Battery Draining in 2+ days

[nawazish.alee]

Hello Everyone ! Hope all of you are well and doing great. May (Allah) protect you all from COVID-19.

As you read from the title, my ride (civic 2014 9th gen) is draining battery in 2-3 days. the battery don't have enough juice to crank up. First i though battery is the culprit. It was in warranty. So I replaced it. Its a maintenance free battery. I thought problem is gone. but since the Corona breakout start, i am staying home. Yesterday when i tried to start the car, it was like battery is on the edge of getting dead. the car did crank up. when i saw the indicator on the battery it turned to " Not Charged" state from "Charged" state. I didn't check the voltage before cranking up. In start condition, battery voltages goes upto 14.45v which shows it is charging.
So i watched some videos on YouTube and run parasitic test using multi-meter. Arranged the meter in series with negative terminal of battery. After turning off the vehicle, 0.85A is the first reading. Then after 5-7 minutes ampere drops from 0.85A to 0.45A and again after 5 - 7 minutes they further drop to 0.12A and fluctuates between 0.08A to 0.12A. I also checked the fuses under the hood and found that if i remove fuse # 28. the ampere drops to 0.02A and then fluctuates between 0.02 - 0.14A. but sometimes fuse 28 don't make any difference.
One thing more the sensor on the negative battery terminal is broken and sometimes i get a message on i-Mid display stating "check battery charging system". I tried to solder it up using 2 wires but still gets the message, not all the times but sometimes. No check Engine Light.

Battery : Exide MF-65L (48Ah)

So what is the main culprit which is draining the battery?

[humayun.chughtai.7]

Seems like there is a shortage somewhere or something is consuming the current all the time & isn't turning off which in result sucks the battery juice.

If you are a DIY type person and have access to a multi-meter then I will suggest you to perform a "Parasitic drain test", search youtube using these words, you'll get to know about it in details.

Our local electricians are incompetent, I faced same issue of battery drain in my car for like 6 months, like you replaced the battery as well, but the issue was there, no electrician was able to rectify it.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

ampere drops to 0.02A

yes 0.02A is perfect, so did you checked in the fusebox diagram that fuse#28 powers up what ?

[nawazish.alee]

Fuse 28 is of interior lights. And all the interior lights are off... still this happens. Its my 2nd battery which is also in warranty. But its very problematic. See i bought dry battery just because i go out very less on my car. Mostly it is parked. But this parasitic drain is making me crazy.
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Fuse 28 is for interior lights.

[arslan08]

Brother I faced the same issue 2 days back in my civic 2014 model purchased daewoo dry battery on 1st march 2020 now batery is all drained out I read reviews after that on web found that daewoo dry battery is culprit in handling the tracker installed in my car

[xzap042]

Check interior light connections, sometimes the insulation gives way and could be touching the body. Or your interior dome light switch might be faulty and leaking a small amount of current which might not be enough to power the light.
Or one of the door sensors might be bad, same as above allowing a little current to pass through.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

Okay ... nothing serious. Plz tell me when you take out this fuse, what happens ? I mean which thing goes off/stop working ??? Dome lights ?

[humayun.chughtai.7]

I was also facing same issue, current was getting drained from the dome light circuit. When I took out that fuse, all the dome lights & door warning lights went off, battery drain amperes came to normal 0.02A.

In order to rectify the issue, I check all 4 door jamb switches but they were fine. Uninstalled the dome light assembly to check for any stripped wiring causing any shortages but to no avail.

Finally I asked my friend to get into the trunk & check if its bulb is still lights up after I close the trunk and he reported that its lighted up all the time, no matter you open or close the trunk, so here comes my issue resolved, the switch was malfunctioning & keeps the bulb on all the time, which results in battery drain.

After replacing that switch, my problem got solved. I will request you to check the trunk wala bulb by requesting any friend or your younger one's.

[nawazish.alee]

Trunk bulb is working fine. Dome light switch is the thing in honda car which gets bad . I didn't checked it yet as battery is on charging. Will check it tomorrow. If it makes a difference or not.
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My car is equipped with passive security system which also have a feature if i come close the car gets unlock automatically. The fluctuations i see might be because of it. Which goes 0.02A to 0.15A max if i remove the fuse. And with fuse fluctuations starts from 0.08 to 0.18A..
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One thing i noticed that dome light gets dim whenever i turn on any high power hungry device like high beam or if i try to close a closed window (window is already closed and if i still hold the button, dome light gets dim and upon releasing get normal).
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Will do the investigation tomorrow as nothing have to do nowadays.
Stay blessed. Stay home.

