Date: 25 Oct 2005 11:50:41 -0700 From: "Mike Deskevich" <mikedeskevichnospaml.com> Subject: expected current draw when car is off
I have an '87 C900 that seems to be killing batteries. After being parked for 2 weeks while I was out of town, the battery was dead (didn't even light up the dash board a little when I turned the key). I wasn't too surprised, beacuse it had been getting hard to start over the last month or so and the battery was 5 years old. So I replaced the battery. Since my truck sits outside in the cold weather, I bought a new battery for the truck and took the 2 year old battery out of the truck and put it in the Saab. Everything was fine for another month or so, and then I let the Saab sit for a week. It was very hard to start, but it finally turned over. Then the Saab sits for another week and now the battery is dead again. I realize that I put an old battery in the Saab as a replacement, but I do know the battery was good. It never gave me any problems in the truck. Before I buy another battery for the Saab I want to make sure there is no short or something wierd going on. The first thing I want to look as is how much current the car is drawing when the key is in the off position. The only thing that I can imagine drawing power is the radio to help it remember presets, and the ECU to help it remember things that it need to remember. Everything else should be disconnected. Does anyone know how much current should be drawn from the battery when the key is off? I don't have a FSM or anything for the Saab (and I know the FSM for my Toyota doesn't give this kind of info). I don't want to put a new battery in to have it get killed so soon, nor do I want to take it to $80/hr saab mechanics to look for a short. So I want to do as much diagnosis as I can by myself first. Thanks! Mike
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