a motor replacement, but they would have had to remove the stack to gain access. Like I said, the wire routing on the side appears to have been done after the fact just to get it out the door and over time vibration did the rest.

 

I hope that procedure works for you if you need it your other option is to pull fuses and at times you will need to wait for the car to go to sleep to start again..

 

So I removed the plug referenced by Dave, 'large rectangular plug that goes into the white connector should kill the power to it' (the Amp), only my plug on the side of the Amp was rather small, but still rectangular and in a white connector, so I think it was the right one. I also did my best to unbind the other wires wrapped around the legs of the shelf, and bend them slightly away from the sharp edged shelf they are wrapped around.

I took a couple of crude readings, just popped the trunk with the remote so as not to disarm the alarm, and took a battery voltage reading after getting to my parents house and getting home, then 24 hours later, then 24 more without starting or driving the car. My battery was not fully charged when I got home at ~12.42VDC, again trunk reading, alarm armed, not enough to keep up with the power down cycle demand without loosing some 'juice'. I expected this and my two readings following the disconnect of the Amp and trying to get the wires away from sharp metal seems to have made a difference, knock on wood, as I do not want to jinx this, but my last two readings over the last 48 hours have only revealed a drop of ~ a tenth of a volt. I did not start or drive the car over this time period, but did disarm, get in and prepare to start the car when a friend drove up, so I got out and re-locked the car, this is the only time it was disturbed in the 48 hours or more it had been sitting, less my 'tests'.

I am charging the battery and have it fully disconnected and will try to preform another draw test with my meter in between the negative post and cable, although I got absolutely no drop when I checked it before charging the battery. I think I may have blown a fuse in the meter, it should show something under Amps DC set at 20A, red cable in the other socket and nothing on mA either. The only time I can get any activity is to set it to AC Amps and then it drops to 0. There should be some draw at least the 30 mA safe zone or something should show up.

Updates to follow, Thank you to everyone for the help, maybe I can pull the amp today and get the wires sorted to avoid further shorts with the 'shelf', but the amp definitely has a problem because of the dead speaker on the driver's side rear seat. Although I did find a white connector stuck in between the convertible top 'mechanics' that I cannot reach without removing the top cap, as I thought the speaker was just unplugged after the new top latch hoses were installed.

There is also a singular white 3-4 pin connector 'floating' around near the amp stack and bundled with another wire that plugs in near the antenna, but this unplugged connector could reach either the antenna or the amplifier easily to plug into something else, or it could be for the subwoofer in the Coupe and not needed for the Convertible, who knows for now as long as it stops draining the battery.

Thanks to all and Happy Holidays.

 

I was trying to check my 1998 XK8 for potential battery drain which has been a problem for awhile. I used the method shown in the Eric The Car Guy videa using a Klein volt/ohm/amp meter. I connected the meter exactly like shown in the video and it showed a flashing series of number ranging anywhere from .19 to 3.3 amps. It did not settle on any one reading.

I have been trying to track down a potential drain caused my my Harman Kardon amplifier as discussed in DaveInVa's thread "LJA4170AA/BA Amplifier Musings"

Any input on what may be wrong?

 

Kent, I'm not familiar with the video you mentioned. Here's what I'd do:

Turn car off remove key.
Set your multimeter to amps.
One by one pull each fuse from fuse box.
Put the leads into the fuse slots now exposed.
If something's draining the battery you'll get a significant reading, above 0.3 amps for example.

This will allow you to ID the offending circuit.

Not sure if the high current draw reading is the culprit? Pull the fuse, leave her overnight, check battery in morning.

Fyi, amps has a different port for the red lead on your meter.

I probably should have suggested starting by putting meter between positive battery cable and positive battery terminal, but I'm sure you've already done that. It'll give you the overall current drain you must track down.
John

 

John, thanks for the reply. The video I mentioned is at Post #10 of this thread. He suggests using the negative cable and post instead of the positive but indicates either will work.

I did use the 10A terminal on my meter but never got a stabilized reading as a base to start testing. To make sure I understand, I did put the meter on 10A DC but connected it between the negative cable and the negative battery post. The result was a continuous variety of readings that never stabilized on a given value. Not sure why.

I am suspecting my HK Amp but was not able to confirm due to the meter issue. I will try your method of removing the fuse and putting the amp meter between the two contacts. I suppose I could also just put the meter leads on the two exposed areas of the fuse.

 

Well you can't put on exposed because it will not have any current flow between the leads. Pull the fuse and the leads through your meter will be the electrictys only path.

I suppose fluxuating readings at the battery could be due to measuring everything active at once. Start with the fuse that feeds the suspected amp. If you get high current, go to trunk unplug amp to validate.

1more thing on battery connection. You're fighting corrosion, do dig the people in for a good connection. Probably going too deep here the fuse boxes may work best.

Don't forget you'll depower the BPM, gotta reset windows after.

John

 

Followup 10 amps is a lot. Good to Start there, if no reading select smaller range. I once found a circiut drawing 0.75 amps drain ing my Ford's battery in 3 or 4 days.

John

 

Would it be a factor if my top is currently down? Just wondering.

 

No not at all.

 

My boot lights do not work. All others are okay. I have not checked the wiring at they boot hinge point yet. Would a problem with these wires create a drain on the battery?

 

It might.

 

They might be unplugged; mine were as someone else had been chasing this drain prior to my ownership and had unplugged the lights in the trunk of my car. I plugged them back in and they work fine, but someone either did not plug them back in on purpose or forgot, or thought they were part of the problem.

 

Plug them in and leave the trunk open and see if the lights go to sleep (go out) after about 5 min.

 

Hi all, My battery drain on my 2003 xkr was indeed from the radio amplifier in the trunk.
I pulled the 30 amp fuse and no drain. No radio but it starts till I get a new one.
I got this info from this forum and it worked !

GREAT FORUM !!

 

I used this procdure to find my parasidic drain and it worked well. The comment about waking up the car refers to the fact that is you engage any electrical system the drain will be higher for a half hour or so till the car goes back to sleep. I measured the drain at the battery after leaving all systems dormant for a least a hour to estabish the drain baseline. In my case the drain was casued by a bad relay. Also having a wiring diagram helps.