[nawazish.alee]

My battery is also dry one.... batteries can be culprit. But i noticed one thing that whenever i put back terminal there is a crisp spark. Is it normal ? Sometimes spark doesn't appear.
Within 4 months my battery went out. Replaced it with the same model as it was in warranty. And after 2 months i am again standing there where i started.

Car also has amplifier which i checked is fine and not draining any type of current. Spark might be due to the capacitors in the amplifier. But i will check this also tomorrow.

[nawazish.alee]

did u find the culprit behind that drain ? i'm trying fully to find it out.

[Xulfiqar]

as you have isolated it - now you need a wiring diagram to see where it goes.

there is another way to test parasitic loss without removing fuses but it requires 2 multimeters, one on the battery and one to test each fuse.

And a proper drain test requires you leave the car alone for 1 hour, not a few minutes as the BCM wont go to sleep in a few minutes.

[nawazish.alee]

I have 2 multi-meters. kindly guide me how to perform it the test.
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Does backup fuse (29) have anything to do with it ? i mean if i remove it too. then the readings go to 0.01amp constant.

[Xulfiqar]

find a small cable with alligator clips and a spare battery terminal, connect the terminal to battery and the small jumper to act as bridge - now connect your multimeter in parallel to the jumper too - this is to make sure you dont disconnect the car if the multimeter auto shuts off.

now

first open all doors and lock out the door switches so the dome lamp goes off - open bonnet too and push the latch in or the switch if present.

now lock the car and let it sleep for an hour.

come back and twist your multimeter to DCA 10A - disconnect the jumper from battery so all is connected through the DMM.

use your other DMM on DCV and test for voltage drop on each fuse - each should start and drop to zero in a second.

but I think you are past that as you have isolated the cause, now you need to trace the wiring and test the offending circuit. Whatever it is - is not a "short" as a dead short blows a fuse (thats what fuses are for) - what you have is something is actually switched on, like a relay or a bulb or some other sensor - or maybe the stupid trakker device.

[humayun.chughtai.7]

yes . it was bad trunk light switch ...

[nawazish.alee]

Well i have a passive security system installed in my car. Which has its own immobilizer and radar. And if i come close to its range car gets unlock automatically.
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2ndly i have my doubts on dome light. Although it gets off but there might be small leakage. And why i doubt is because its switch is bad and need cleaning. Because if i put it in centre sometime light don't turn on if i open the door and i have to readjust the switch.
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Will update tomorrow....

[Xulfiqar]

And if i come close to its range car gets unlock automatically.

what circuit is it tied to? - if it was done by cheetah scarecrow electrician - it will most probably be on dome lamp/interior - - and such radar system remote unlock does take a toll on the battery and drains it - this is why cars which have it from factory have an AGM battery.

Check where its connected - it will also have its own fuse which you can remove to isolate it from the car as I believe its best to test the car in its oriignal functioning - then test the add-ons like your radar etc.

im imagining if your system unlocks as key nears it and without any touch sensor - it will have to be broadcasting quite strongly all the time.

[Xulfiqar]

Although it gets off but there might be small leakage. And why i doubt is because its switch is bad and need cleaning

a dirty switch doesnt leak.. the switch is nothing more than a contactor . When you close the door - the switch contacts separate and when you open the door the contacts close, its as simple as that.

what you have is something is actually ON, not a leakage or short.

[nawazish.alee]

Here is the update....
I check everything i could... every fuse... checked voltage drop... the only fuse which showed voltage drop is fuse 28 under the hood. If i pull that fuse, interior lights including trunk light shuts off... i tried tried all the lights by disconnecting them one by one... no change. Amperes remain 0.09A.... they only drop to 0.03A only if i pull the fuse 28 out.
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I think security system is out of this because it works even if that fuse if pulled out. Plus due to security system, i get a fluctuation in current draw from 0.09-0.15A with 1 sec interval. And without fuse the current draw become 0.03-0.12A with one second internal which i guess is not tension.
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But unfortunately i am unable to find out the culprit.
Also u able to find wiring diagram for fuse 28.
Any help will be much much appreciated.

[TypeA]

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