[snowman81]

Anyone smart with electrical stuff?
My issue is that my radio shuts off while I'm driving. Then the SOS button light comes on briefly, then the radio comes back on. So I got the battery tested several times and each time the charge is low. This is my daily driver so the car doesn't sit and my trip to work is 20 minutes. So I tested drain today the only way I know how. I pulled the negative terminal and measured amps between the terminal on the battery and the cable and got .49. I did pull the bulb out in the trunk but not sure if that's sufficient. So is .49 to high and am I doing the test right? I'm used to doing it on cars where the battery is under the hood. I know I can start pulling fuses to see when the meter drops but not sure if I'm to that point yet. Thanks!

[ctuna]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...QNFyu70IsyKRlg

20 minutes in town or on the highway at the speed limit?
If you want to monitor your battery voltage you can get and elm bluetooth module on ebay very cheap now under 20 bucks and the torque app that allows you to monitor it is 5 bucks but you do need a smartphone.

[snowman81]

Do you have any recommendations on a good ELM module? I've been reading some reviews on some of them out there and it seems like a lot of them have pirated software. I've got no experience with these things some I'm not even really sure what I'm looking for.
So does 0.49 amps seem like too much while the car is off? And is there a way that I can trick the car into thinking the trunk is closed while I test the battery? I looked at the latch quick the other day and didn't see anything obvious, but I'm gonna mess with it today. I might also look into a battery tender...I'm gonna start researching that.

[ctuna]

Did you lock the car with the doors closed?
You need to make sure the car is asleep before you do a
measurement. I thought that link had a value in it and it was
10s of ma per hour. If I have the car asleep and i open the doors
that battery will dive 3 or 4 hundred ma .
Get the Elm module anywhere I think its like 19 buck on ebay now the torque download is 5 bucks.
If you want a serious diagnostic tool go to the coding sub board and learn about and get a coding setup.
I don't see any point in tricking the battery it either holds a good voltage and takes a charge or doesn't.
You can monitor the voltage on the battery under the hood no reason to monitor it at the battery.

[snowman81]

Yeah I locked the car but since I had the trunk open (I did pull the bulb out) I wasn't sure if there was still something extra powered. The way I was trying to test can only be done at the battery I thought since I was pulling he negative cable off the battery and making the meter carry the load. I've been considering a coding setup and now I see they have something available for a Mac, so I may consider going that route. Thanks for the help.

[ctuna]

If the trunk is open the car knows it and that means the car is awake.
I think it would be sensed by a switch or the lock not the light bulb but I could be wrong.
If you have fold down rear seats you could get inside and read your meter and have somebody on the outside lock the car while your doing it.

[snowman81]

Ok...finally got it figured out. There is no way I have a parasitic drain on my battery. I was reading 0.01 while my car was off and asleep. I figured out that you can trick the car into thinking that the trunk is closed by pushing the latch back in on the trunk itself. Once I did that, the light in the trunk went off. I then let it sit for about 30 minutes and went back and read the load on the being put on the battery. So I just ordered the Ctek MUS 4.3. Should be here next week...hopefully that solves my radio problems.

[Mando42]

i was having similar problems with my car, and after months of trouble shooting i finally took it in. the dealer told me it was the CCC module, i replaced it, and everything works fine now. Not saying it would be your solution; but it worked for me.

[snowman81]

Mando, thanks...but I'm not sure what a CCC module is. How much do they run? I charged my battery with the CTEK that I got and unfortunately it didn't resolve the problem. Maybe I'll try to the CCC module once I figure out what it is.