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Posted by peter on January 31, 2008, 4:33 pm
> What should the current draw be with a car parked, for the night, not
> running, Volvo v40 with factory alarm but never activated. How do you
> check this. In the morning my battery is low. Can I use a 120v digital
> clamp on amp meter.
My guess is lower than 100mA. If it is higher than 500mA, it is definitely
suspicious.
Clamp meter is for high AC current. You are trying to measure low DC
current.
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Posted by hallerb@aol.com on January 31, 2008, 4:37 pm
>
>
> > What should the current draw be with a car parked, for the night, not
> > running, Volvo v40 with factory alarm but never activated. How do you
> > check this. In the morning my battery is low. Can I use a 120v digital
> > clamp on amp meter.
>
> My guess is lower than 100mA. If it is higher than 500mA, it is definitely=
> suspicious.
>
> Clamp meter is for high AC current. You are trying to measure low DC
> current.
fully charge battery and get it load tested, the simplest answer is
usually the solution. how old is your battery? if its over 3 or 4
years its probably bad
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Posted by Stormin Mormon on January 31, 2008, 9:10 pm
Ransley posted several weeks ago. Original battery in his 2002 Volvo. If
memory serves.
--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.
the simplest answer is
usually the solution. how old is your battery? if its over 3 or 4
years its probably bad
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Posted by Joe on January 31, 2008, 7:17 pm
> What should the current draw be with a car parked, for the night, not
> running, Volvo v40 with factory alarm but never activated. How do you
> check this. In the morning my battery is low. Can I use a 120v digital
> clamp on amp meter.
No.
Use a decent digital multimeter. Turn everything off, make a
connection to the battery negative cable and the battery negative post
(it can be done, be clever) and loosen the negative battery cable
clamp. With the meter set on MA, quickly slide the cable off the post,
take the reading and put the cable back on. For typical vehicles the
reading will be around 30-40 MA (YMMV). This technique won't screw up
fussy alarms, radio anti-theft codes and all that. When you get it
back together, check the charging voltage, which should be around 13.8
at idle, rising to 14.6 or so at 2000 RPM. If the system checks are
all good, read the Consumer Reports on batteries and go shopping for a
new one. Good luck.
Joe
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Posted by Joseph Meehan on January 31, 2008, 8:00 pm
Maybe if you told us why you are wanting to measure the current, we
might be able to give you some more direct help.
I will add that some cars will draw a lot more than usual dark current
right after they are shut down. Five or ten minutes may be needed before
they are down to static mode. And no you can't use an 120V meter which is
likely an AC only meter.
--
Joseph Meehan
Dia 's Muire duit
> What should the current draw be with a car parked, for the night, not
> running, Volvo v40 with factory alarm but never activated. How do you
> check this. In the morning my battery is low. Can I use a 120v digital
> clamp on amp meter.
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