Parasitic Draw Test With Test Light

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Can I test a battery drain with this test light?

Thread starterCiscoBite1Time
Start date Jun 18, 2010

: 303

: 8

: Jun 26, 2002

milwaukee, Wisconsin

a friend has one and last night i had the probe touching my negative cable while the red power is touching the negative terminal. the test light lights up. i do have the postive connected on the battery. not sure if i'm doing it correclty.

: 126

: 1

: Mar 2, 2010

Mesa, Arizona

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...inding-short-partial-short-battery-drain.html

Read this. Basically you have to disconnect the negative battery cable and connect the test light between the negative cable and the negative battery post. And start pulling relays and fuses until the light goes out. Make sure its not an LED test light. It must have a real bulb inside of it or else it will not work for this test. This is a quick rundown of a battery drain test and that link will have a more detailed version of it.

Thread starter
#3

: 303

: 8

: Jun 26, 2002

milwaukee, Wisconsin

i have that link bookmarked and that's what i'm using as a guideline. i though since i have access to a test light like the one in my original post it might work. if i can't use the test light i have i'll have to buy a compatible light and rig up my own test light.

here's an update.

I went home for lunch before and had a few minutes before heading back to work. I have a multimeter and set it to 200m DCA. I connected the positive probe to the negative terminal. the negative probe to the negative calbe. it read 1.XX and starts to climb. i remember my 30A ingintion fuse blew like a month ago so for testing purposes I took that fuse out first. with the meter hooked back up it's reading .02 and stays put. I put the ignition fuse back and pulled the fuse right next to it. the meter reads as it first did. 1.X and climbs again. After work I'll check all the fuses one by one to make sure but did I possibly find my culprit?

Last edited: Jun 18, 2010

: 157

: 1

: Jun 18, 2010

Courtice, ON_Canada

did you have the negative terminal disconnected from the battery when you were measuring current? And also, it sounds like you had the ammeter hooked up backwards. Current is trying to flow from your negative cable towards the negative post on the battery, therefore, you want the positive of your meter to be connected at the cable end and the negative of your meter to be connected at the battery negative terminal.

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