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I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

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Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#401

Post by rob74 »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #364
o10449366 wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife, bless her heart, leaves everything partially open. Not even just open, but she'll screw the lid on jars just enough where if I pick it up by the top they'll drop. It drives me crazy.

I've met a lot of women who do stuff like this... I asked one why and she told me it's because they don't want to be a bother. Fully closing the door makes noise, screwing on lids can make it hard for people to open them later. So they don't. They close it just enough and leave the object in that almost there state.

IMHO it's less of a bother to have to open a jar and much more of a bother if you pick up a not-fully-closed jar by the lid and then have to clean the kitchen of jam and broken glass, but YMMV...

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#402

Post by nikau »

toxik wrote: post #384
nikau wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if to want to see an actual professional, diagnose dan

You could have recommended that channel without disparaging the others but alright

Yes I meant to reply to the parent comment mentioning Tavarish and Samcrac.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#403

Post by mrtnmcc »

adversaryIdiot wrote: post #254
civilized wrote: post #166

My wife and I gave our old car to her parents. In the subsequent years, its battery kept dying and we had to go over to their place and jump it. Never happened in the prior 7 years we'd owned the car. The mechanic said nothing wrong with the battery, but suggested there might be a parasitic drain somewhere. A few days later, we were visiting them. I looked at the car and saw the door closed, but not properly latched…

Thats insane... To consistently not close the door like that

> Thats insane... To consistently not close the door like that

It sounds like it happened occasionally causing the battery to drain overnight. So not necessarily improper close every time, but a dice roll.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#404

Post by gog »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #214
jobead wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this means that the part's computer has the vehicle's VIN loaded into it with a computer that can only be purchased/used by a certified technician. If he was to buy a new part, it would have a blank VIN; and if he pulled one from a junker, it would have that car's VIN. (edit: should also say, I think a VIN mismatch would cause the ECU to refuse to work with that part and shut down)

Well that's dumb. I've never heard of that before. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Thanks!

BMW has been doing this for a while.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#405

Post by madaxe_again »

lylejantzi3rd wrote: post #28
overthrow wrote: post #3

Well this is timely. I have a parasitic draw on my NC Miata. The first mechanic just replaced the battery. The second told me it's normal for the battery to die if you don't drive it for 3 days (because "cars have computers now"). It seems like mechanics really don't like digging into the electrical part of the car... but these days that encompasses more and more of what can go wrong. Without time to dig into it myse…

> It seems like mechanics really don't like digging into the electrical part of the car... Tell me about it. I'm in a similar boat. My audi a4 has had a parasitic draw for the past 10 years. My mechanic didn't want to take the time to address it because that sort of thing takes a serious amount of time and he's always backed up. I got out my fluke and narrowed the cause to what I believe is the comfort control unit.…

I had similar with my ‘15 Amarok. Battery would reliably be flat after parking for 24h, and I was either told there was no issue or it was unfixable, or I would need a new ECU, a new engine, a new truck.

After a short and inconclusive session looking for leaks through the fuse box, and then many, many hours of crawling around under the truck with a voltmeter, I discovered a frayed and heavily corroded +12v lead associated with the tow harness rubbing against the chassis. Fixed it. Issue resolved.

Unfortunately, a majority of mechanics simply aren’t competent, and the remainder don’t want to touch jobs which are mysteries, as they’ll just end up with a customer refusing to pay.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#406

Post by jamiek88 »

mikereedell wrote: post #354
coding123 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the cabinets have those magnets or latches that have an annoying sound? Some people avoid the "hit" and leave them slightly ajar.

Spending a Saturday putting soft-close hinges on every cabinet door in my house was one of the best quality-of-life investments ever.

Oh.my.god.

Marriage saved.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#407

Post by jamiek88 »

malandrew wrote: post #341
o10449366 wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife, bless her heart, leaves everything partially open. Not even just open, but she'll screw the lid on jars just enough where if I pick it up by the top they'll drop. It drives me crazy.

Lol. This sounds like my house. My spouse and my nephew (who lives with us) cannot for the life of them ever close any kitchen cabinet doors. They both always leave them ajar, never leaving them fully opening but never fully closing them. It drives me nuts.

I had to consciously decide to find it cute.

It’d cause too much conflict otherwise!

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#408

Post by madaxe_again »

bityard wrote: post #141
arscan wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did that for the exact same problem on the same model car earlier this year, but gave up after trying a few places that all said the same thing (including the dealer). Glad to see this post though… now I know I’m not the crazy one.

I would expect a _good_ car (no maintenance issues, new gas, newer battery) to go at least a couple months without being driven and not have any issues upon starting it up. The average car in average condition should go around a month without being driven. Anything less than that either means a battery nearing the end of its life, not getting charged, or a parasitic draw somewhere.

I park up my hilux for a year at a time, sometimes, and it Just Starts. Sure, it’ll take three attempts with a cold, damp engine and a sluggish battery, but it has yet to let me down.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#409

Post by LinAGKar »

Reason077 wrote: post #386
o10449366 wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife, bless her heart, leaves everything partially open. Not even just open, but she'll screw the lid on jars just enough where if I pick it up by the top they'll drop. It drives me crazy.

My flatmate does this with kitchen cupboard doors, and, most annoyingly, the microwave. She'll open the microwave to stop it, takes her food out and, just ... leaves it open. Then when I close it later it will start up again with nothing inside. Arrrgh!

Interesting, I think all microwaves I've had require you to press start to restart them after opening and closing the door.

Re: I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

#410

Post by JackMcMack »

wpietri wrote: post #361
breischl wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once spent over a year debugging a furnace. It would run fine, except every now and then on it would just refuse to turn on for a day or two. Eventually noticed it was only rainy days, and was due to it thinking the exhaust was blocked because there wasn't enough pressure differential between input air and exhaust. Turned out the installer had failed to put in the high altitude kit which told it to expect a smaller…

Ooh, well spotted. Correlation is correlated with causation!

> Correlation is correlated with causation!

That's a great quote. I think I'll use that instead of "where there's smoke ..." from now on.

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